Inland rail must feed the ports – not bypass them

There’s a big push from some sectors for the Government to allocate funding to inland rail in this year’s budget – but this is a massively expensive investment, originally estimated at $4.7 billion this has now blown out to $10 billion.  It must be done in stages and we need to get the focus and priorities right.

Priority one of inland rail must be to feed the ports efficiently

If rail can distribute and collect sea freight from our inland agricultural centres, mining areas and inland cities, Australia will be much more competitive with exports and reduce the cost of imports to consumers.

Talk about the last mile is ongoing in the logistics game but the last 30 miles of rail links to our main ports are tenuous at best and severely handicapped by prioritisation of passenger services over freight.

The recent UNCTAD Liner Shipping Connectivity index report (here) shows that Australia is now ranked 50^th (behind Ecuador and Ukraine and ahead of Tonga) and identifies policy responses of improving hinterland cargo connections and reducing cabotage limitations to improve efficiency.

So, let’s start by getting the ends right – separate freight lines to the ports from passenger lines, protect the urban rail corridors to ensure 24-hour freight operations and connect the rail lines right through to the dockside.

The port connections to the hinterland is where the priority for rail expenditure should be.  It would be a reckless waste of limited budget resources to focus on duplicating the already efficient movement of freight between major capital cities where there is ample capacity available through coastal shipping.

Before spending $10 billion on duplicating the freight connection between capital cities that already exists by sea, it makes good common sense to focus on upgrading rail connections to the ports.

Then take the anachronistic, legislative leash off coastal shipping and allow the international container ships already sailing these routes to carry domestic cargo even more efficiently.

One final point is that shipping is the most environmentally efficient means of long haul freight transport, four times more efficient than rail and 20 times more efficient than road.