Rail interoperability was made one of eight national priorities by transport ministers through National Cabinet, and the National Rail Action Plan is the work program. It includes the first mandatory rail standards intended to drive interoperability.

Three reforms are running on rolling stock approvals: safety assurance guidance clarifying the roles of rail infrastructure managers and rolling stock operators in certification and registration (drafted November 2025 and handed to Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator for consultation); identification of common interface standards to be harmonised; and a single application form for freight.

Stage 3, in 2029-2030, develops a mandatory national standard for rolling stock approvals — deliberately a process standard rather than a prescriptive technical one. The NTC's estimate of the prize is that the industry can save tens of millions of dollars a year and that operators will be more willing to invest in new and lower-emission rolling stock.

Read the dates. A national priority set in 2020, first mandatory interoperability requirements in force February 2026, mandatory approvals standard in 2029-2030. That is the reform this site would have proposed, being done properly, taking a decade. See This is what harmonisation actually costs when someone genuinely does it.

Governance changed alongside it: ministers strengthened RISSB as the industry-led technical standards setting body, and it has transitioned into the Australian Rail Industry Standards Organisation.