2002

<p>Western Australian rail executives will form a working group to solve the employment and training issues facing the state’s rail industry.</p> <p>The group will consist of rail operators, associated industries and businesses, government representatives and the unions. </p> <p>It will meet to focus on the needs of an industry that is predicted to grow massively &#8211 a 50% rise in freight task by 2020.</p> <p>To meet that growth, the group wants to train and develop local talent in an industry where there is already a global shortage of skilled workers. </p> <br />

<p>The Commonwealth Government’s $870m package for New South Wales interstate rail infrastructure is "not fully funded", the Railway Technical Society of Australia has said.</p> <p>The RTSA has requested that prime minister John Howard support a "Keating-like" package of $450m of funding to complete patch-up measures plus major track straightening.</p> <p>On the $870m package offered in June 2002, which is yet to receive a response from the NSW State Government, the RTSA said: "The commonwealth budget only provides around $110m of the $870m required for the basic track pack. </p> <p>"The balance is from train operators and loans.</p> <p>"While the package is understood to contain essential measures to speed up freight trains between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, it is not fully funded and it does not include any major track straightening."</p> <p>RTSA spokesman Philip Laird said the Keating Government’s 1994&#4795 $450m package had helped rail win 80% of interstate freight to Perth through patch-up work on the Melbourne Adelaide corridor. </p> <p>Dr Laird said an Australian Rail Track Corporation’s audit calculated that failure to upgrade the track will lead to an extra 110,000 extra truck movements a year along the corridor.</p> <p>The society has written to both the Commonwealth and NSW state governments requesting that they work harder on reaching agreement on the management of the interstate rail track.</p> <br />

<p>Tranz Rail is reassuring investors that heat restrictions on its lines will not affect the company’s financial prospects.</p> <p>The rail operator is attempting to remedy hundreds of kilometres of track as a result of the continuous welding program carried out under government ownership from 1975.</p> <p>The welding program was not high-standard and took place without de-stressing of the track, Tranz Rail said.</p> <p>Since 1994, the company has carried out de-stressing work and remedial work on more than 800 km of track.</p> <p>But Tranz Rail said it rejects the "alarmist views" about the impact of heat buckling.</p> <p>"Since 1994, there have been no injuries to passengers as a result of heat buckling on the track," the company said. </p> <br />

<p>Freight Australia will lay-off 134 employees in the face of continuing poor forecasts for drought stricken grain crops.</p> <p>Marinus van Onselen, chief executive of Freight Australia said the company will reduce its Victorian staff by 20%.</p> <p>"This is very bad news and it’s entirely related to the fact there is no rain," Mr van Onselen said.</p> <p>"The practical reality is that 80% of our business is grain-related and we have to adjust our operations accordingly."</p> <p>The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (Abare) crop report last week forecast summer crop production will plummet by 59% to under 2m tonnes.</p> <p>This follows a winter crop already regarded as one of the worst on record.</p> <p>Mr van Onselen said although Freight Australia’s grain income is likely to drop to $35m this year (from $90m last year), the company remained optimistic.</p> <p> "Having said all that, it will rain again. It’s just a case of batten down the hatches for a year," he said.</p> <p>"You can run a very efficient business, and I believe we do, but one thing you can’t do is make it rain."</p> <p>History showed that a drought year was often followed by a boom year and farmers would "probably plant twice the acreage, Mr van Onselen said ".</p> <p>Freight Australia will be required to have the capacity to handle such a boom.</p> <p>Unfortunately, during a drought, this rolling stock and people were unemployed, something not always recognised by the market place, he said. </p> <p>Freight Australia is already decreasing its dependence on grain crops and its recent success in winning a New South Wales Shell petroleum contract an example of the steps it is taking.</p> <p>"We have broadened our business base both geographically and in terms of other non-grain-related product," Mr van Onselen said.</p> <p>"We have been working on that for three years." </p> <br />