Railway Conversations with Doc Frank

Andy Harrison is back! After our quite deep conversation in episode 6 this is a follow-up to reflect a few things happening during 2023 in the railway industry. We cover why an open mind is important in railways, cross-fertilisation of the industry from new employees and suppliers, how to introduce new technologies and associated philosophies without losing the original railway identity, industry...

Doc Frank chats with Sonny Kaur from Perth in Western Australia. Sonny collected vast project management experience in Australia, the USA and Europe while managing to coordinate her career with her partner’s. We talk about the importance of small actions in projects, the work culture compared between Australia and the USA, spicy relationships between project managers and project engineers, how to...

Doc Frank chats with Tony Eid from Sydney, Australia, who presently works as Deputy Project Director on the prestigious Cross River Rail project in Brisbane. Tony shares from his vast experience why 2024 is a special year for his project, the difference between line and project management, what shutdown fatigue is, the difference between change and transformational change, the three most important...

Doc Frank explains the concept of ‘Regional Fast Rail’ as a third pillar of passenger rail apart from city metros and intercity high speed services. He discusses characteristics of Regional Fast Rail, the suitability of candidate lines in Australia and a case study from India. Subscribe to the show and share it with your friends and coworkers helps the impact of this podcast to the railway industr...

Doc Frank discusses a critical topic for the railway industry, not just in Australia but arguably everywhere else where interoperability between advanced digital signalling technologies is required. Frank talks about his experience with interoperability from Europe and Australia, risk factors that may prevent interoperability, how he developed a training on interoperability, the recent update of t...

Doc Frank explains why signalling knowledge becomes relevant for the wider railway organisation as it transitions from conventional signalling to high performance operations under CBTC. The podcast includes part of a presentation from the CBTC World Summit 2023 which illustrates that challenge. Show notes: 1.       The official recording of the entire CBTC World Summit 2023 , arguably the best glo...

Doc Frank chats with Steve Boshier from Melbourne in Australia, the current global president of the IRSE (Institution of Railway Signal Engineers). The open and deep discussion covers differences between the railway industries in New Zealand and Australia, the specifics of big and small projects, what it means to be an IRSE president, and much more. If you like this podcast, please subscribe and t...

The first episode of 2024 presents the first-ever guest from the USA. Hares Rahimzei from San Francisco joined the railway industry just six months ago, and he picked the supposedly difficult field of CBTC for his first role. This conversation explores the motivation for joining the railway industry and some tips how to get in. We also discuss why one should either change role or industry but not...

This episode reveals some lessons learned from 2023 and tips how to improve things sustainably for the new year 2024. Show notes: 1.       Those were the two books recommended during the podcast:  Measure What Matters by John Doerr  Atomic Habits by James Clear 2.       Here is the link for the recordings of the CBTC World Summit 2023 which participants called the best international CBTC conferenc...

In this end-of-year episode Doc Frank talks about some industry highlights in 2023, both from a personal and global perspective. Topics covered include: ·       The (shocking) independent review of the Inland Rail project ·       The independent review of the Sydney Trains network ·       The creation of not one but two worldwide unique railway training courses ·       The long-awaited publishing...

This episode presents end-of-year highlights from the first six episodes of this podcast. In case you missed some and find the highlights intriguing, there are links to all full episodes in the show notes below. The highlights include: ·       Likely reasons for the industry discourse regarding CBTC interoperability ·       How a supply strategy can tackle two major challenges to project success,...

Today’s guest is Melbourne-based railway manager and leadership coach Teeshal Bal who was already featured before in episode 28 and the leadership episode 44. This conversation emphasises the importance of people in our industry, including their need to take over and operate large projects developed and built over many years by others. Topics of this deep conversation include: * How to transition...

This episode is a special about the need for mindset shifts when a railway transitions from a legacy environment with conventional fixed-block signalling to a high capacity metro-style service. It contains three elements of the cutting-edge High Capacity Railway Mindset training: the training introduction for understanding the context, and each one clip for each of the two types of lessons which f...

