Bowen Rail Recognised at National Rail Industry Awards
Bowen Rail Company’s (BRC) achievements in establishing Australia’s first greenfield railway in more than a decade are set to be recognised at the rail industry’s national night of nights.
The next generation rail business is a finalist in both the Diversity and Inclusion and the Freight Rail & Heavy Haul categories at the annual Australasian Rail Industry Awards held in Melbourne next week.
BRC’s finalist status in the Diversity and Inclusion Award acknowledges the business’ efforts to challenge entrenched gender imbalance within the industry through practical recruitment and training programs.
Today, near half of BRC’s Senior Leadership Team are women, two in five new train driver trainees are First Nations people, and BRC employees boast a range of diverse backgrounds and previous professions, including the building and construction sector, nursing, gardening, and policing.
Similarly, the Freight Rail & Heavy Haul nomination recognises BRC’s extraordinary achievements in finalising the construction, testing and commissioning, and Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator accreditation of the 200km Carmichael Rail Network.
BRC General Manager Brendan Lane said the nominations demonstrated the business’ role as an innovator, environmental steward, and job creator over its journey from start-up to successful operator.
“There’s no question we were challenged along the way – after all, we were establishing a new rail business operating Australian-first rollingstock on a new railway while recruiting and training a new rail workforce,” Mr Lane said.
“But a blank canvas also meant we could tailor systems, structures, and infrastructure design to our needs and recruit the right mix of experienced and new to rail people to build the culture we envisioned.
“That’s something that is exceedingly rare in our industry and the approach has already paid enormous dividends in operations.
“In the same vein we chose Bowen in North Queensland to be our base of operations. The way the community has embraced us already has been amazing and we’re excited to continue to repay that support in ways that help advance the economic and social wellbeing of the town and region.
“Every member of the BRC team has worked incredibly hard to cement Bowen Rail as a world-class service provider and to be nominated in two Australasian Rail Industry Awards categories is deserved recognition of what they have achieved together.”
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