March 25 2010

Victorian Minister for Public Transport Martin Pakula and his team recently visited Austrak's Geelong factory.

In an hour-long tour, the Minister gained a real insight into the factory’s manufacturing process.

“I’m really pleased to be here today at the Austrak factory, which has been here in Geelong for more than 15 years now making something like 1,000 concrete sleepers for the Victorian network every day,” Minister Pakula said.

“Sleeper replacement is a major part of network reliability. That’s why we’re insisting under the current contract Metro replace a minimum of 65,000 sleepers with concrete sleepers every year.

“It’s why this factory is undergoing record volumes and it’s why we’ve increased our maintenance budget to the operator to $1.8 million over the life of their contract,” he said.

Austrak is a subsidiary business of Laing O'Rourke.

Photo: Austrak Factory Manager Gary Pountney shows Victorian Minister Martin Pakula around the Geelong Factory.