Don't follow Victoria on grain lines, warns GrainCorp

GrainCorp managing director Tom Keene has warned the New South Wales Government against leasing out country grain rail lines to the private sector, saying that the Victorian experience has been “disastrous”.

NSW transport minister John Watkins is expected to issue an options paper shortly on management of 11 remaining grain lines. There have been fears the options include private leasing with control over train access. (See New Year EOIs to privatise suspended grain lines , Earthmover, December 2005.)

Keene told a NSW Farmers Association grains conference in Moree, that private leasing would replicate the system in Victoria, described by the Victorian transport minister Peter Bachelor as “unworkable,” with reform still continuing.

He said that Pacific National and its predecessor Freight Australia had used all their monopoly powers to block potential competition.

“Regardless of who manages the network, and who operates the trains, access to the track needs to be administered transparently and impartially by government,” he said. “We need a viable access regime which is not subject to commercial interests.”

Meanwhile the NSW Rail, Tram and Bus Union, has warned that the poor state of country track could be contributing to train axle problems, following NSW Country XPT passenger services being suspended when a broken axle was found on an XPT power car at Harden, NSW in early February.

Secretary Nick Lewocki said train drivers were imposing their own speed limits on the Sydney to Brisbane line due to the poor state of the tracks. “They say it is the worst they have seen,” he said.

He said the union was worried too that overloaded freight wagons were making the deterioration worse and contributing to wheel defects.

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Don't follow Victoria on grain lines, warns GrainCorp

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