Out of Alstom’s 25 sites across Australia and New Zealand, it has two manufacturing facilities in Victoria, located in Dandenong and Ballarat. These sites employ over 600 people, highlighting the company’s commitment to supporting local employment across our highly skilled workforce.

Welcome to another edition of Fast Five – our series where we ask some of the most influential and exceptional business leaders five questions to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of Australia’s most dynamic businesses.

In this edition we spoke to Pascal Dupond, Managing Director Alstom Australia and New Zealand.

Starting his early career in the Aerospace industry in France, Pascal’s tenure with Alstom spans almost three decades across multiple roles and geographies, including Asia Pacific for the past 20 years.

1. Tell us about Alstom’s role in Victoria. What some key recent milestones are for the company?

Alstom is the leading rail manufacturer in Victoria. We are proud of our heritage of providing sustainable infrastructure solutions across Australia for over 100 years. We are the only end-to-end rolling stock technology provider manufacturing in Australia and delivering rail projects from start to finish: from design and engineering to manufacturing with locally-made rolling stock components. We are delivering the latest signalling technology as well as providing preventative maintenance solutions to maximise the lifespan of signalling, trams and trains.

There is such an exciting pipeline of work here at Alstom and in the rail market. We take great pride in our recent milestones including the design, production and delivery of the 100th new VLocity train, part of a growing fleet that connects Victoria’s regional communities. This project is significant as it has fuelled hundreds of local manufacturing jobs and includes ongoing fleet maintenance that Alstom performs in West Melbourne, South Dynon, Ballarat East, Bendigo and Geelong.

Just recently, we revealed the X’Trapolis 2.0 life-size mock-up in Tullamarine, which will replace the long-serving Comeng trains on the Craigieburn, Upfield and Frankston lines. Passenger, accessibility, and specialist groups were invited to tour and provide feedback on the proposed design, to ensure we are building the best train we can for all Victorians. These trains will be built in Victoria for Victorians, and manufactured predominantly in Ballarat. This fleet supports the State’s goals to provide more accessible and energy-efficient trains and more reliable journeys for Victoria’s growing population.

In Dandenong, we are also currently getting ready to build 100 new G Class trams for the Victorian Government as part of the Next Generation Trams project, which is the largest investment in locally made trams in Australia’s history. The project will support up to 1,900 jobs in the region across manufacturing, the local supply chain and wider economy. It will include the design, building and maintenance of the new G Class trams, which are set to start rolling out from 2025.

2. What local skills and expertise does Alstom employ and how is it addressing labour shortages?

We are delighted to support local talent and create job opportunities in Victoria. It’s pivotal to our business and an area that we will continue to invest in strongly.

We employ a wide variety of people with diverse skills and backgrounds in a range of roles including engineering, industrial design, manufacturing and production, signalling engineering, software development, testing and commissioning, asset monitoring and maintenance, safety and compliance, project management and corporate positions. The Alstom culture values curious and innovative people who are passionate about working as one team. Our employees have the chance to learn, grow and develop rewarding long-term careers, including mobility across the globe, in a sustainable and impactful industry such as ours.

While we acknowledge there is a labour skills shortage across the rail industry and we need to compete with other industries for great talent, we are addressing this in several ways. We have built alliances with Jobs Victoria to connect with more potential candidates and developed partnerships with universities (not only in Victoria) to build and attract talent and offer graduate programs and internship opportunities to the next generation starting their careers in rail.

Our graduate program was founded in 2017 and offers graduates from major universities work experience in a range of roles, gaining a depth of knowledge of the rail industry with onsite mentoring and training. These graduates then can apply for full-time roles to grow their careers with us.

Our Dandenong site is home to our Welding Centre of Excellence where we develop skills and teach advanced welding technologies, testing and certification, to nurture skilled professionals in this field.

In early 2023, we were honoured to be awarded the Global Top Employer 2023 certification in Australia for the third year in the Asia Pacific region. This was a significant moment for us as it represents our amazing team culture and ongoing commitment to making Alstom a great place to work, where our shared passion drives great outcomes for our customers.

3. In an increasingly environmentally conscious market, rail is seen as a sustainable transport option. What are the advantages of rail and what are some future advancements to make trains and trams even more efficient?

Travel by rail is highly energy-efficient compared to other modes of transport, such as road or air. Rail produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions per passenger kilometre and can carry large numbers of people or freight in a single trip.

Alstom has a global commitment towards greener and sustainable mobility. We are strong advocates for the decarbonisation of transport to create a more environmentally friendly transport system and we are proud to contribute to our company’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Our eco-design principles ensure that technologies built into our trains are built with sustainability and recyclability in mind. We’re continuing to innovate in the development of more energy-efficient trains and trams, including increased use of regenerative braking and storage to capture the energy that would otherwise be wasted, and reduce vehicle wear and tear. This optimised technology helps reduce energy use, avoiding emissions and allowing several tons of emissions per year and per fleet to be avoided.

Eco-design is fundamental to our manufacturing processes where we select recyclable materials and design with energy efficiency in mind while considering environmental impacts at each phase of the building process. When our trains are eventually retired from service, the train can be decommissioned by recycling the body panels and interior fixtures and recovering materials from the train that can be recycled, such as steel, aluminium, copper and glass.

4. In your opinion, how can governments better work with the private sector to improve rail infrastructure and service in Australia?

While Australian governments at the Federal and State level have responsibilities for developing and maintaining critical rail infrastructure networks and services, by working together with the private sector, infrastructure gaps can be addressed and service delivery can be significantly improved.

Government infrastructure projects can stimulate economic activity and attract local investment while leveraging the private sector to support local skill development and create new employment opportunities in the region.

We believe governments have a strong role to play in advocating for the harmonisation of standards and skills requirements and optimised interoperability across rail networks and States. Without consistent standards across the nationwide network, advancing interoperability and achieving economies of scale can be challenging, due to the different systems and technology in use.

The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) has been instrumental in better coordinating and standardising how States tender in rail and across private sector stakeholders, which has led to greater processes of collaboration to share information and expertise across the industry. This is currently a focus as well at the Federal level, so there is a unique opportunity now to make it happen.

At Alstom, we strongly advocate for interoperability as we see the benefits of consistent standards across the rail network and how collectively sharing information can propel the development of advanced common digital rail skills, encouraging portability of skills and ultimately reducing the shortage of rail workers across the country.

5. Is interstate high-speed rail a viable option in Australia and how can we achieve it?

Interstate high-speed rail has been a hot topic of discussion in Australia for many years. It presents the opportunity to create a long-term sustainable pipeline of work throughout the country and while we hope it will become a reality one day, there are challenges to implementing it. This is due to the significant investment in infrastructure required, the population density in major cities and Australia’s vast geography.

Implementing interstate high-speed rail in Australia requires careful planning, stakeholder collaboration, and financial support from the Australian Government as well as State funding. While we believe it may eventually be introduced in Australia, it’s a long-term project requiring the alignment of many key stakeholders and it may be beneficial to implement it in a phased approach.

In the meantime, incremental improvements to medium-speed rail (110-200km/h) are more likely. Taking progressive steps towards enhancing existing infrastructure and developing medium-speed rail networks keeps Australia’s capital cities and regions connected while leaving the door open to one day transition to a high-speed interstate network. With continuous progress and collaboration between government entities, industry stakeholders and rail manufacturers such as Alstom, we will eventually achieve a more efficient high-speed rail network.