Article: Trucks clog roads as trains flicked

[ozbob]

From the Daily Mercury click here!

Trucks clog roads as trains flicked

Trucks clog roads as trains flicked

Owen Jacques | 24th February 2009

The owner of Marian Convenience Store, Terry Hill, is worried about the effect up to 100 sugar-hauling trucks will have on the Marian township.

A DRAMATIC price increase by Queensland Rail has pushed Mackay Sugar onto the road but it will be the Marian township that will pay the premium.

Unable to afford the price hike, a jump of between 50 to 60 per cent, the company will employ sugar-hauling trucks to move the milled product to port.

Up to 100 of them.

Terry Hill, who owns the Marian Convenience Store, described the increase in trucks going through Marian as ?madness?.

?I think it?s just contrary to the whole Pioneer Valley,? Mr Hill said.

?And it becomes a taxpayer problem because the roads get destroyed.?

When the trucks leave Marian Mill, they will travel along Mackay-Eungella Road on the way to the Harbour.

On their return journey, the empty trucks will then use the Bruce Highway, turning into Marian-Hampden Road to return to the mill for their next load.

The trucks will be fully-laden when they travel past Marian State School.

?I?m not worried about personal noise,? Mr Hill said. ?But it?s only a matter of time before a truck runs into someone.?

Both Farleigh and Marian mills will be sending their sugar to Mackay Harbour by truck, which will have a flow-on effect on traffic on the Bruce Highway, Sams Road, Malcomson Street and Harbour Road.

Mackay Sugar chairman of directors Eddie Westcott defended the move, saying the company ?just could not afford? to use the rail lines because of how much QR wanted to charge.

He said while the company would much prefer to use the rail lines, they were now having to put between 80 and 100 trucks on the road in a ?continuous operation? to handle the sugar during the crushing season.

?It makes a lot more sense to use the railway lines but not if you can?t afford it,? Mr Westcott said.
?It?s not our decision and we have to look at this to stay in business.?

Mr Westcott said without Mackay Sugar?s business, the Mackay to Marian train line would go unused.

?That?s the only traffic on it,? he said.

A QR spokesperson did not address why the cost of the rail line had increased but said the tracks would remain for the moment.

?There are no plans to remove the track on the Mackay to Marian line,? the spokesperson said.

?In conjunction with Queensland Transport, we will evaluate this section of track, its alternate uses and the best long-term plan for the track.?

Madness ....

[Dean Quick]

Another traffic lost to road. It seems to me that the numbskulls at QR will only be happy when coal is the remaining traffic still on the rails and there are thousands more trucks on the road everyday. When will this sheer lunacy end ??