More than 700 people gathered for the Rail Industry Awards, Australia and New Zealand in Sydney on Tuesday, recognising the outstanding achievements of the industry in 2025-26.

The awards celebrated excellence and innovation across 16 individual and organisational categories, showcasing the people, projects and initiatives that are shaping the future of rail.

Awards Judging Chair and Australasian Railway Association (ARA) Chief Executive Officer Caroline Wilkie said this year’s winners and finalists highlighted the outstanding levels of excellence and innovation that exist within the rail industry.

“This year’s awards have recognised the incredible talents of our industry, including leading infrastructure delivery, customer-focused operations, innovative technical solutions and inclusive workplace practices,” Ms Wilkie said.

“We are proud to celebrate the individual and organisational achievements that have shaped 2026 and congratulate all of this year’s winners and finalists.”

The awards recognised achievements in the areas of diversity and inclusion, sustainability, passenger, infrastructure, innovation, supply, customer experience, freight, signalling and systems engineering and safety.

Metro Trains Melbourne took out three awards, claiming top honours in the Keeping Communities Safe on and Around Rail Award, Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Award and the Passenger Operations Excellence Award.

Key projects were also recognised, with the Metro Tunnel Project taking out the Infrastructure Project Excellence Award and the Cross River Rail’s RIS project – led by the Unity Alliance – winning the Sustainability Excellence Award.

Suburban Rail Loop Authority’s Peter Wilkinson won the prestigious Career Achievement Award, heading up an impressive line up of individual winners who have demonstrated leadership, innovation or new approaches in their contributions to the rail industry.

Ms Wilkie congratulated all finalists and winners, and thanked the judges, supporters and sponsors that made the awards possible.

The awards are delivered in partnership by the ARA, the Rail Track Association Australia, Rail Technical Society Australasia, Permanent Way Institution, Institution of Railway Signal Engineers and Australian Rail Industry Standards Organisation (ARISO).

ENDS