Question:
Discuss About The Travelling To Various Around Australia?
The railway transportation in Australia is one of the major transportation networks, connecting various states of Australia together. As per the statistics of 2014, the Australian railway network has a total of 32,784 km of track on the three track gauges. The connectivity of the railway is so good, that a majority of the population of Australia avails the railway network for travelling to various places all around Australia (Dhanasekar et al. 2013). The Australia railway is important to ensure effective and low cost connectivity of the people all over Australia. This assignment highlights the history of the Australian railway, in context to Queensland (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). Various issues that have been faced by the Australian railway such as issues of privatization, structure, employment conditions, strikes, unions, public issues has been highlighted in this assignment.
The Australian railway systems was first build in the country, when Australia consisted of sparsely settled marketing, before the period of 1901, when these states were combined to form a Federation of States (Piip 2015). Until the period of 1800s, the people of Australia travelled all over the country in horse-drawn transportation (Albrecht et al. 2013). From the period of 1854, the first steam railway was commenced between Melbourne and Port Melbourne (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). This marked the start of the railway system in Australia (Filtness and Naweed 2017). To start with, all the tracks and the railway stocks were imported (Nielsen et al. 2013). However, by the period of 1880s almost all of the equipments were manufactured locally (Piip 2015). The Federation in the year 1901 linked all the States, except the ones in Western Australia linked by railway (Dhanasekar et al. 2013). More than 20,000km of the track was laid all over Australia (Wallace et al. 2014). Three different gauges were used to lay the railway tracks. (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013) The first railway that ran in Queensland was from Ipswich inland to Grandchester. This used the narrow 1067 mm gauge (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). However, this railway system was further extended to Darling Downs and then was connected with Brisbane in 1875. With
Though the railway connectivity is high in Australia and connects well among the various states, however, there are certain issues that are faced by the Australian railway. These issues are highlighted below.
One of the major issues that are faced by the Australian railway is the privatization. The privatization of the Australian Railways took place in the years between 1993 and 2003. In the year 1993, most of the railway network was vertically integrated modal monopolies (Kaewunruen 2014). The mix of the passenger railways and the intra-state freight transportation was witnessed (Dhanasekar et al. 2013). Each of the states in Australia retained their responsibilities towards the railway network, within its borders (Filtness and Naweed 2017). The snapshot of the structure of the railway network has been given below (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013).
Figure 1: Structure of Australian Railway in 1993
(Source: Filtness and Naweed 2017)
The Australian national railway was privatised in the year 1997. The privatization of the West rail Freight took place in 1998 (Kaewunruen and Remennikov 2016). In the year 1997, the Commonwealth government offered the Australian railway for sale, with citing the reason that the operations of the railways were running in loss (Cozens and Linde 2015). However, with the advent of privatization, changes in the operational structure in the railways were seen (Jupe and Funnell 2015). The employees failed to accept the privatization gladly, since they felt insecure, with the decision of the privatization of the transportation that was considered the lifeline of Australia (Ghaderi et al. 2015). The employees also started having the insecurity of the loss of job, as a result of the privatization (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). The diligence, with which the employees worked previously, seemed to be reduced, with the privatization of the Australian railway (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). The privatization was a major issue and had an adverse impact on the employees of the Australian Railway (Filtness and Naweed 2017). The increased rate of the turnover of the employees highlighted the dissatisfaction among the employees, with privatization.
Unlike the privatization of the UK railways, the privatization of the Australian railway was not a huge success (Ghaderi et al. 2015). Moreover, the employees of the Australian railway were not ready to accept privatised employment (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). Thus, the lack of acceptance of the employees created a major issue in the Australian railways (Cozens and Linde 2015).
The organizational structure of the Australian railway is well constructed. The chairperson being Peter Caldwell, has the CEO Brendan Lawson and a number of board members (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). The division of the Australian railway is mainly divided into two territories: the northern territory government and the South Australian government (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). The organizational structure is a flatter one, and the communication among the various levels is clear (Anderson et al. 2013).
The UK railways are mainly divided into two mainstreams, the Great Britain system and the Northern Ireland system (Filtness and Naweed 2017). Both these divisions operate under separate legislation structure of the UK (Kaewunruen and Remennikov 2016). The organizational structure is a taller one, with more number of hierarchy levels than the Australian railways (Cozens and Linde 2015). The tall organizational structure is an effective one in ensuring the success of the privatised organization (Dhanasekar et al. 2013).
