Rail upgrade cuts freight costs, pollutionFont Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent | June 04, 2009 Article from: The Australian TRANSPORTING freight by rail is about to become much more cost-effective with a $2.6 billion upgrade of east coast freight lines slashing travel times between Sydney and Brisbane by as much as two hours.
Similar time gains will be delivered on the Sydney to Melbourne route early next year, entrenching rail as a cheaper means of hauling freight than trucks and, in the process, greatly reducing carbon emissions.
The taxpayer-owned Australian Rail Track Corporation is about to announce new timetables for its Brisbane to Sydney route, with chief executive David Marchant predicting the changes will trigger a major upsurge in rail use.
Mr Marchant told The Australian it was 10 per cent cheaper to carry a tonne of freight by rail, door to door, "given fuel prices and the rest".
"Rail is five times less carbon-emitting from fuel than road," he said. "Not only is it marginally cheaper to now take a tonne by rail, it's actually more environmentally friendly." Upgrading of the lines linking Melbourne to Brisbane via Sydney began five years ago.
Mr Marchant said the first stage was complete, with work on bridges, changed track angles, passing loops and signalling systems set to reduce the run time for a train travelling from Morandoo, near Newcastle in NSW, to Acacia Ridge in Brisbane by two hours, 22 minutes, to 17 hours, 34 minutes.
The work will slash fuel use by 750,000 litres a year, reducing carbon emissions by more than two million kilograms a year.
Work on the Sydney to Melbourne lines will be completed by the end of the year, with further work around the southern suburbs of Sydney set to be completed early next year. This will culminate in new timetables for the southern route to be released in April, with similar reductions in travel times to those achieved on the northern line.
Mr Marchant said that while rail was already more cost-competitive than road travel on most routes along the east coast, the reality was that the nation's freight task would more than double in coming decades, meaning both modes of haulage would face greater demand.
Although the project was started by the Howard government, the Rudd's Government's December economic stimulus package included more than $500million to augment the works, particularly in replacing old wooden rail sleepers with concrete sleepers. Demand created by the projects prompted concrete sleeper factories at Grafton, Wagga Wagga and Geelong to each hire 60 new staff.
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