The rail freight industry has a crucial role to play in meeting Australia’s freight task, but according to data, the sector is under-utilised.
On the country’s busiest freight corridor from Sydney to Melbourne, rail accounts for just two percent of inter-capital freight, claiming eleven percent in the Eastern Seaboard, and 28 percent between Melbourne and Brisbane – the service area for Inland Rail.
According to the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), a ten per cent mode shift from road to rail between Australia’s major cities, would improve health, safety, and emissions, equating to $700 million in social benefits each year.
Government support
The Australian government acknowledges that rail is a critical part of the future economy and has committed over $155 billion to the industry over the next fifteen years.
The 2024-2025 federal budget included $100 million to replace rail in Western Australia, $150 million for track rehabilitation in New South Wales, and a variety of other major projects.
Additionally, the government has a four-year reform program to improve rail’s competitiveness and efficiency. This includes aligning train control and signalling technology, reducing the regulatory burden on the rail workforce, and streamlining rolling stock approval processes.
However, with trucks still dominating the freight market, thought leaders are exploring other ways to increase rail’s share, and see it do more of the heavy lifting in Australia’s freight task.
Manifest versus unit trains
Anna Dartnell Group Executive Bulk at Aurizon is one of them; and says that with commodity markets changing, we may need to re-imagine the role of rail freight.
“The future of rail might not be solely unit trains,” she said, ahead of the Heavy Haul Conference. “Because what we are seeing almost uniformly across the evolving commodity market is a lot of lower volume, higher value products coming in, particularly from the Australian minerals market.
“These commodities are emerging alongside iron ore and coal haulage – our biggest, heaviest products that have long demanded unit trains. They also tend to have higher input requirements for the mining and processing.
“So if we think about how we are going to get more freight on rail, it is unlikely to be one product trains, hauling between point A and B.”
Instead, Ms Dartnell says the industry sweet spot will be about threading products together, meaningfully, and building a fit-for-purpose network, with rail as the critical connector, and roads as the extender.
“The trick will be looking at the nodes on the Australian map, where you see products needing to go in and out, aggregating that demand, and creating really robust rail networks, with strong manifest trains operating through critical corridors. These should give road the opportunity to extend supply chains from a core backbone of rail in and across the country,” she said.
To illustrate her point, Ms Dartnell turns to the Australian mining industry.
“I often think about those key mining corridors that are scattered through the country. You have a variety of inputs into that product that all need to get to a location. Then you have the mined outputs that need to get to a port.
Lots of products in low volumes.
“For this, you need a service offering in which one train delivers a variety of aggregated freight, to a variety of customers – instead of multiple trucking solutions. This is definitely something we’re seeing a stronger bias towards in terms of customer appetite for rail,” she said.
Making rail easier to use
Ms Dartnell says measures to improve connectivity between the road and rail interface will make it easier to use freight in this way.
“It’s not about saying one mode needs to win over the other, it’s about looking at the role we want each mode of transport to play in Australia’s supply chains, and getting them to work harmoniously together.”
Efforts to improve the climate resilience of rail will also help, she says, making rail a safer choice for the country’s freight task.
“Network resilience is a really critical component. You need to be able to rely on the infrastructure that can support the work we want rail to do within Australian freight networks.”
With all of these building blocks in place, Ms Dartnell says awareness building is the final piece.
“Getting people to think about the cost of road use – in terms of maintaining the road networks and the social implications. The impact of trucks passing through towns or creating congestion in and around ports, for example.”
Opening up the debate
Sharing more expert views on this topic, Anna Dartnell will present at the upcoming Heavy Haul Rail Conference, held on 26-27 March at the Crown Perth.
Conversations this year will focus on developments and innovations in maintenance & asset management, technology, safety, and operations.
Heavy Haul Rail 2025 will be co-located Rail Turnouts and Rail Signalling – both on March 25. Take advantage of our exclusive 20 percent discount offer to attend both Heavy Haul Rail and either Rail Turnouts or Rail Signalling. Further discounts are available to those who qualify for the Young Rail Professionals rate.
Register your tickets at Heavy Haul Rail here.