The Queensland railway offers attractive remuneration to its employees. The attractive remuneration attracts thousands of people to be a part of the Queensland railways. The salary packages of the employees are flexible (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). Various schemes such as the superannuation and the QRi membership offer attractive benefits to the employees. The employees can contribute at the rate of 5%of the salary (Kaewunruen 2014). By making this contribution on the part of the employees, the Queensland railway makes a contribution of 12.75% to the employee’s account (Short et al. 2013). The employee’s contribution is flexible (Cozens and Linde 2015). They can contribute as low as 2%of the salary, and receive a corresponding lower contribution from the part of the Australian railway (Kaewunruen and Remennikov 2016). The employees of the Queensland railway have provision for the MOVE membership (Filtness and Naweed 2017). This is a people driven banking scheme, than ensures exclusive financial benefits to the employees (Jupe and Funnell 2015). Along with these benefits the Queensland Rail Institute (QRi), a membership club that provides lifestyle benefits as well as services to the employees of the Queensland Railway employees. This scheme offers high discounts and scope of savings for the members of the club (Dhanasekar et al. 2013).
The health and the well-being of the employees of the Queensland railways are given high priority (Hirsch and Thompson 2014). The career of the employees, along with the work-life balance as well as the work performances are handled with care and concern, thus ensuring employee satisfaction and employee retention (Anderson et al. 2013). The work-life balance is given priority among the employees of the Queensland railway (Kaewunruen and Remennikov 2016). The benefits include the privileged concessions, travel duty passes, annual leaves, long-term services, parental leaves, compensatory leaves and many others (Ghaderi et al. 2015). The annual leaves that are given to the employees are the standard and as per the legislative structure of Queensland (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). The standard annual leave is of four weeks, with an additional 17.5% leave loading (Cozens and Linde 2015). Some of the employees such as Train crew, onboard customer service executives and technicians are entitled for five-week leaves every year (Naweed 2013). The job losses in Aurizon are high as compared to that of the UK railway (Jupe and Funnell 2015). Huge number of employees tends to lose job every year, thus resulting in insecurity among the employees.
The employment conditions of UK railway are different from that of Australian railway. The UK railway ensures that adequate importance is given to the career of all the employees (Kaewunruen 2014). Moreover, the financial benefits that are given to the employees are according to the employment compensations of UK (Filtness and Naweed 2017). The employees are given the benefits of an annual 75% subsidy on the trains, if the cost of the tickets are up to $3000 (Kaewunruen and Remennikov 2016). Moreover, travel loans are also given at low interests (Ghaderi et al. 2015). An annual leave of 28 days are granted to all the employees, along with the opportunity of buying or selling two leaves, in addition to the 28 days leave (Dhanasekar et al. 2013). Moreover, a choice of one of the three contributory pension schemes is also given to the employees (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). Free counselling sessions are given to the employees with career counselling, childcare vouchers and volunteer leaves. Moreover, the loss of jobs in UK is much low, than that of Aurizon (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013).
Strikes in the Australian Railway are a major issue. The employees of the Australian railway often show their aggression or disagreement by engaging in strike against the organizational decisions (Kaewunruen and Remennikov 2016). The strikes against the Australian railway, results in the decline of the accessibility (Anderson et al. 2013). The connectivity of the people all over Australia, using the railway network is disrupted (Hirsch and Thompson 2014). Thus, the manager who will be relocated from the UK railway needs to be aligned with the organizational activities and the nature of work that takes place in the Australian Railways (Cozens and Linde 2015). Since the new manager will be relocated from the UK Railway, where strikes are very rare, hence he should be advised to take all decisions with the consent of the employees, in order to mitigate the chances of strikes by the employees (Ghaderi et al. 2015). The strikes disrupt the regular rhythm of the work life of the Australian, who is dependent on the railways for their regular travel. It is recommended that the issues should be mitigated with communication and meetings, rather than indulging into strikes. In UK the culture of strikes are rare, and hence the success of the UK Railways could be used as example for the Australian railways as well.
