As one of Australia's leading integrated systems engineering and safety assurance consultancies, Acmena is providing comprehensive support across Brisbane's landmark Cross River Rail project.

The Cross River Rail project will deliver a new 10.2km line through Brisbane’s inner city, featuring twin 5.9km tunnels running under the Brisbane River and CBD. Four new underground stations will be built as part of the $5.4b project, in addition to the upgrade of eight existing stations and the introduction of European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2 signalling technology.

To facilitate its delivery, CRR has been divided in to three primary contracts. Delivered by the Unity Alliance, the Rail, Integration and Systems (RIS) package incorporates station upgrades and the delivery of all major rail systems. The Tunnels, Stations and Development (TSD) package is being delivered by the PULSE consortium, while Hitachi is responsible for ETCS delivery.

Acmena has been engaged by both contract consortia and is currently leading systems engineering, human factors, safety and RAM activities across the project.

Three Contract Packages, One Integrated Program 

To provide a deeper understanding of the assets being delivered, and ensure they are safe and fit for purpose, Acmena adopted a human-centred approach. This reflects Acmena’s broader approach to human factors integration across Australia’s most complex rail programs — ensuring that human capabilities, limitations and user needs are embedded into the design from the outset. To facilitate the strategy, Acmena has facilitated operational scenario workshops with key stakeholders, including operation and maintenance personnel, to elicit a comprehensive understanding of the CRR system requirements. The Acmena team is also developing the CRR Rail System Requirements Specification (CRR-SRS) and the TSD-SRS.

Using IBM DOORS Next to Facilitate a Fully Integrated Systems Engineering Approach

Leveraging its expertise in providing requirements management solutions for major infrastructure projects, Acmena has used IBM DOORS Next to establish an inter-contract collaborative requirements and lifecycle management system to efficiently maintain and share data between stakeholders and support progressive assurance throughout the project lifecycle. Acmena has also developed the core systems engineering plans (SEMP, SSAP, RMP, HFIP) for the project.

With human factors specialists also supporting the design and development of key interfaces across both contracts as part of a multi-discipline team, Acmena is combining its systems engineering, requirements management and safety assurance capabilities to provide a fully integrated outcome.

Tunneling works are complete with station construction well underway. The project reached a significant milestone in September 2024 when the first test train went through the tunnel.

Cross River Rail represents the most comprehensive application of Acmena’s integrated systems engineering, safety assurance, requirements management and human factors capabilities on a single program in Australia.

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