David Bannister Email & Phone Number

Victoria, Australia

David started Minerva Transport Planning Company (MTPCo) to continue providing specialised rail operations and strategy advice. David identified that a gap in the market existed, with smaller firms offering services for operations or strategy - but not both - and larger engineering firms providing the capability, without a specialised focus.Since founding MTPCo, David has provided operational and strategic advice, including RailSys modelling, to the Sydney Metro West project, as well as upgrade assessment for Transport for NSW on a range of heavy rail studies. David has also managed the feasibility study for a private operator investigating a new service, undertaken the operational planning for the Suburban Rail Loop in Melbourne, and minor enhancement planning on the existing heavy rail networks in Sydney and Melbourne.

United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

Brought into the company to develop the Rail Operations business. Successfully undertook a range of Rail Operations and Strategy projects, including:- Irish Rail Strategy, working with Iarnród Éireann on their suburban and intercity rail strategy- Bologna Light Rail modelling, testing a new LRT in RailSys- Modelling of Euston Station for two timetable changes, in the context of changed infrastructure due to HS2- Timetable process analysis for DfT, involving interviewing numerous TOCs and their planning departments to gauge the level of understanding and satisfaction with the Network Rail process.

Sydney, Australia

Sydney, Australia

Full time contractor through CWG Project Services.David was embedded in the Simulation and Evaluation team on a full time basis, providing expert advice and RailSys services including the use of RailSys Version 10 and Enterprise. David’s main tasks involved supporting the development of the More Trains, More Services program. During this time, David took a lead on the planning for future passenger timetables, as well as the freight timetable associated with these changes. David also represented RSDO at a working group with freight stakeholders. Additionally, David was involved in the dynamic simulation and assessment of various infrastructure upgrades on the existing heavy rail network, for both passenger and freight services, as well as a statistical assessment of dwell and running times for passenger services for the purposes of increasing future operational robustness.

Brisbane, Australia

Responsible for developing efficient infrastructure and rail operations solutions across the network for future passenger and freight traffic, requiring detailed understanding of railway operations to ensure that capacity can be met in the most reliable and cost-effective manner. Activities that David had a significant involvement include:• Inner-city network capacity expansion, primarily the multi-billion dollar Cross River Rail project, where David's involvement has included future operation and sectorisation planning, rollingstock requirement definition, stabling requirements, new station layouts, operational modelling, connection to the existing network including operations during construction activity, and the EIS process.• Concept planning for new spur lines including the Moreton Bay Rail Link, Salisbury to Beaudesert line, and the Ripley Valley line. For each of these spur lines David developed operating plans showing the infrastructure requirements, stabling requirements, connections to the existing network ensuring that the new junctions are compatible with service plans over the next 40+ years, and station and termini layouts. David was also involved in visioning and risk workshops, and development of construction staging options.• Developing of a new stabling facility prioritisation programme, including identifying the financial and operational benefit gained by each of a suite of potential stabling locations, their indicative capacity, and the priority order in which they should be constructed. This is linked to the new rollingstock procurement program, in which I was involved in identifying the fleet size of the procurement lifecycle, taking into account the rate of delivery, the timetable requirements, and the rate at which old rollingstock can be retired. This work also included reviewing the project deed for the procurement, including the legal obligations that are imposed on the constituent parties.

Providing advice and guidance on the creation of the next-generation passenger timetable for the Brisbane metropolitan network. As part of this task David transferred capability in timetable creation in RailSys to the strategic scheduling group, facilitating the changeover from the Vizirail system. David also provided recommendations on strategic capacity planning, ensuring that future demand can be reliably met with the most prudent infrastructure investment possible. This includes track infrastructure, signalling requirements, and stabling needs.

Melbourne, Australia

David provided advice and analysis to a range of Australian operators and planning authorities, ranging from future capacity planning studies for metropolitan rail to a staged investment program for the Central Queensland coal networks. A highlight was providing policy advice on funding to Infrastructure Australia as part of the Building Australia fund in 2008.

Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria

Tutored first year and second year mathematics classes, specialising in Operations Research