The ARA CEO Caroline Wilkie, ARA General Manager – Advocacy and New Zealand, Simon Bourke, and ARA General Manager – Freight and Heavy Haul, Georgia Nicholls, met with the new Secretary for the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, Jeroen Weimar, on Tuesday. William Tieppo, Deputy Secretary, Network Design and Integration, also joined the meeting. 

The ARA provided the Secretary with an overview of the ARA’s key activities, including our focus on decarbonisation opportunities, driving harmonisation and interoperability reforms, and the National Rail Action Plan, rail infrastructure investment and the future project pipeline. The discussion also noted the growing importance of the role of rail in serving suburban communities across Melbourne and Victoria more broadly, as well as opportunities to continue to improve mode shift of freight onto rail.