Tassie rail facing its moment of truth

By John Satterley

A Pacific National Tasmania (PNT) freight train had derailed as it passed through the station – a dramatic way to back up what the Greens had been saying about the rail problem.
At the time of writing, (mid June) and five weeks after another main line derailment, there was still no rail connection between Hobart and the north of the state. Toby Rowallan, spokesperson for lobby group Future Transport Tasmania, describes the rail situation as dire.
For starters, no section of the rail network is used for commuter traffic – the last commuter service in Hobart closed in late 1974 when the Whitlam government took ownership of the Tasmanian Government Railways.
Absolution
The move was to absolve states from having to finance railway deficits by creating Australian National Railways (ANR) and folding into that the old Commonwealth Railways and the Tasmanian and South Australian systems.
Tasmania’s rail network carries a share of intermodal (container) traffic because of the poor quality and age of the infrastructure this is small. And now Asciano, which owns PNT the rail operator, wants to withdraw but is unable to find a buyer for its operations and equipment.  This has forced the state government to get involved. 
Infrastructure Minister Graeme Sturges says the government will not allow the system to close. The government is stepping in with a $122m upgrade program, the first $20m being spent on replacing 20km of line (and 140,000 sleepers).
19th century lines
Rowallan says the network’s biggest disadvantages are that it is a 19th century railway line competing with a 20th century highway, and has a locomotive fleet with an average age of 39 years.
“No new locomotives have been purchased for Tasrail since 1976,” he adds. “It is no wonder that they are struggling to compete with prime movers that would not be more than 10 years old, if that.”
When the ANR took ownership in 1975, and operational control in 1978, it inherited   a large number of cheap freight contracts, some 1100 employees and a fleet of mostly old and low-powered locomotives. More than half were the first type of diesels purchased in 1950.
ANR cut employee numbers by more than half, and shuffled locomotives from SA to improve the quality of the loco fleet. A large number of ex-Queensland Rail (QR) English Electric locomotives were purchased secondhand.
New cabs
Under a rebuild program begun in 1996 two locomotives of the ex-QR ZB class were equipped with new cabs and traction control systems which had been standard on new locomotives built since the early 1980s on the mainland.
Shortly thereafter the new Howard government announced privatisation plans, and ANR was put up for sale. The Tasrail portion was sold to Australian Transport Network (ATN) for $22m, including the track but not ownership of the land. 
It was during that time that the last remaining private line, the Emu Bay Railway, was bought. Today, known as the Melba line, it is the most profitable on the island because of its minerals traffic.
Before selling its operations to PNT in 2004, ATN introduced more secondhand locomotives (17 in total). However, PNT hasn’t matched ATN’s initial investments and has steadily lost traffic. It had agreed to maintain operations for 12 months while the state government assists in finding a buyer. However on June 10 PNT announced it would cease operations on June 30 2009.
Even though the track upgrade program is underway, the state government now has the ultimate decision – does it want rail in Tasmania or not? If so, it has no choice but to take it over. But then it will have the unenviable task of making it work.