Australian engineering consultancy joins global player Ricardo
Transport Engineering, an Australian engineering consultancy with offices in Sydney and Melbourne, has been acquired by global player Ricardo, in a move that provides Ricardo with added capabilities in the transport, public transport and private mobility sectors.
“We are excited about the breadth and depth of experience that Transport Engineering will bring to Ricardo and the opportunities that this will bring in Australia,” said Dave Shemmans, CEO of Ricardo, a publicly listed company headquartered in the UK.
Founded in 2015, Transport Engineering provides engineering and technical services to the public and private sectors in the transportation industry. The company has over the past years worked on some of the largest transportation projects in the country, including on the $8.3 billion Sydney Metro North West line (Australia’s biggest transport infrastructure project currently under construction), the introduction of the High Capacity Metro Trains on the Melbourne rail network (due to enter service by mid-2019) and the purchase of the largest trains rolling stock order in Australia’s history via a $3.6 billion public private partnership (known as Waratah – operated by Sydney Trains).
Alongside supporting clients with technical advisory, Transport Engineering also provides full life-cycle management of rolling stock and maintenance on behalf of clients, as well as the provision of on-site inspectors and auditors in suppliers’ premises, safety engineering, RAM / maintenance engineering, project management, testing and systems integration. “Transport Engineering has an excellent market reputation and strong customer relationships,” remarked Shemmans.
The deal, announced last week, is set to formally close by the end of next month, after which the Transport Engineering brand will be dropped, with the Australian consulting firm operating under the Ricardo banner as the Australian division of Ricardo’s international rail business. Globally, Ricardo now has a team of 700 rail experts across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with the 100-strong team of Transport Engineering serving as the firm’s Australian arm within the Rail division.
The move comes at a time when global demand for the rail technical services is on the rise. Governments are under growing pressure to respond to accelerating levels of urbanisation and traffic, meanwhile, the rapid growth in emerging rail technologies means that opportunities offered by rail (often as part of a mobility mix) on the up. As a result, policy makers are increasingly turning to external consultant to support their planning for urban and high-speed transport networks, mobility hubs and rail transport upgrades, among others.
As part of the integration, Transport Engineering’s founder Stephen Boyd, who prior to founding the privately-owned consultancy served Transport for NSW and Public Transport Victoria, will continue to lead the unit. Boyd: “I am very excited to be joining an international rail business of Ricardo’s calibre and to see the business I’ve built over the past years embark on its next stage of growth. By leveraging Ricardo’s scale and resources, we will be able to expand rapidly across Australia and New Zealand and broaden the range of technical services we currently offer.”
Earlier this year, another Australian engineering consultancy, Brisbane based Corview, specialised in the infrastructure sector, also joined a UK-headquartered professional services firm – RPS, active in 100+ countries globally.
