Port Botany reform to lift rail productivity – Part One

By Kazi Dolezal

With container trade through Port Botany growing at an average rate of around 6.5 per cent per annum over the past 25 years and 22 .2 per cent in the last three years, and an expected container trade of over 3 million by around 2020, Sydney Ports and the NSW government have initiated an objective to lift movements of containers by rail from 20 to 40 per cent to cater for the increasing needs of existing and future expanding Sydney trade.
In 2008, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) identified the need to improve landside supply chain networks servicing Port Botany in order for this and other objectives to be met.
IPART’s Reforming Port Botany’s Links report highlighted congestion and lack of transport as the major obstacles to improving efficiency and port-related supply chain performance within the industry.
Sydney Ports Corporation executive general manager industry relations, Lachlan Benson, said the report recommended removing bottlenecks on the shared CityRail freight/passenger rail network by providing more freight train paths during passenger peak times and improving the speed at which trains were stripped and reloaded at the stevedore terminals within rail ‘window’ times.
IPART’s report also identified a lack of transparency and perceived fairness in road access arrangements and an absence of performance requirements and disciplining effect of incentives or profits between stevedores and road operators.
It included a recommendation that the NSW government facilitate the implementation of rail reforms, modeled on a Hunter Valley Coal Chain management structure and the introduction of performance management measures for rail to improve efficiency, consistency and transparency.
In response to the report, Sydney Ports is working with industry to improve landside supply chain networks servicing Port Botany through reform known as the Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS).
“PBLIS targets 40 per cent rail modal share as outlined within the NSW Government’s response to the IPART report. Additionally a Port Botany Rail Team (PBRT) has been established, modeled upon the purportedly successful Hunter Valley Coal Chain Logistics Team,” Benson said.
Key PBRT strategic recommendations for improving current rail inefficiencies include: the creation of a performance reporting regime to aid supply chain transparency; on-time running-reliability measures and Stevedore Lift Rates; productivity measures; alignment of rail paths and stevedore windows to improve rail efficiency; and work toward standardisation of train and terminal siding lengths in order to accommodate dedicated, 600 metre port shuttles for optimal supply chain efficiency.
Benson said that PBLIS is working alongside a number of infrastructure improvements including Australian Rail and Track Corporation’s Botany Yard upgrade works and funding of further dedicated freight access across the Sydney passenger network, including the current Southern Sydney Freight Line.
“PBLIS is developing an overarching Supply Chain Improvement Strategy that targets key learnings observed from current performance. Moreover, PBLIS is active in the development of Business Rules and enhanced KPIs for the Port Botany rail supply chain to guide success in this regard,” he said.
“PBLIS initially plans to improve rail performance on a voluntary basis whereby Sydney Ports acts as both facilitator and leader. Failure to achieve intended results would then give rise to ministerial delegation of enforcement provisions via regulation.
"Sydney Ports would then be able to mandate performance benchmarks to achieve desired outcomes. This follows the two-phased approach represented within the NSW Government response to the IPART report.”

For Part Two of this story see next week’s Rail Express

For more information visit the Landside Improvement section at: www.sydneyports.com.au