Doc Frank chats again with Steve Allday from Sydney, Australia, a previous guest from episode 16. Following the great success of that episode, this conversation spans across a wide range of topics including the professionalism of the railway industry, keeping commitments, risk aversion versus risk awareness, risk management in project budgeting and scheduling, Sydney Metro Southwest and much more....

This is a highlight reel of previous episodes 28 with Teeshal Bal and 31 with Mick Spiers, both living in Melbourne/Australia. Both are involved in leadership training, although in quite different ways, and in this episode they take turns in sharing some instructive insights. Please enjoy and share with your friends and coworkers.   Show notes: 1)      High Capacity Signalling is a major trend for...

In this episode we have a role reversal where Doc Frank is interviewed by Rahiman Shaik from Sydney, Australia on Rahiman’s Railway Transportation Systems podcast. Many good insights in there, and if you like this podcast, please tell your friends about it. The Railway Transportation Systems podcast is not available as video version which will impact the visual experience a bit if you watch this e...

This episode is a real treat for fans of Communications-Based Train Control or short CBTC. The first part of this episode is a recap of a CBTC presentation that Doc Frank gave at a conference in June 2023. The second part gives a background story what happened after that conference presentation and how a red-hot update of New York’s CBTC strategy got presented at the CBTC World Summit 2023. Please...

Doc Frank chats with Tiff Lykke, a railway project manager from Melbourne in Australia. We talk about how to start a career in railways, even when coming from a completely non-railway background and specifically as a woman. It shows that there is an opportunity for the railway industry to attract talent from the outside, but at the same time the industry has a responsibility to nurture such talent...

This special episode highlights clips from four previous episodes with experts in the the field of rail systems testing. Artur Wolnica (episode 13), Danny O’Connell (episode 21), Frederic Sancho (episode 23) and Xavier Ricco (episode 34) shared insightful views on testing. Please enjoy. Show notes: 1)      The CBTC Kickstarter course is the longest-running CBTC training in the world. The new onlin...

In the most labour-intensive episode in the history of this podcast, Doc Frank presents highlights from all 18 presentations of the recent CBTC World Summit 2023 , a virtual conference concept that redefines the landscape for CBTC conferences. The full official recording of all presentations including Q&A, and all “fireside chats” for VIP attendees as a bonus, can be accessed via   https://doc...

Doc Frank chats with another double act from Scandinavia, this time from Norway which adds yet another country to the map of international podcast guests. Jørgen and Lennart both work for Jarbtech which develops products for the railway industry based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and accordingly our conversation focused on innovation in the railway industry. Please enjoy and share this podcast...

Doc Frank chats with Dr Chris Hale, an expert transport planner from Melbourne in Australia. The two doctors discuss transport planning in Melbourne and Sydney, with the inevitable comparison between the cities, in the context of international best practice. Enjoy, and if you do check also out the older episodes and recommend this podcast to your friends – they will thank you.  Show notes: 1)     ...

Doc Frank chats with Peter Thornton from Sydney in Australia, an experienced veteran in railway consulting. A lively discussion between two thought leaders of the industry about touchy topics such as the strategy for Sydney Metro and the expectations for High Speed Rail along Australia’s east coast versus Regional Fast Rail around the major cities. Please enjoy and share this podcast with your fri...

This experimental episode is a highlight reel of three conversations with female guests. Victoria Winder from episode 11 talks about her testing experience in the challenging environment of London Underground, her perception of the Crossrail project delay from inside the project team, and her experiences from talking to politicians and senior management. Lena Harnisch from episode 15 explains cybe...

Doc Frank chats with Xavier Ricco from Mons in Belgium, adding another country to the range of international guests. Xavier is arguably one of the global top experts in the field of testing tools for the European Train Control System ETCS. As it turns out in the conversation, flexible design of these tools allowed for testing of not only ETCS but also similar train control systems in China and Kor...