Article: Government still ignoring benefits of rail

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Rail Express -> Government still ignoring benefits of rail

By Mark Carter

It has been obvious for many years that rail has the most to offer when it comes to providing the best transport solutions with the potential to alleviate carbon emissions and improve our quality of life, but unfortunately the message still does not seem to be getting through to our politicians.
 
Last month, it was good to see the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) gain some valuable air-time and a platform to launch its report The True Value of Rail, commissioned Deloitte Access Economics, at the National Press Club.

The ARA says the report for the first time quantifies the economic, social and environmental benefits of rail investment – often referred to as "externalities" – and is urging governments across Australia to unlock the billions of dollars lost annually in economic productivity, urban congestion and traffic accidents by delivering greater investment in rail infrastructure.

In launching the report ARA chairman Lance Hockridge said, "The report provides a very telling commentary on the results of slow, sometimes misguided transport reform in this country over recent decades and this manifests itself not only in extra costs and lost production, but also in poorer outcomes for health, safety and liveability".

ARA chief executive Bryan Nye followed on by saying, "Since 1985, governments have invested more than $293bn on roads".

"Continuing our irresponsible spending on roads will lead us no-where. Governments must consider the true costs and benefits of each transport mode when making investment decisions and developing transport policies," Nye said.

While I feel the way some of the findings of the report have been oversimplified a tad too much for public consumption, this is but a minor quibble and the ARA is to be commended for again attempting to push rail in the spotlight, especially as the debate over carbon emissions ramps up.

The worrying thing though is that the rail industry has been saying these same things over and over for at least two decades now.

I'm sure if I went back and dug out some of the stuff I wrote 20 years ago for Rail 2000, it may not have been as eloquent or as detailed as The True Value of Rail, but the general gist of what we were trying to get across would have been the same.

Through the ARA, the rail industry has gained a much higher profile, more of a presence in Canberra and is certainly listened to a great deal more than we were back in the Rail 2000 days, but it has to be asked, "Are our politicians any the wiser?"   

Unfortunately it would appear not, for just a fortnight after the release of The True Value of Rail, the ARA was forced to issue a communiqu highlighting the range of inequities imposed upon rail by the Federal Government's carbon pricing plan, Securing a Clean Energy Future.

The key areas of concern for the ARA are:

•    The transitory exemption of heavy road vehicles from the carbon price mechanism without similar exemption for rail operators.

•    The exemption of foreign shipping from the carbon price.

•    The exemption of petrol from a carbon price, without similar exemptions for public transport.

•    The limited access for rail entities to the various clean energy and energy efficiency funds.

Now some would argue that the need to take the government to task over these points is just part of a fine tuning process that precedes most policy releases; the jostling and stakeholder engagement that always seems to be part of the endgame.

Unfortunately this time around I don't think that's the case.

I suggest you take a moment to go back and read again the four dot points that I've listed.

Let's face it, if you were a government and you were casting around for some non-controversial, low cost options that clearly demonstrated your commitment to reducing emissions and combating climate change, surely all four of those would qualify hands down as part of your policy?

The message just doesn't seem to be getting through to our elected representatives, though it has not been for the want of trying and who still think giving trucks a free ride will solve everything.

Quoted in last week's Rail Express, ARA chief economist Ash Salardini said the draft policy would see containerised freight lose about 5% of its market share.

Salardini said the ARA was not asking for Australia's entire rail industry to be exempt, but it was advocating for rail to be exempt where rail and road competed in the same market.

"A carbon price would only have a marginal impact on what rail operators could do in terms of reducing emissions in the short-medium term and would adversely impact on rail's operational costs," he said.

Salardini said under the government's carbon price package, Australia could also expect to see an increase in transport emissions and public transport fares.

"The carbon price was an issue raised by most states at COAG's recent meeting, with some governments requesting the Federal Government provide further compensation because of the carbon price's effect on public transport, however, the Government did not appear to agree," he said.

One can only hope that eventually common senses prevails and that the Federal Government can shake itself out of its malaise, but the very fact that they have prepared a policy that is supposed to reduce emissions, but will actually result in a movement of freight from rail to road, and commuters off their trains and into the cars, really does really beggar belief.