Management Accounting Report: Defining Performance at Sydney Trains

This report provides an analysis of Sydney Trains' performance from a management accounting perspective, focusing on marketing and sustainability. It examines the company's operations, corporate strategies, and competitive landscape. The report evaluates performance indicators such as patronage, punctuality, and reliability, and also delves into the company's commitment to environmental sustainability, including initiatives for energy efficiency, carbon emission reduction, and biodiversity. It highlights Sydney Trains' strategic objectives, including workforce development, customer satisfaction, and asset performance, and emphasizes the company's dedication to social responsibility and legislative compliance. This detailed assessment offers a comprehensive understanding of how Sydney Trains defines and achieves performance within its operational and strategic framework.

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What does ‘performance’ mean for Sydney Trains?
Executive Summary
This report aim at the analysis of the performance of the Sydney Trains in terms of marketing
and sustainability. The report will address on the performance of the company in terms of
their operations of their business unit. Sydney train is the rail network service in the Sydney,
Australia. Under this report, the analysis of the organization will be done on the basis of the
strategies of corporate, operational and competition. In addition, the performance of Sydney
train will be analyzed in relation to the key aspects of the business. Lastly, the performance of
the business based on the sustainability will be discussed. Hence, by analyzing all the aspects
of the business performance and sustainability it has been summarized that Sydney trains has
shown continuous performance on their business operations by following the strategy of
commitment to their responsibilities to the business, people, suppliers and government.
Organization Overview
Sydney Trains is the rail network of suburban passengers, which operates in the city
of Sydney, Australia. It begins it operation on 1st July 2013. The rail services of Sydney
Trains operate across the area of Metropolitan Sydney, which is bounded by waterfalls, emu
plains, berowra and Macarthur. The network has central underground core with the system of
the hybrid suburban-commuter rail system that covers track of 815km and over eight lines for
178 stations (Transport.nsw.gov.au 2019). It has the train which is metro equivalent having
the frequencies in operating in every three minutes in the underground core and at the major
stations five to ten minutes and 15 minutes at the minor stations. However, on weekend, it
operates less frequently with half an hour gap at the outer stations having ten minutes
frequencies in the underground core. The transport authority of the government of New South
Wales controls the network of Sydney trains. Howard Collins is the CEO of Sydney Trains.

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Sydney trains is also responsible for the management of the rail center and maintaining of the
assets which includes tracks, trains, facilities, overhead wiring and signals. Apart from
maintaining trains, it also maintains large proportion of infrastructure that is used by the
NSW TrainLink (Transport.nsw.gov.au 2019).
Figure 1: Sydney Train
Performance in the context of marketing
The performance of Sydney rail is measured on the basis of patronage, punctuality
and reliability. The data shows that Sydney Rail has reported increase in the patronage of
5.6% during the year 2016-2017, which indicates very high growth rate. Growth in the rail
patronage resulted in the investment of $1.5 billion in acquiring more trains by the transport
for NSW (Mulley & Moutou 2015). In the recent years, there is the rapid growing of the
Sydney rail patronage with the increase in the development of residential in the Greater
Sydney and increase in the demand of airport services. Western Sydney and Olympic Park
are the important areas of growth. Punctuality of the Sydney trains is in line with the
historical levels. However, there is the slightly reduction in the punctuation because of power
issues, track issues, trespass and extreme conditions of the weather (Ghaderi, Cahoon &
Nguyen 2015). Other factor, which affects the train’s performance, includes fatalities, train
problems, anti-social behavior and vandalism, illness of passengers and overcrowding of
Centre carriages. However, whenever any cancellations and delays occur, there are the

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changes in the timetable for example schedule stop will be skipped. It will help in minimizing
the impact of delay in the services to the large number of passengers. There are the
expectations by the government that the trends of the success will continue to grow in the
future. It is derived by the fact that one of the Sydney’s busiest lines T1 Western Lines will
utilize its full capacity by the end of the year 2030, which is partially based on the growth of
the population in West (Norley 2015). The company by replacing the wooden escalators,
which is 80 years old at Wynyard with the preservation of the heritage and by upgrading
many stations. With the help of innovative solutions such as real time Waratah train seat
availability. The company is expanding their channel of real time information of the
customers. The company has become railway of world class in the world-class city (Douglas
& Jones 2016)

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Figure 2: Organizational Structure Chart of Sydney Train (Transport.nsw.gov.au 2019)
Justification of definition of Performance
The sustainability is the biggest factor for the performance of the Sydney Trains for
their operational divisions, which ensures safety, schedule operations and train frequency.
The commitment of Sydney train is proactive and long-term management of the risks
associated with the environment and opportunities, which are related for delivering of the
sustainable and essential rail transport services for NSW’s people. Sydney train is
accountable and responsible in achieving its mission and vision. The vision of the Sydney
train is to be an environmentally sustainable railway with the environmentally responsible
culture. In addition, it has the purpose of being committed for maintaining the rail network
and services of the customers as well as for being environmental sustainable operator
(McGregor & Hammer 2016). The company has an objective of providing the rail services,
which is safe, modern, efficient, customer focused and competitive business. It also aims at
increasing the expectation of the customers by providing safety measures to their passengers,
staff and suppliers and decreasing the pressure of cost associated with the operations (Michell
& Laird 2016).
The company is committed in providing and implementing the strategy relating to the
environment and sustainability, for improving the performance of the environment and with
the addition of the value to the business operations. The company measures its operations by
improving efficiency of the energy and by the reduction of the emissions of carbon,
improving their biodiversity by proper planning, identification and their assessment (Lemon
2017). In addition, success is also measured by reduction of the impact of the noise created
by rail on their stakeholders and by improving the understanding of the influence of the
change in the climate on their operations and their network (Transport.nsw.gov.au 2019).

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The company strives to achieve its strategic objectives with the help of its People,
which comprises of aligned, engaged and workforce of ‘fit for purpose’. It also provides
accessibility and improves customer’s satisfaction by increasing the services of rail transport
(Yang & Anwar 2016). Company is conscious on providing on time services of train to their
customers. Apart from this, the company takes steps for improving the performance of the
assets. Moreover, the Company creates the environment, which fosters and improves safety.
Company enhances growth of patronage on the public transport for creation of creating
additional capacity by improving the efficiencies of their operations across their business
(Fox, Patruni & Daly 2015).
Hence, Sydney trains are committed towards their business plan for longer term,
which is backed by the annual corporate plan. Moreover, apart from fulfilling all their
commitments regarding sustainability of the environment, Sydney trains are also committed
towards the fulfillment of the social responsibility and obligations regarding legislative
compliance (Fensham 2015).

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References
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