Australia stands at a pivotal juncture, with population growth, housing pressures, urbanization and climate change converging to create both challenges and extraordinary opportunities for the nation’s transport networks. There is an opportunity for rail to address these national challenges and underpin future growth.
For Hitachi Rail, this is about more than just signaling and rolling stock. By embracing rail innovation, Australia can conquer the tyranny of distance, making it more economical for businesses to trade, giving more choice for communities and employees, and underpin national growth. Rail can enable Australians to connect dreams to destinations, enable society to move forward, and support the country’s sustainability goals.
Australia is well positioned to embrace this vision. The country’s leadership in digitalization and innovation, particularly in heavy haul and freight, is already recognized around the world. Now, with the decision to bring the nation’s passenger networks under a unified digital signaling technology, Australia is undergoing a quiet mobility revolution.
This move, announced by the National Transport Commission and adopted by Infrastructure and Transport Ministers in August 2025, ensures all new digital signaling investments meet mandatory European Train Control System (ETCS) standards, setting a new benchmark for interoperability and efficiency.
At Hitachi Rail, we are proud to help deliver this transformation, including the deployment of ETCS Level 2 as part of Queensland’s Cross River Rail project. Elsewhere in Queensland, Hitachi Rail is installing world-first innovation to automate elements of Queensland’s New Generation Rollingstock (NGR) fleet. By combining Automatic Train Operation (ATO), which controls the train’s traction and braking to continuously calculate optimum speed, with ETCS, trains can run closer together, ensuring travelers and commuters can get the most of their train networks..
Elsewhere, Hitachi Rail is working in New South Wales, Perth, Western Australia and across Queensland on digitization that will increase services and capacity, allow faster and easier trips, achieve energy efficiencies and reduce costs.
These projects aren’t simply a sectoral shift, they represent a system-wide transformation in Australia that will deliver greater capacity, reliability, and benefits for passengers and operators alike.
