Re: Hume (Canberra) freight terminal

[Don Allitt <nahgfa@zeta.org.au>]

I read in Digest or somewhere that RAC made a very large profit cant remember the figures but it
did occur to me at the time why was there a profit and at whose expence did they make it.Having
said that i also beleive that it should not show a loss.Don.

Maurie Daly wrote:

> In article <7oekba$mgg$1@the-fly.zip.com.au> "Andrew Honan" <ahonan@zipworld.com.au> writes:
> >From: "Andrew Honan" <ahonan@zipworld.com.au>
> >Subject: Re: Hume (Canberra) freight terminal
> >Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 22:23:05 +1000
>
> >I read the transcripts from Judy Stack et al in response to the Productivity
> >Commission's draft report on rail reform. This transcript was followed by
> >the CEO of FreightCorp. It made very interesting reading, and I would
> >commend it to anyone wanting to understand how track access charges are
> >meant to work. No doubt the transcripts will be released with the final
> >report.
>
> The real problem with RAC and no doubt all other State owned Track Access
> Operators is that they view the provision of Track Access as a business and
> not a public service which is what it really should be .
> RAC doesnt in any way consider the costs that competitors of rail namely road
> have to pay ,and therefore operate on the basis that trains are the only way
> of transporting goods , hence the charge what the market will bear approach.
> The fact that these charges mean operators operate at a loss when running
> trains in NSW is simply lost.
> The other problem is the manner in which RAC calculates its costs and assigns
> ist charges.
> Whilst RAC wont release any details of its charges ,there is anecdotal
> evidence of charges as high as 0.8 to 1 c/gtk for interstate freight
> operators.
> Compare this with charges like 0.27 c/gtk (ARTCs charges) or the estimate
> charge necessary to cover costs for the AustralAsia line (AP to Darwin) of
> 0.17c/gtk.
>
> The bottom line is that for whatever reasons RAC is charging way too much
> for Track Access in NSW,and the only fix is to abolish RAC.
>
> MD