Local skills and employment
Auburn maintenance facility
During the peak construction period (2008) for the new $220 million train maintenance facility at Auburn, a key deliverable in the PPP Project, it is estimated that 250 people were employed.
When the Auburn Maintenance Facility opens, Reliance Rail expects that around 100 new jobs will be created to maintain the fleet. RailCorp will also be recruiting additional train crew to run the extra train services it will be providing to meet expected passenger growth.
Cardiff manufacturing facility
Downer EDI Rail expects that 300 jobs will be created in the Hunter region as a result of the project, including 190 mechanical and electrical trades positions, as well as 30 support staff directly employed at its facility in Cardiff for the peak of the PPP train manufacture. There is also a contractual requirement to maintain an apprenticeship ratio of not less than one apprentice for every nine trade persons employed.
Local content requirement
The NSW Government set a 20 per cent local content requirement taking into account a number of factors:
- 20 per cent should be a percentage of true manufacturing costs, and is not to be inflated by the inclusion of activities such as design, project management and commissioning, which are all taking place in Australia;
- Significant train components are not manufactured in Australia; and
- No current manufacturing facility in Australia had the capacity to produce such a large number of trains within the time frame required by this project.
To meet the local content requirement, Reliance Rail produced a Local Industry Participation Plan. This plan has been reviewed by the NSW Industry Capability Network which confirmed its ability to achieve at least the 20% local content required. Compliance with this plan is an ongoing contractual requirement.
