Decarbonisation solutions for Rail

This article was originally published in the December 2024 edition of Rail Express.

Ricardo has established itself in Australia as a supporter of the local industry and is leveraging its global expertise to better support rail’s move to decarbonise.

For over 15 years, Ricardo have successfully delivered over 5,000 projects in Australia and New Zealand to over 750 clients across the public and private sectors. Ricardo’s team of consultants, environmental specialists, engineers and scientists have collectively been working in the rail industry for decades.

Ricardo was founded in 1915 on sustainability principles to maximize efficiency and eliminate waste. It now serves 24 countries and has close to 3000 employees, 200 of those in Australia. Jorge Martin Gistau is the manager of sustainable transport for Ricardo in Australia and New Zealand and has been with the organisation for seven years.

Martin Gistau grew up in Spain, studying engineering at the university in his home country and Germany before migrating to Australia in 2011. He completed an Executive MBA in 2022 at the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) where he took part of an exchange program at Kellogg School on Management in Chicago, US. He worked in the private sector in Australia before moving across to Sydney Trains and then Ricardo.

Martin Gistau maintains an active role in learning more about supporting rail and its decarbonisation efforts. He is a Board member of the South Australian hydrogen technology cluster (SA-H2H™) and was a member of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) Young Leaders Advisory board for two years. He continues to support ARA by being a member of the Sustainability Committee and the Rolling Stock Decarbonisation Working Group.

When joining Ricardo, Martin Gistau entered the rail business unit, one of the company’s largest business units.

“We are a global strategic, environmental and engineering consultancy that operates in the intersection between transport, energy and global climate agendas,” Martin Gistau said.

“We have expertise in mobility, along with energy and sustainability. For those working in the transport space we can provide a solution that they are looking for”.

“We have done a lot of work in the decarbonisation of buses, heavy vehicles and even transitioning to hydrogen vehicles with the Toyota Hilux in the United Kingdom. The lessons we learn from these industries can help us in supporting the growth of the rail industry in Australia.”

Sustainability and rail

Martin Gistau and the team at Ricardo have worked closely with a range of stakeholders in Australia to assist the decarbonisation journey.

In South Australia the organisation worked with the state’s Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) to begin the renewal process of its rollingstock by understanding the viability of sustainable options such as electric, battery-electric or hydrogen fuel-cell trains.

In 2022, Ricardo was chosen to prepare a detailed feasibility and technology study for the Belair, Outer Harbor and Grange rail lines. The study was used to guide the DIT's decisions over the renewal program for the routes. 

Martin Gistau explained that Ricardo looks closely at the existing rollingstock and then establishes which technology options the client could utilise to meet the gap they may see in their decarbonisation efforts.

“You could have more than 10 different technologies you could choose from, and it is about establishing which technology is the best fit for each application,” he said.

“From that point, we continue working on the strategic business case adding in financial and economic modelling to support these significant investments. That can particularly help governments setting up budgets and working to secure funding.”

“Once funding is secured, we work with the client through the tender phase and help develop technical specifications to go to market. We work with them all the way through to testing and commissioning.”

Martin Gistau said Ricardo will often work on a project from the very early stages all the way to completion and any part in between. He went on to explain the methodology the company uses when establishing technology solutions.

“As a company, we are technology agnostic and therefore, we consider a range of net zero technologies like alternative fuels, hydrogen, battery electric, and full electrification,” he said.

“Technology is evolving quickly, and we can see different trends coming up in countries around the world. It is important we do not get tied down to one form of technology so we can provide the right solution for any challenge. This is the benefit of a company like Ricardo that offers support across the entire value chain and is exposed to global projects and markets. We are uniquely positioned to offer comprehensive support to international clients, providing policy and regulatory advice, including insights into the environmental impacts of products and the supply chain. We possess unparalleled technical expertise in the design, testing, and manufacturing of zero-emission solutions.”

Working with diverse clients

The challenge in rail, Martin Gistau explained, is that every organisation or government entity is different and faces unique challenges. Ricardo is technology agnostic and therefore help clients find the right technology for their needs.

“Different entities are at different maturity levels in the sense of decarbonisation and sustainability,” he said.

“We support our clients by immersing ourselves in the organisation we are working with. For example, I recently moved to Adelaide to support a client in South Australia and on other projects we have had team members move into offices of clients to again, provide that embedded resource.”

Ricardo also leans heavily on its international experience to support the local rail sector. Martin Gistau said that often a problem that someone in Australia is currently facing has occurred overseas so the organisation can take those learnings and bring it to the local sector.

“On this project in South Australia I worked closely with the team in the United Kingdom (UK) as they had delivered similar projects in the UK and Latvia,” he said.

“It is very much a strength of Ricardo, that we can lean on this vast international network that has worked on a number of innovative projects. We are doing more than just ‘desktop assessments’, we are taking every opportunity to learn and improve what is being offered to the industry,” Martin Gistau said.

“Our goal at SA-H2H™ is to be bringing together the best in South Australia to accelerate the global hydrogen supply chain and to delivery hydrogen supply chain scale in South Australia.  At Ricardo, we are proud of being able to support this transition alongside other SA-H2H™ members. On a personal note, it is a privilege and an honour to be a Board member of an organisation which is driving the industry towards decarbonisation. It is always rewarding when you are part of an organisation that is aligned with your personal values and motivations”.

Martin Gistau believes Australia is in a unique position to make this sustainable transition. He noted a recent report released in June by the Australasian Railway Association titled the critical path to decarbonise Australia’s rail rollingstock, which stated that 50 per cent of the rollingstock in the country will need to be replaced within the next 8 to 13 years.

Martin Gistau explained that as technology develops and changes it will be ready to meet the needs of the industry at different times depending on the need to replace rollingstock.

“I believe in Australia it will not be one size fits all, it will be a combination of different technologies including hydrogen, other alternative fuels, battery-electric and electrification. We will continue to study the different technologies as they develop to deliver solutions for the industry.”