VicTrack, Australia

VicTrack Shares Spatial Property Information Online

The Challenge:
In the state of Victoria, Australia, a change of government policy saw that passenger and rail freight transport services would be delivered using private companies. As the owner of the majority of Victoria’s rail infrastructure, VicTrack faced the challenge of sharing its extensive property spatial database of the rail land - approx 5,000km – with multiple stakeholders including private companies, government agencies and others.

Information in this database included land leased to customers, many for non-related rail operations. It also included information on the location of licences for utility companies to install services on or across the rail land; other information included the location of rail
tracks, platforms and buildings.

This property database was also used in the privatisation process to define the land that would be leased to the various rail operators. Today this database tracks amendments to the boundaries of these leases due to rail infrastructure improvements and rail land
developments. VicTrack required a solution to disseminate this information easily and without imposing a demand on resources.

The Project Objectives:
To implement a Web-based solution to share information from VicTrack’s property spatial database with multiple stakeholders.

The Solution:
RailMap: An online resource that provides spatial information on leases and utilities that lie within the boundaries of 5,000km of VicTrack’s rail land.

The Background:
VicTrack selected a solution from Intergraph using GeoMedia Professional and GeoMedia WebMap with an Oracle database. The solution required two separate environments to reduce the security risk to VicTrack’s internal systems posed by the Internet. An internal environment interfaces to VicTrack’s other property systems such as the Lease Management system, Service Crossings system, and Land Tenure system. This is also where geospatial technology users edit spatial data using GeoMedia Professional. The second environment uses GeoMedia WebMap and Oracle to provide the GIS Internet application ‘RailMap’. Data from the internal systems is published to the RailMap database each night.

RailMap requires user account authorization to identify the individual user. The system then provides access to selected map and property information appropriate to the user’s role and in accordance with privacy legislation.

In an environment where government agencies, private rail operators and their supporting contractors all perform a role in the delivery of rail passenger and freight services, the demand for information has escalated dramatically. RailMap has been a timely development that enables VicTrack to meet these demands.

Future Plans:
VicTrack will consider extending RailMap’s information content to improve the delivery of VicTrack projects and services to customers.

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