Queensland Rail - Australia

The Customer

QR is one of Australia's largest and most modern rail networks. It was formed in 1856 and today covers 9500 kilometres of narrow gauge track. QR is a State Government-owned Corporation that has an annual revenue of almost $2 billion and is one of the Queensland's biggest employers with around 13,700 staff. QR's customers range from commuters, tourists and freight businesses to mining and agricultural industries.

The Challenge

To meet QR's needs Tait significantly customised 1,200 Tait T2020 radios for train communications across its extensive rail network. QR's radios look and operate quite differently to the standard T2020. The radio control head was redesigned adding an emergency key and simplifying the controls - reducing the number of keys from 20 to eight.

QR opted for a special customised handset connected to the rear - rather than the front - of the control head. This required a new connection on the rear panel and major changes to the printed circuit board.

This then made the standard microphone connector redundant in normal use, but as it is still required for programming, an easy to remove plastic insert was designed. Because of noise in the locomotive cab QR required the output of the receiver's audio amplifier to be increased from five to 10 watts. An audio amplifier was also added to the radio control head to further boost the volume in the earpiece of the handset.

The Solution

The radio firmware and programming software were both modified to provide new functions like a custom interface with a GPS unit that control specific radio functions. For example, QR can use the GPS system to choose the best channel for operation - rather than the radio's voting function. The GPS information is also transmitted through the radio system back to the base to provide precise information about the location of trains.