The unions have a key role to play in the Australian Railway industry. The Rail, Tram and Bus Union were created in the year 1993 (Hirsch and Thompson 2014). This was formed through the amalgamation of the four of the oldest unions of Australia, namely the Australian Railways Union (ARU), The Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen (AFULE), the National Union of Railway Workers (NURWA) and the Amalgamated Tramways and Motor Omnibus Employees Association (ATMOEA). In the present scenario, the Union is strong and has almost 35,000 members in the railways, trams and government buses across the various states of Australia (Dhanasekar et al. 2013). The union is strong and has a key role to play in the ensuring the interests of the employees are given adequate importance and priority (Ghaderi et al. 2015). The employees of the Australian Railway can approach the union if they face any issues regarding the compensation and leaves (Filtness and Naweed 2017). Issues regarding the work culture or any other issues are taken care by the Union and ensured that the issues faced by the employees are successfully supported by the Union (Cozens and Linde 2015). The power of the Union is high and is able to persuade the Australian railway board members to understand the demand of the employees (Jupe and Funnell 2015). The involvement of the Union is significant, and is a major support for the employees, in order to ensure that the demands that they place, are fulfilled (Anderson et al. 2013). The union has a strong impact on the effective human resource management (Kaewunruen 2014). The employees are assured of the support that they will receive from the union, thus gaining employee satisfaction and employee retention.
There are various public issues that are faced by the Australian railways. These include the safety issues that are faced by the Australian railways (Hirsch and Thompson 2014). The lack of safety in the Australian railway is a major public issue (Shanmuganathan and Samarasinghe 2016). Moreover, this issue is a major problem for the employees as well (Jupe and Funnell 2015). The various accidents include the derailment of the trains, collision, level crossing occurrence, signal passed at danger, loading irregularity (Naweed 2013). The lacks of safety in the Australian Railways have resulted in the increase in the rate of the employee turnover, in Queensland (Kaewunruen 2014). The public issues have to be addressed by the new manager who will be relocated from the UK railways(Cozens and Linde 2015). The public grievance due to the lack of punctuality, along with the misbehaviour of the railway staffs have to be taken care by the new manager (Filtness and Naweed 2017). The increase in the fare of the tickets with privatization is another major issue faced by the Australian Railways (Dhanasekar et al. 2013). Moreover, the food that is served to the travellers needs to be of high grade (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). The lack of good quality food is a major public issue faced by that of the Australian Railways (Ghaderi et al. 2015).
The additional issues include the lack of cheap labour in Australia. The railway industry needs a huge number of skilled and unskilled labours. This is an additional issue that is seen in the Australian Railways (Hirsch and Thompson 2014). Thus, the company has to procure cheap labour from the Asian countries. This results in high recruitment, yet unemployment remaining a major issue for Australia (Jupe and Funnell 2015). This is because, the Australian labour is expensive and hence the people of the Asian countries find large employment in the railway industry (Naweed 2013). The workplace safety at the railway has to be ensured (Kaewunruen 2014). Lack of workplace safety is a major HRM issue that is faced by the employees of the Australian Railway (Dhanasekar et al. 2013). The workplace safety has to be ensured by the new manager who would be relocated from the UK railway. Motivation of the emplopyees has to be ensured as well. Lack of motivation increases the rate of employee turnover (Turner et al. 2016). Thus, it is essential that the new manager ensures that the HRM issues are of the Australian Railways are mitigated, in order to ensure success of the Australian Railways (Ghaderi et al. 2015).
The UK railway industry is privatised. The employees are aligned in order to accept the privatization of the Railways. The UK railways have made a remarkable profit after being privatised, unlike that of the Australian Railway (Jupe and Funnell 2015). The revenue that the company has earned on privatization is remarkable and sets example for the railways of various other countries (Wallace et al. 2014). The profit earned, along with the enhancement of the business, and the enhancement of the services provided made the privatization of the railways a huge success (Hirsch and Thompson 2014). The private companies were dedicated serve the nation with the best possible services, thus making the privatization of the UK railways a success (Tell et al. 2017). However, in Australia, the privatization took place between the year 1993 and 2003, resulting in failure (Mizutani and Uranishi 2013). Thus, the comparison of the railway industry between UK and Australia shows huge differences (Naweed 2013). Thus the manager has to be aligned with that of the culture of the Australian Railway that is different from that of the UK railways (Salmon et al. 2016). It is important that the lessons of success are taken from the UK railways in order to ensure the success of the Australian Railway industry, with special mention of the Queensland railways.;
Conclusion
The railway industry is one of the largest industries in Australia. Thousands of people are employed in this sector, along with thousands of people being dependent on the railway industry. The Australian railway industry is a wide spread one and has various issues. The issues include the privatization issues, workforce issues, unions, strikes, employment conditions. However, these issues need to be mitigated in order to ensure the success of the Australian railway industry. The Australian railway industry could be compared with that of the UK railway industry. Though the UK industry is privatised and the privatization has a huge success in this industry. Along with the enhancement of the services being provided, the railways of UK have seen a huge profit with the privatization. Thus, it could be concluded that the manager who would be relocated from the UK railways needs to be aligned with the Australian industry, in order to ensure the success as well as enhancement of the Australian railway industry. It is important that the human resource issue of the Australian Railways are identified and mitigated as soon as possible in order to ensure success, like that of the UK railway industry. Hence, it might be recommended that the key to success of the UK railways should be incorporated in the Australian Railway industry to ensure success.
