Debate over rail versus road ignites ... again

By Jennifer Perry

ATA chief execuitve Stuart St Clair made the comments in a statement issues last Wednesday, the same day that the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) launched its True Value of Rail report at the National Press Club in Canberra (see related story).

St Clair made comments that Australia’s freight locomotives were on average, 36-years-old, with some using diesel engines up to 40-years-old.

“Railway locomotives are not subject to emission controls. As a result, a typical locomotive emits more pollution than 140 new trucks. Older locomotives are worse,” the ATA’s statement said.

The ARA was quick to rebut the claims in its own statement issued on the same day which said the ATA had used statistics from the ARA website in an attempt to discredit rail’s environmental performance. The information used by the ATA was  part of a rail proposal to address regional rail freight issues.

Nye acknowledged that the average age of general freight trains is 36-years-old however, he said these trains moved only a “small percentage of freight”.

While the rail industry agrees with the ATA that some areas, especially regional freight services, suffered from an ageing locomotive fleet, Nye said the ATA had conflated issues around CO2 emissions with other forms of air pollution.

“Most concerning, the ATA has disingenuously tried to use ARA statistics, that mainly apply to regional services, to discredit the entire rail industry,” he said.

“The majority of Australian rail freight locomotives meet most European and North American standards on air quality and emissions.

“These locomotives produce two to three times less CO2 than heavy road vehicles. For bulk freight such as coal, rail is up to 10 times more emissions friendly than road."

St Clair said that since 1995, the trucking industry had been subject to increasingly tight pollution controls, with all new trucks now having to meet the “incredibly tough Euro V standard”.

“In contrast, there are no emissions controls on railway locomotives, even though these controls were discussed in a National Transport Commission scoping paper in 2004,” he said.

“A conservative estimate is that a typical Australian railway locomotive puts out more pollution than 140 new trucks. The oldest locomotives are even dirtier; the figure could be in the thousands.”

St Clair went on to compare Australia’s 40-year-old locomotive engines with leading edge technology used in the US, and claimed Australia’s locomotives used more than six times the level of carbon monoxide; about four times the level of particulates; double the nitrogen oxides; and 20-30% more carbon dioxide.

Nye said the rail industry agreed with the ATA that air pollution issues with older trains on Australia’s network needed addressing and had been “open” about its regional freight environmental challenges and had sought assistance from the Federal Government to repower and replace old locomotives.

“Regional rail services run for community obligations providing access and amenity for regional Australia. These services often run at a loss. There is no commercial incentive for operators to replace these locomotives. This is why the rail industry has developed its government-industry proposal to replace and repower older locomotives,” he said.

However, he maintained that "the full picture" was needed if the environmental and social benefits of road and rail were going to be compared and said the ARA's release of the True Value of Rail report provided a sound basis to weigh up the environmental and social benefits of transport in Australia.

“I am more than happy to participate in a public debate with the ATA on any environmental or social issues relating to transport,” Nye said.