AusRAIL, Freight Rail, Passenger Rail

AusRAIL: ARA launches Deloitte paper on Value of Rail

New ARA CEO Danny Broad. Photo: Shutterstock / ARA

The rail industry contributes 1.6% of Australia’s GDP, injecting $26 billion into the economy per annum, according to a new Deloitte report commissioned by the Australasian Railway Association.

ARA boss Danny Broad used the opening of AusRAIL PLUS 2017 in Brisbane to launch the association’s new Value of Rail report, prepared by Deloitte Access Economics.

“As Australia’s population increases, so too does congestion and the demand for improved transport solutions,” Broad said. “To manage these challenges, Australia will have to develop its multi modal transport solutions with light and heavy rail as its spine to provide the solutions that Australia needs in shaping our cities and our regions into the future.”

The report cites a potential 88% increase in freight kilometres travelled in Australia by 2050, an increase of some 2.5 million trucks and light commercial vehicles on the nation’s roads.

“This growth in freight underscores the need for an efficient supply chain and for a heavy vehicle pricing framework that accurately captures the cost of road infrastructure provision and the negative externalities of road usage, such as congestion, vehicle emission and accidents,” Broad said.

“It is precisely for these reasons that the ARA has been engaging with Commonwealth, State and Territory governments on the benefits of our National Rail Industry Plan.

“[Rail businesses] create over 140,000 jobs in our cities and our regions, provide safe, efficient, environmentally and socially beneficial modes of transport,” he continued.

“We ask governments to get on board and implement our National Rail Industry Plan to provide the rail industry and the broader Australian community with long-term certainty of improved transport solutions for the benefit of all.”