Development of Light Railway in Australia

This article discusses the development of light railway in Australia and its importance in decongesting cities. It explores the conceptual design process and system requirements for implementing a light railway system. The article emphasizes the need for effective transportation solutions in growing urban areas and highlights the benefits of light railway in improving economic growth and quality of life. The Australian government's role as a key stakeholder and the involvement of other stakeholders such as international communities are also discussed.

Development of light railway in Australia
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Introduction
Australia has been identified as one of the world’s most growing urban population
worldwide. It has been observed that 35% of the Australian population lives in Melbourne and
Sydney. Increase in the number of urban dwellers signifies an increase in transportation demand.
To meet such demands, the introduction of both metro and light railway lines have proved to be
more suitable (JiangH 2013, pp. 46). To attract public sector to start using railway lines as an
alternative means of transport, their conditions should be improved. Considering different
railway lines across the world, the comparison was done in regard to; urban environment,
conditions of urban development and transit-hub connectivity. A careful analysis of the railway
stations across the world such as London and Paris de demonstrated a high level of standard,
Australian based stations scored poorly (Ingvardson & Nielsen 2018, pp. 106). A good example
can be deduced from Sydney Central which is one of the largest and busy railway station hubs.
Important to note is that major city rail transit hubs should be more than effective transportation
hubs but an ideal city fabric transport centers. The focus if the article would be to analyze the
conceptual design stage in system engineering related projects. The design phase of the project
would have been initiated by the stakeholder needs and the process is undertaken to transform all
identified needs into project solution. The solution should highlight conceptual design processes,
system requirements and specifications that can resolve subjected railway transport in Australian
cities (Jin & Benami 2010, pp. 192). To resolve railway transportation in Australian cities,
government as the key stakeholder should invest heavily to rebrand light railway transport sector.

Stakeholder needs
The need for having effective light railway system transport in Australia have been
initiated by the ever-growing number of commuters within the cities. Considering the need to
move people within the cities remains a critical factor in economic development, the government
being the major stakeholder in the transport sector should take bold steps. Stakeholders such as
the government would seek to decongest the cities from road transport by providing other
affordable and convenient means of transport (Wodehouse & Ion 2010, pp. 61). It is obvious that
the Australia government should be convinced that by decongesting its cities from road transport,
economic growth would greatly be increased. Other stakeholders such as international
communities should also get involved by funding state governments such as Australia. Since
countries are dependent on each other, streamlining Australian transport system by installing a
light railway would spur economic growth to even the whole world. By facilitating the light
railway, the international community would make it easy to do business and improve Australian
standards for living. To Australian citizens, the light railway would serve as a convenient
hinterland means of transporting people and goods. Implementation of such critical projects
implies faster movement of goods and services saving business people time. Besides having
many stakeholders with a substantial interest in the light rail transport system and improving
hinterland transportation lines, the goal objective remains an effective and convenient means of
moving goods and people. Currently, there has been a general consensus among stakeholders
that the Australian railway transportation system has changed greatly since the inception of light
railway technology (Chapman, Chapman & Ceder 2011, pp. 4). Having witnessed great changes
in the transport sector in major Australian cities such as Melbourne and Sydney due to the
adoption of a light railway, other cities are implementing light railway transportation system.

Conceptual design process
Overview
In project implementation, the conceptual design process is the first phase in which
system engineers should go through to meet system requirements. It is at the conceptual stage
that developers have to convince the project owner the project is viable. In this case, the
Australian government should have taken market research on the feasibility of implementing
light railway transport system. Due to the increasing number of people living in the Australian
cities, the government feasibility study should focus on identifying the need for light railway
before starting its implementation between cities. It is from the conceptual design stage that ideal
project planning starts. Though the new project is associated with several prototypes,
implementation of the light railway in Australian cities would be straight forward (Kamarudin,
Ridgway & Hassan 2016, pp. 6). Failing to have proper conceptual design may have a substantial
impact on project delivery. Project management is coupled with several challenges such as
project scope, cost and time. To make sure project implementation goes on successfully, the
conceptual design should be done to satisfaction. Since it is the stage that gives an outline of how
the system should work, it has to be precisely defined. Conceptual design involves several steps
which are meant to make sure project requirements and specifications are met. The Australian
government needs to go through some of the conceptual design processes to make sure delivery
of light railway conforms to all stakeholders' requirements (Tan et al. 2013, pp. 385).