References
Albrecht, A.R., Panton, D.M. and Lee, D.H., 2013. Rescheduling rail networks with maintenance disruptions using problem space search. Computers & Operations Research, 40(3), pp.703-712.
Anderson, C., Grunstein, R.R. and Rajaratnam, S.M.W., 2013. Hours of work and rest in the rail industry. Internal medicine journal, 43(6), pp.717-721.
Cozens, P. and van der Linde, T., 2015. Perceptions of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) at Australian railway stations. Journal of Public Transportation, 18(4), p.5.
Dhanasekar, M., Remennikov, A.M., Kaewunruen, S. and Zong, N., 2013. Advances in Rail Track Infrastructure Research and Practice. Special Issue in Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering, 13(1), p.97p.
Filtness, A.J. and Naweed, A., 2017. Causes, consequences and countermeasures to driver fatigue in the rail industry: the train driver perspective. Applied ergonomics, 60, pp.12-21.
Ghaderi, H., Fei, J. and Cahoon, S., 2015. The impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in Australia: The case of the non-bulk freight market. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 27(1), pp.127-145.
Hirsch, L. and Thompson, K., 2014. I can sit but I’d rather stand: Commuter’s experience of crowdedness and fellow passenger behaviour in carriages on Australian metropolitan trains. ATRF-Australasian Transport Research Forum.
Jupe, R. and Funnell, W., 2015. Neoliberalism, consultants and the privatisation of public policy formulation: The case of Britain’s rail industry. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 29, pp.65-85.
Kaewunruen, S., 2014. Monitoring structural deterioration of railway turnout systems via dynamic wheel/rail interaction. Case Studies in Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation, 1, pp.19-24.
Kaewunruen, S. and Remennikov, A.M., 2016. Current state of practice in railway track vibration isolation: an Australian project management. Australian Journal of Civil Engineering, 14(1), pp.63-71.
Mizutani, F. and Uranishi, S., 2013. Does vertical separation reduce cost? An empirical analysis of the rail industry in European and East Asian OECD Countries. Journal of Regulatory Economics, 43(1), p.31.
Naweed, A., 2013. Psychological factors for driver distraction and inattention in the Australian and New Zealand rail industry. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 60, pp.193-204.
Naweed, A., 2013. Simulator integration in the rail industry: the Robocop problem. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, 227(5), pp.407-418.
Nielsen, D., Chattopadhyay, G. and Raman, D., 2013. An Australian railway bridge management framework. International Journal of Strategic Engineering Asset Management 1, 1(3), pp.301-315.
Piip, J., 2015. Leadership Talent: A Study of the Potential of People in the Australian Rail Industry. Social Sciences, 4(3), pp.718-741.
Salmon, P.M., Lenné, M.G., Read, G.J., Mulvihill, C.M., Cornelissen, M., Walker, G.H., Young, K.L., Stevens, N. and Stanton, N.A., 2016. More than meets the eye: using cognitive work analysis to identify design requirements for future rail level crossing systems. Applied ergonomics, 53, pp.312-322.
Shanmuganathan, S. and Samarasinghe, S. eds., 2016. financial Neural Network Modelling (Vol. 628). Springer.
Short, T., Piip, J. and Harris, R., 2013. Using benchmark principles as a formative evaluation strategy to build a leadership development culture in the Australian rail industry. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 13(2), p.20.
Tell, S., Leander, J., Andersson, A. and Mahir, Ü.K., 2017. Sensitivity analysis of a high-speed railway bridge with supplemental fluid viscous dampers.
Turner, C., Tiwari, A., Starr, A. and Blacktop, K., 2016. A review of key planning and scheduling in the rail industry in Europe and UK. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, 230(3), pp.984-998.
Wallace, A.P.M., Lings, I., Cameron, R. and Sheldon, N., 2014. Attracting and retaining staff: the role of branding and industry image. In Workforce development (pp. 19-36). Springer Singapore
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download