Re: BHP nailed down to National tracks - "The Age" Article

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)]

mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly) wrote in aus.rail:

>This is a good article and it brings up a couple of interesting points.
>National Rail are yet to make a profit and are experiancing increased annual 
>losses.
>This is despite having a fleet of the most modern and fuel efficient locos in 
>the country.
>Also National Rail is now operating in accordance with worlds best practice 
>and achieving freight rates of 2.5 c per ntk , generally accepted as good as 
>you can get.
>Under these sorts of conditions NRC should be making respectable  profits,so 
>whats wrong.?
>One has to ask what would any private owner of NRC do differantly to change 
>things around.?
>
Easy, carry more freight.

Competition is really beginning to hot up between the various rail
operators. A better question might be asked as to how come Freightcorp
can haul Leigh Creek coal for, what? 1.0c ntk or thereabouts? Are they
are making a loss on each train load? They must be, yet they still
consider it worth their while and Freightcorp, I believe, do make a
profit on their operations.

Whilst carving up the total railway pie might mean that some carry
less and others carry more, what is really needed is a larger pie.
National Rail is now seriously competing against recently permitted
heavier axle-load road freight. Every tonne added to the road freight
axle-load takes freight away from rail and NatRail is more exposed to
road-freight competition than any other rail operator in the country.
Making a loss might actually be needed in the short term in order to
gain market share and political clout (crying foul can help) and force
governments to rethink their road transportation policies

I think that NatRail will eventually make a profit, but they will only
do so by attracting more freight to rail and that may be only when
they are privatised and totally divorced from the ministerial masters.
You can't bite the hand that feeds you.

Les Brown