ProjectInland Rail PPP & Program Wide – Transaction Advisory Services

Inland Rail is a 1,710km freight rail line that will complete the spine of the national freight rail network. It will provide a road-competitive service that will see freight delivered from Melbourne to Brisbane in less than 24 hours with reliability, pricing, and availability equal to or better than road.

From 2017 to 2024 TSA Riley provided senior resources to the Inland Rail Program to lead the planning, transaction and delivery of this major program of projects including:

• Transaction Advisory Services, Gowrie to Kagaru Public Private Partnership (G2K PPP), 2018 – 2023 (15 FTE) – in 2017, the Australian Government confirmed the 130km G2K section of Inland Rail in Queensland would be delivered through a rail PPP to leverage private sector innovation for the most technically complex sections of the program. In 2018 TSA Riley was appointed to provide transaction advisory services. We provided transaction management, developed the full PPP procurement documentation (EOI, RFP and contract documents), coordinated interactions with the PPP market and provided governance advice to Commonwealth Government agencies and ARTC. We managed the interactive tender phase and evaluations up to nomination of the preferred proponent.
• Transaction and Commercial Advisory Services, Program Wide, 2020 – 2024 (50 FTE) – In August 2020, TSA Riley was appointed to provide transaction management services (along with JV partners) for the Inland Rail Program Wide. This covers seven major projects: three Civil Works Programs, Rail Corridor Program, Rail Systems Package and the Melbourne to Albury and Albury to Parkes sections. In our role as embedded transaction and commercial advisors, we led procurement, award, contract and commercial management of each package. We developed the commercial principles, risk allocation, term sheets and procurement strategy. We liaised with environment and approvals, land and property acquisition, engineering, project controls, the Inland Rail leadership team and the ARTC Board, to support the ongoing delivery of the program. Following the award of four collaborative framework agreements for the Rail Corridor Program and the Civil Works Programs, our teams embedded into the co-located contractor and client teams to support the development phases and the collaborative development of the target costs. In 2023, an independent review of the Inland Rail Program was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government. Activities north of Parkes have been paused while this is completed. Our team supported the strategic response to the government recommendations set out in the report.