Re: Rail privatizations.

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

Maurie Daly (mauried@tpg.com.au) wrote:
> ATN in TAS is the only example of rail winning back road freight that
> I know of and I left it out of the argument as its not mainland.

The best example on the mainland is FA, with NR, Austrac and LVR making
small contributions. There is also the example of TNT moving car transport
back to rail of its own accord.

In fact, truck drivers were protesting thet Tasrail was "unfairly" taking
away their business.

> The bottom line is that on the mainland ,rail cant win back much from
> road whilst road doesnt have to pay mass distance charges and rail
> does.

On the other hand, freight to Perth is carried overwhelmingly by rail.
The recent rises in diesel prices are certainly making rail more attractive.

> I also cant see why NRC should have lost any freight to other players
> as it has the most modern efficient loco fleet in the country and its
> creation was heavilly bankrolled by its 3 shareholders.

NR still has the inflexibility of being a big organisation. It's the
smaller operators who can easily identify and fill niche markets.

> On the main south which is where I live , the number of trains
> carryung containers and other contestable freight has actually fallen
> since the creation of NRC, with what used to be all NRC trains now
> being slowly replaced with FC,FA and Austrac trains , but no net
> increase in train numbers .

Don't compare the number of trains, compare the net tonnages and number of
vehicles. NR trains are a lot bigger than when they first started.

It's also worth remembering that there are always new customers in a
growing market, and existing customers are increasing the amount of
traffic. So while proportions might be relatively stable, the total amount
of traffic is increasing. The new operators are helping stop this new
traffic going entirely to road.

Cheers
David