The annual AusRAIL event provides a forum for senior executives to discuss future policy, investment and the latest technological advancements in the rail sector. This year’s theme of ‘doing more with less’ invites delegates to reflect and share knowledge about efficient and effective ways to meet the challenge of growing the industry with limited capital available.
The ARA’s chairman and ARTC’s chief executive David Marchant, who will be a part of the popular CEOs Forum on November 19th, speaks with the AusRAIL team about what ‘doing more with less’ means for the industry as well as other critical issues affecting rail.
 
| Listen to David Marchant share his thoughts about the technological challenges facing the rail industry. |
The theme for AusRAIL PLUS 2009 is ‘doing more with less’.
In the current climate how important is this in helping the industry to achieve its long term goals?
DM: It’s vitally important. The world economy is going through a significant recession that will bounce along for a number of years.
Rail is in a catch 22 in Australia.
On the freight side, there is a need for significant capital investment to improve freight’s performance: both transit times and its reliability, and at the same time to grow the market as future demand comes through because of fuel prices and carbon trading.
There are challenges because the market’s down but at the same time there’s great demand for capital investment.
On the passenger side you have very similar issue but in reverse. You have huge demand coming through and great pressures on the passenger systems in each of our capital cities as passenger numbers increase significantly.
At the same time there is huge capital investment coming through with the Australian Government and the states investing significantly in new, faster freight systems in some locations and on the passenger side, new rail connections to major parts of our country both in regional and urban areas.
So there are big challenges with urban passenger rail and freight and these challenges are all part of dealing with quite a contradictory environment – one where the economy is moving down but the upside is greater demand.
It’s time to think smart about how to move forward and it’s a good time at this sort of conference to share ideas and concepts with others as a learning framework in how to move forward.
What impact do you anticipate the work of Infrastructure Australia (IA) will have on industry?
DM: In its first report released as part of the last Federal budget, Infrastructure Australia’s (IA) priority list included a range of rail projects for urban and regional passenger systems with very large capital investments. Additionally, IA’s report [also] dealt with forward priority projects for the next few years, with many projects dealing with large freight areas, both north south and east west.
IA will have an ongoing role working with government, private investors and public bodies to try and get alignment with regard to getting future investment in on time to meet demand. This is a big issue for all participants in IA.
IA is going to be critical in influencing and assisting in getting across the big message that rail needs to get out there.
Do you feel rail to be at the forefront of freight transport in a carbon constrained Australia?
DM: There are two major forces that will put pressure on freight and logistics in the future. The first is fuel prices. Although they have been lower recently they will eventually move back up to $80 a barrel and over as oil production gets more expensive. This will have a dramatic influence on the price of road versus rail.
The second factor is climate change and the associated carbon tax and carbon trading. These costs will be major factors affecting the pricing of future freight and logistics services.
Predictions show that freight traffic will more than double, it may even quadruple over the next 15 years as pricing pressures come through. This will create a challenge for rolling stock, infrastructure and terminals as our major cities do not have good road-rail interfaces.
On the passenger side, a price rise in oil leads to a growth in demand as people move from cars to rail. This creates increasing pressure on providing more efficient passenger services within our cities.
What positive messages to you hope to see coming out of AusRAIL PLUS?
DM: AusRAIL PLUS 2009 is going to have a range of challenges.
It’s very hard to have a lot of positive messages in an environment that is so constrained and bleak. Part of the conference will obviously be about sharing a bit of that pain of what has been a significant downturn that has affected every provider of rail services.
The good side though, having got through facing the reality of the times we’re in, is looking at the challenges these times will produce for us that will enable us to think differently about how we can improve our underlying operating costs. This is so we can maintain our businesses but at the same time improve our productivity that will enable us to better perform when the upswing starts to take place in the next few years.
It will be the planning of today that will make the upswing of the next two years better brighter and smarter. Now is the time all of us need to look at what we can learn from each other to see what we can do to lower our operating exposure in costs but to improve productivity for when the upswing comes through.
To enquire about AusRAIL PLUS 2009 please contact our Customer Service Department on: +61 (0)2 9080 4307
or email: registration@informa.com.au
or visit: www.ausrail.com
 
“
