22 Jul 2025

Urban Rail conference – ‘let’s address the barriers to standards adoption’

At the 2025 Urban Rail Conference, Alan Fedda, CEO of the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB), challenged the rail industry to tackle the barriers hindering the adoption of national standards.

He pointed out that while RISSB’s standards are crucial for driving safety, productivity, and sustainability, their voluntary nature has led to inconsistent implementation across the sector.

This has slowed progress toward achieving a fully harmonised rail system.

“For industry, the adoption of standards may mean a change to the way you currently do things. But that shouldn’t be a reason for our standards not to be aspirational,” he said.

The rail industry must move past the notion of standards as mere constraints and recognise them as catalysts for innovation and safety.

He highlighted the success of three standards and their benefits like AS 7470, which embeds human-centric design principles, but also questioned why such important standards are not universally adopted.

Alan called on the industry to acknowledge the need for change and to commit to the adoption of standards, despite the associated costs and challenges.

“We want to strengthen RISSB because a strong rail standards organisation means a stronger, safer and productive rail industry. And we will only get there with the support of industry.”

The RISSB CEO also announced plans to enhance the organisation’s role, focusing on strengthening standards development processes to ensure greater consistency and efficiency across the industry.

He urged industry stakeholders to collaborate more closely with RISSB, fostering a culture of shared responsibility for the future of rail in Australia.