Quintiq and Sydney Trains, have together placed as a finalist for the national Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (AEEA), held on 24th November 2014.

This honour follows their success at the local Sydney awards. The Controls Systems and Communications category award was given to Sydney Trains and Quintiq for their Fleet Allocation and Recording System (FARS).

Quintiq’s FARS solution has enabled Sydney Trains to depart from using paper-based practices as it delivers near real-time information validation on train movements and allocations. It also streamlines train allocation planning up to 14 days in advance.

"Quintiq is proud to be recognised with Sydney Trains as a national finalist," said Paul Shepherd, director of Quintiq Australia and New Zealand. "It is further recognition of the innovation that can be achieved by developing a great working relationship with a forward-thinking client such as Sydney Trains.

Paul Shepherd added: "Contributing directly to the exciting transformation of Sydney Trains, the FARS project was delivered with the aim of improving the quality of service of one of the most complex hybrid metro-suburban rail networks in the world. The Quintiq solution increases visibility and decision support, translating into a more efficient use of rail assets, to the benefit of all Sydney Trains’ stakeholders and customers."

The project commenced in 2011, when Sydney Trains identified that its manual, paper-based systems could be computerised for greater efficiency. The company also deduced that real-time train reallocation could be used to redirect trains for maintenance or when network issues arose. This entailed the procurement of an advanced interactive computerised system to help operational staff plan, control and maintain train allocations for maintenance and service availability across the Sydney Trains network.

Sydney Trains identified Quintiq, an international software company specialising in industrial planning applications, to deliver the software component of FARS, under a fixed-price contract. The solution, FARS, provides maintenance alerts and real-time information received from other planning, asset management, timetabling and train-tracking systems.