UGL Rail is an Australian rail company specialising in building, maintaining and refurbishing diesel locomotives, diesel and electric multiple units and freight wagons. It is a subsidiary ofUGL and is based inMelbourne, with a staff of 1,200 across Australia and Asia. It operates factories inBroadmeadow (Newcastle),Spotswood andBassendean. While it used to operate a factory inTaree, the plant was shut down and the equipment sold off.
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Founded in Australia in 1899 byCornish brothers Alfred and Ralph Goninan as an engineering and manufacturing company for the coal industry, A Goninan & Co Limited was incorporated as a public company in 1905.[1]
It entered the rail business in 1917 via Commonwealth Steel Products Company ofWaratah,Newcastle, a wheel and axle manufacturer, because those items could no longer be imported fromBelgium due toWorld War I. A Goninan & Co moved to more convenient freehold land atBroadmeadow in 1919 and built a flourishing business in general engineering.[1] It made pitheads, boilers, wagons and a huge, cast 41-ton block for the district's coal trade.[1] In October 1964, A Goninan & Co was purchased byHoward Smith.
In August 1999, A Goninan & Co was sold toUnited Group and re-branded United Goninan.[2] In 2005, it was renamed United Group Rail, as part of a reorganisation following United Group's purchase ofAlstom's Australian subsidiary, Alstom Transport Australia and New Zealand.[3]
While most items were manufactured at Broadmeadow, it did purchaseComeng'sBassendean, Western Australia plant. This plant rebuilt manyPilbaraAlco locomotives withGeneral Electric components in the 1990s as well as building 17Westrail P class and 60NR class locomotives.[4]
In 1983, a factory was established inTownsville to fulfill a contract forQueensland Railways 2600 class locomotives that required them to be built locally. It later built the2800 class.
As part of UGL's acquisition of Alstom Australia and New Zealand in 2005, UGL leased Alstom'sworkshops at Ballarat North from then until 2012.[5][6]
UGL is a part ofMetro Trains Sydney which constructed and now operates theSydney Metro Northwest[7]
UGL is a member of the RailConnect NSW consortium, a joint venture between UGL,Hyundai Rotem andMitsubishi Electric, which has designed and will build and maintain more than 500NSW TrainLink D set train carriages. Delivery commenced in the second half of 2019. Maintenance will be carried out at theKangy Angy Maintenance Centre.[8]
UGL Rail has been responsible for the maintenance of all ofCityRail's EMU fleet at Maintrain, Auburn since March 1994 following the closure ofElectric Carriage Workshops andEveleigh Carriage Workshops.[9] In the early 1990s, A Goninan & Co refurbishedS andV sets at Broadmeadow as part of the Citydecker program.
Since December 2011, UGL Unipart, a 70:30 joint venture withUnipart, has maintained most of CityRail and laterSydney Trains andNSW TrainLink's EMU fleet.[10]
Maintenance onH sets was initially carried out atEveleigh but from 2018 is done at other depots with major work done at Maintrain, Auburn[clarification needed] as for other types of Sydney Trains sets. The contract to maintain 1,050 Sydney Trains carriages including H andV sets was extended for two years from 1 July 2019.[11]
UGL Rail has been responsible for maintaining the NSW Country Regional Network since January 2022.[12][13] It took over fromJohn Holland Group.
UGL Rail owns 20% ofMetro Trains Melbourne, the consortium that has runMelbourne'smetro railway network since November 2009.[14]
In July 2020, UGL Rail became responsible for maintenance of theGlenelg tram line inAdelaide as part of theTorrens Connect consortium.[15][16]