Figure 1.0. Conceptual design process
Stages in the conceptual design process
The conceptual design process involves several steps which need to be covered
substantially to come up with a quality product. The first step is to define the problem that
stakeholders intend to solve through the conceptual design process. By initiating light railway
transportation system between Australian cities, the government should come up precisely and
define the problem that Australian cities are facing. The main goal that the government seeks to
address through the introduction of a light railway transport system is to decongest the city. The
Australian government should address precisely the issue it intends to solve by establishing the

light railway (Woldemichael & Hashim 2010, pp. 13). The next stage in the conceptual design
process involves brainstorming. Brainstorming involves generating ideas which would be used to
design the proposed solution to the problem. At this stage, it is important to involve all
stakeholders ranging from government entities to the general public. Stakeholders involvement
makes sure all parties are involved to increase the chances of project acceptance. Additionally,
research and idea generation helps the project team to come up with processes to be followed
during the project solution definition. The Australian government should elicit all possible ways
of resolving cities congestion before opting to establish light railway coaches. Idea generation
should be specific to each city instead of copying ideas from other cities because different
Australian cities experience different problems. Further, the government should identify problem
resolution criteria and specify constraints that might be faced during project implementation
(Clemans et al. 2016, pp. 7-8). This stage would help the government identify all challenges that
might be faced by adopting light railway implementation (Tsegaw, Balasundaram & Kumar
2017, pp. 6-7). Similarly, selection of the best approach to solve the problem should be chosen
wisely to make sure the best solution has been adopted by the government. Finally, the
Australian government should proceed to implement the chosen approach and design the
proposal.
Importance of the conceptual design phase
The conceptual design process has been observed to be a very important stage in any
product design process. It is from this stage that the proposed project defines the nature of the
final product. The importance of the phase lies into fours aspects. First, the phase outlines the
proposed product and offers clarification to the owner on how the final product would be
working. It also defines the functionality of the product after it has been developed. It is obvious

that without proper planning of the conceptual design process, the final product would be faced
with acceptance issues. Additionally, the conceptual design process helps product designers to
come up with a simple user interface (Fitzgerald, Herrmann & Schmidt 2010, pp. 9). In this
regard, the Australian government would need to involve all stakeholders to take part in the
delivery of the quality light railway. The quality, in this case, would be measured on how best
the light railway coaches would conform to system requirements and specifications as outlined
during project planning. The quality, in this case, can be considered to be the design of the
coaches, the capacity it can carry, the speed and its ability to meet its prior planned functions
which is to decongest the cities. It is definite that, if the adoption of the light railway would
decongest the cities, system specification would have been met.
Similarly, the conceptual design phase helps to define roles played by different
stakeholders during the delivery of the product. In this case, the Australian government being the
stakeholder should outline precisely different state departments which would facilitate the
delivery of the light railway. Once all state departments are identified, coordination should be
well planned to make sure its delivery remains successful. Finally, it is important to note that
good conceptual design process, it would be possible to experience project creep which has been
outlined as one of the major challenges in project actualization (Lloveras 2011, pp. 79). Project
creep means more time and resources might end up being spent in project implementation which
in turn results to waste of resources. The Australian government should make sure the conceptual
design process has been carefully planned. Proper conceptual design process serves as the key
driver in achieving a quality final product at the lowest cost possible.
System requirements

Every project development has its unique requirements that must be met substantially to
make sure the final product is of the desired quality. The Australian government is the key
stakeholder in the development of a light railway transportation system and must ensure all
quality standards are met. Some of the requirements that Australian government must make sure
are met including; the speed of the train that should be faster but not more than what is
recommended by international bodies (Akadiri, Chinyio & Olomolaiye 2012, pp. 384). The next
aspect that the government should consider is the environmental factors to make sure the light
railway conforms to required international standards. The environmental assessment should be
done before initiation of the project to ascertain no environmental impacts would be associated
with its actualization. Additionally, the capacity of the train should be considered to make sure
health factors are addressed accordingly. Health hazards that might be associated with the
actualization of the project need to be addressed by involving all stakeholders. Similarly, the
carrying capacity should be addressed precisely to make sure it is within the given weight limit.
The carrying capacity can be addressed by evaluating the approximate number of passengers and
goods that need to be moved from one city to the other. The number of goods and passengers to
be moved from cities should guide the number of light trains to be introduced between the
subjected cities (Akadiri, Chinyio & Olomolaiye 2012, pp. 136). The number of trains moving
between the subjected cities would also guide the Australian on the number of terminals to be
constructed for train diversion. It would still guide government plan for the number for
employees required to effectively run the proposed number of light trains. Finally, system
requirements and specifications would help the government plan for resources required to install
and maintain the proposed number of light trains.
Conclusion

Decongesting cities remains a great challenge in almost all countries worldwide. Most
cities are faced with road transport congestion due to lack of standard and well-maintained
railway transport system. From the analysis, it has been observed that railway transport in
Australia has been neglected for a long time making unfavorable to many people. As a result,
transportation of goods and services have been facing serious congestion which can be resolved
through the adoption of light railways. During the implementation of the light railway, project
design remains a critical phase that should be implemented with extra care. The conceptual
design stage of the project implementation brings together system requirements and
specifications. It is from this that the project implementation plan are formulated and adopted for
the next stage. During the implementation of a light railway, the conceptual design should factor
be given the highest priority to make sure all logical plans have been outlined. System
requirements such as the number of trains to move between cities should be highly considered.
Planning for the number of trains to move between the subjected trains in a day makes it possible
to plan for the number of employees to service both clients and goods. Similarly, light railway
project implementation would attract several stakeholders such as the Australian government,
international community and private business owners and the general public. Finally, the
conceptual design would help the government to design the nature of the light railways and the
number of resources to be allocated to the project. Considering light railway to be a long term
project that would ease the Australian government from road transport congestion, proper
funding should be accorded to make sure quality product has been delivered.

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