Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged to help the Western Australian Government to buy back the state’s freight rail network if Labor wins the upcoming election.
Albanese said the Federal Government would fund a $2.5 million feasibility study into WA Labor’s plan to regain control over thousands of kilometres of freight rail lines.
The freight rail network was privatised in 2000, and the WA Government said this has resulted in some key freight lines being closed and a significant amount of freight being transported by trucks instead.
With key Western Australian industries growing significantly in recent years, particularly due to record grain harvests and new mining developments, the demands on the network are now at all-time highs.
Before the state election, WA Labor announced it would commence negotiations with the network’s owner, Arc Infrastructure, to bring freight rail back into government hands.
Speaking to the media in Perth on Thursday morning, Albanese said farmers and the WA economy “can’t afford” to wait until the end of Arc Infrastructure’s lease, which doesn’t expire until 2050.
“We’re prepared to take direct control of those parts of the network that the Liberals privatised, including the Eastern Goldfields Railway,” he said.
He added that part of the feasibility study Labor would fund would look at how the WA freight network could be integrated with the national rail network, which the party suggested could be achieved by the Commonwealth taking control of the rail line between Fremantle and Kalgoorlie.
