Re: National Rail Corp

["Grahame Ferguson" <grahamef@users.mcmedia.com.au>]

The point that we are all missing is that the creation of the NRC was
supposed to be the start of seamless, one stop shop for rail freight to
effectively and collectively to compete with road transport.  Instead we now
have a mongrel hybrid of a national rail system.

The NRC are in competition with other rail operators.   They do not own any
rail lines.  For them to operate a train from Sydney to Perth, they have to
negotiate with 3 Rail Access Authorities, and has to comply to 3 different
Accreditation authorities.  Hardly an integrated system designed to beat
road transport.

In Victoria we have the Department of Infrastructure, responsible for rail
safety accreditation.  Victrack the owners and operators of the track.
Freight Victoria who have a lease on their rail infrastructure, and are
resposible to maintain it.  National Express who run the country passenger
trains, half the suburban trains, and half the Trams.  Hillside Trains who
run the other half of the suburban rail network.   Confused??    Victoria is
home to the mongrel hybrid.

Governments are trying to promote competition.  But the bottom line is that
Rail is competing against itself.  The Road Transport Lobby must have been
the policy makers for the Federal and Victorian Governments.  The Road's
competition (the Railways) has been reduced to an unco-ordinated
self-destructing industry.

If Rail Freight is to survive it must be run by one or two major players.
If Queensland Railways bought the NRC, well at last they will be backed by
pro-railway management who run an integrated railway. If FreightCorp bought
it, then it would have a railway with assets and experience, and then it
would have reduced competition by buying it , not by eliminating each other
through bunkruptcy.

Its true that all Governments stand accussed, and the slack stagnant
attitude of past State Railway Bureaucracies, dug railways into a very deep
pit.  But the new counter measures are counter productive and destructive.

We have taken an unprooved model from the British at our peril.   In the US,
Freight Railroads own the tracks that they run on.  Mega - Mergers are the
trend in the US, not downsizing, and they are doing this to increase their
profits, and fight the common enemy - The Truck.

Passenger Railroads are Government subsidised, as they provide a low
pollution efficient mode of transporting the masses.  US cities are now
rebuilding their urban railroads, reversing a 40 year trend.  As we are 20
years behind in the trend.  We still build Freeways as the answer to our
transport problems.  Who would want to be an asthmatic in Los Angeles today,
or Melbourne in 20 years.

For National Rail to be a force in transport, it has to own and control the
tracks over which it does its business.

Imagine what would have happened if the NRC had of been given ownership and
control of its tracks.  Imagine further if the NRC board had head hunted
overseas for someone like Ed Burkhart as its first CEO.  But I don't want to
think of, is its probable politically expedient sell off, left to uneven
market forces.  Would any of the NRC sale money be directed to new
interstate trackwork?- Fat chance!!

In the end, the question we must all ask, is possibly how, can the array of
non-integrated large and small Rail operators, who face a wall of access and
accreditation bureaucracies ever survive in a limited market, especially
when road has had all the advantages.


Regards, GF.