6 APRIL 1998
This Information Bulletin is to advise all Tasrail employees that today ATN
has signed an Agreement to purchase the rail section of Emu Bay Railway
(EBR) for 7.8 million.
,The purchase will be completed in about a month, subject to the
satisfactory verification of a number of issues.
THE BUSINESS
EBR transports concentrates from the Pasminco Rosebery mine, Aberfoyle's
Hellyer mine and CMT's copper mine at Queenstown to a tippler and storage
facility at Burnie for subsequent shipment to Risdon.
TRACK
EBR's track covers 134 kilometres and travels over some extremely
mountainous terrain. It is approximately 70% steel sleepered and contains
many large bridges constructed of permanent materials. The track is in
similar condition to Tasrail but, unlike our track it is almost continuously
jointed.
ROLLINGSTOCK
The vacuum braked rollingstock consists of 1 1 mainiine locomotives (700 hp
bo-bo diesel mechanical units), 2 shunting locomotives and 79 ore carrying
concentrate wagons.
OPERATIONS
The Ab-ifoyle Hellyer mine is serviced twice per day, five days a week. The
Pasminco Rosebery mine is serviced once daily, Monday to Friday. The CMT
mine is serviced three times a week through a transloading site at Melba
Flats.
All trains are operated on a DOO basis.
LOCOMOTIVE SERVICING
A locomotive maintenance and servicing facility exists at Burnie. This
facility will be contracted to Tasrail from Pasminco for a period of 3
months after which we will offer permanent employment to 5 employees.
FABRICATION & ENGINEERING
A fabrication and engineering shops also exists at Burnie. Pasminco will
retain ownership of this business.
THE STAFF
Tasrail will offer employment to those existing EBR rail operating staff it
requires to run the railway after purchase under the same conditions and
remuneration as currently applies in Tasrail including Australian Workplace
Agreements. Those staff who do not wish to accept employment in Tasrail
will be made redundant by EBR.
The staff of EBR will go through a similar appointment process as used to
fill the vacancies in Tasrail except that due to very tight time constraints
the positions will .not be advertised externally. Tasrail managers and
supervisors will conduct the interviews of interested staff to ensure they
meet our required standards.
If insufficient EBR staff accept our offer of employment, existing fixed
term employees of Tasrail will be considered for any vacancies.
As you will know from your own recent experience the next two weeks will be
filled with uncertainty for the employees of EBR. Tasrail will do its best
to make the transition of those employees to Tasrail as smooth as possible.
THE FUTURE
Today, with the purchase of EBR, Tasrail continues to strengthen and build
upon its reputation as a force to be reckoned with in the Tasmanian and
Australian transport industry.
This reputation, with your assistance, will continue to grow.
David Crispin
General Manager ATN Tasrail