Re: Truck Dispute

[mdaly1@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <xECZ4.14$pz4.401556@news0.optus.net.au> dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage) writes:
>From: dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)
>Subject: Re: Truck Dispute
>Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 23:49:49 GMT

>Lloyd Hutcheon (lchutch@norcom.net.au) wrote:
>> Apparently 75 to 80% of freight to and from Perth across the Nullarbor is
>> carted by rail mostly containers and this has come from a truckie I spoke
>> to. Much of it handled by National Rail with the rest shared with TOLLS/ TNT
>> and SCT.

>And much of it is only heading in one direction - west.

>Cheers
>David


This is the most current table I can find which details the road / rail share 
problem.
It was generated by one of the consultants to the AP - Darwin project when the 
project was initially mooted.

Table 1:  1994/95 Estimates of Road and Rail Market Shares Selected Corridors 

Corridor			Distance (km)	Tonnage (000's)	Rail Share
	  		Road	Rail	Road	Rail	
Brisbane-Sydney		972	999	2026	1494	42%
Brisbane-Melbourne	1,570	1,932	1326	351	21%
Sydney-Melbourne		887	933	5472	1619	23%
Sydney-Perth		3,423	3,947	176	359	67%
Melbourne-Adelaide	726	826	2352	1457	38%
Melbourne-Perth		3,467	3,487	298	698	70%
Adelaide-Perth		2,706	2,661	156	612	80%
Source: NTPT, BTCE (1996)


Quoting rails share in percentage terms might sound good ,but the only real 
way to quote such statistics is in tonnage,after all its tonnage that 
generated revenue not percentage.
In percentage terms rail is doing well on the east - west corridor, ie Melb - 
Perth,Adelaide - Perth and Sydney - Perth.
But in tonnage terms these corridors carry very little tonnage,612000,698000 
and 359000  tonnes PA.
Davis right too about the assymetry of the east - west corridor,the truckies 
dont like it due to the lack of eastbound loading.
The absolute killer for rail from the above is by far Sydney - Melb where rail 
is so far behind road that its a joke.
The Sydney - Melb rail line has in carrying terms the highest capacity of any 
of the interstate lines due to a substantial portion of it being double 
track,but is the least used..

Its also estimated that when the Pacific Highway is duplicated between Sydney 
and Brisbane that rails share on this corridor will fall to that of Sydney 
- Melb.
Its also not coincidental that all of the rail corridors that have in tonnage 
terms the poorest share of the road rail market all go thru one particular 
state, (NSW).
Something to do with access regimes perhaps.


MD