Crispian Fitzhardinge, Senior Standards Manager

Cris has over 25 years of experience in the railway industry in both operational and safety roles. Working for both the public and private sector Cris has been instrumental in improving safety, harmonisation, and interoperability solutions for the Australian Railway Network, through roles at ARISO, ARTC, and Rio Tinto. Most recently Cris was the Operational Readiness Specialist in Rio Tinto’s Sustaining Capital – Rail division helping move projects into operations in a safe and efficient manner. Cris holds a Business Management degree from University of South Australia and a Diploma in Transport Safety Investigation from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Unpacking ARISO’s five-year work program

With World Standards Day on 14 October, the recent historic five-year agreement between Australian Governments and ARISO as the national rail standards organisation comes at a time that marks an important chapter for Australia’s rail industry. It solidifies the commitment and resources for ARISO to take a strong national leadership role in transforming how rail standards are developed, harmonised and adopted.

Work is progressing at pace to develop modern, fit-for-purpose standards development processes, supported by more robust assurance arrangements and a prioritisation methodology to identify the standards that can deliver the greatest national benefits. This will create a clear pipeline of priority work and provide greater confidence in the national rail standards framework as ARISO moves to develop mandatory and harmonised standards.

Cris will unpack the trajectory of the five-year work program and the ARISO’s mission as the industry-led national standards organisation.

Railway Engineering Community of Knowledge

The original PWI Lunch and Learn sessions were launched in 2024, building a community for industry experts to share their knowledge on Rail Infrastructure Engineering and a great Continuous Professional Development(CPD) opportunity for all!

The topics can cover technical research, project delivery or novel technology; the first ever event covered the delivery of a major rail infrastructure project with the subsequent session on the technical intricacies of turnouts.

The key difference to other PWI chapter events is this event spans all states and wider, looking to connect like-minded professionals from different rail infrastructure managers for the benefit of the rail industry as a whole; with internationally delivered presentations also planned.

This is achieved by holding the events on line via Microsoft Teams, typically every 8 weeks.

For any queries relating to RECK sessions please contact us on  reck@pwinsw.org.au