Article: Rail is back on track

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Rail is back on track

Rail is back on track

    Anthony Albanese
    From: The Australian
    May 06, 2011 12:00AM

GEOFF Thomas has a big job. As general manager of logistics for Woolworths, he and his team need to make sure the tub of yoghurt you collect from your local store is fresh, undamaged and makes it into your shopping trolley in the fastest time possible from cow to shelf. It is the complex art of logistics and central to every decision is whether to use road or rail.

For a long time, there was no contest. Though rail was the mode of choice for some long-distance runs between, say, Brisbane and Cairns, on the busy Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane route rail was simply too slow, too unreliable. In fact, in 2007 Woolworths stopped using rail on that route altogether. It was more reliable and quicker to send everything along our highways by truck.

Four years later, our nation's largest supermarket chain is considering changing its mind. According to Thomas, sometime later next year Woolworths is looking to switch to rail to carry the 2000 tonnes of goods that are moved north each week from Melbourne to Brisbane and the smaller quantity coming the other way.

It is not a decision that Woolworths can take lightly. There is the cost of new rail containers, as well as new systems, new staff to manage those systems and the development of a relationship with the new rail carrier. And while cost is the main driver, Thomas says Woolworths recognises that rail transport is safer and has a lower carbon output than road so the switch offers the opportunity to shore up its credentials as a good corporate citizen.

That the nation's largest supermarket chain is considering such a monumental change is possible only because of the federal government's economic stimulus plan, introduced just more than two years ago to counter the effects of the world economic crisis.

The plan fast-tracked 17 key rail projects, accelerated work on 14 big road projects and improved the safety at hundreds of black spots and dangerous rail crossings. We have invested more in rail during the past 12 months than our predecessors did in 12 years. Among these projects were much needed improvements to the Brisbane to Melbourne freight line.

Extended crossing loops, new signalling systems and the removal of severe curves are part of a $3.4 billion investment by the Gillard government in interstate rail. This is helping the Australian Rail Track Corp upgrade the north-south line that will see 11 hours shaved off the trip, reducing the earlier travel time by one-third.

Making rail attractive to companies such as Woolworths makes great sense. One 1500m train can carry the load of 100 semi-trailer trucks. Woolworths alone has 160 B-double trucks on the Melbourne to Brisbane route. Carrying those loads via rail leaves our roads safer and less congested for motorists and reduces our carbon footprint.

The stimulus plan has worked. We have saved jobs. We have helped parents continue the job of raising their families with a sense of confidence that they weren't about to lose their livelihoods. Our unemployment rate is less than half that of most industrialised countries. While the advanced world has shed 30 million jobs, there are 740,000 more Australians in work than before the financial crisis began.

We have doubled the national roads budget to more than $27bn. Two of the big road projects are now open to traffic. One of those is the $564 million Northern Expressway in South Australia, which opened in August last year, three months ahead of schedule. Drivers can now save up to 20 minutes in travel times to and from Adelaide.

The jobs created to support this activity are considerable. Just one example: manufacturing 1.2 million concrete rail sleepers has given work to factories in five towns in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia. This has employed hundreds of workers with flow-on effects right throughout their communities.

We have accelerated the black-spot program targeting 600 dangerous sections on our roads with a further $150m to improve safety at 300 rail level crossings. This sensible investment saves lives by making our roadways and crossings safer for everyone.

Figures just out by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics show some impressive results. Average infrastructure construction between 2007-08 and 2009-10 was almost double the average over the previous 11 years in real terms, from $28bn a year to $54bn a year.

There is nothing new here. Nation building is what Labor governments do. The Snowy Mountains Scheme, the transcontinental railway and today's National Broadband Network are three fine examples of Labor nation building programs that protect the livelihoods of Australian workers while providing a legacy for generations that follow.

Anthony Albanese is the federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister.