Pacific National chief executive Dean Dalla Valle has called on the rail freight sector to make its voice heard in arguing the case for rail over road, as Australia faces the growing challenge of a rapidly expanding freight task.
Speaking at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) lunch on May 25, Dalla Valle – who is also chair of the Freight on Rail Group of Australia (FORG) – said that the expansion of the national freight task (expected to double by 2035 and triple by 2050) would lead to serious disruptions to the supply chain if roads remained the dominant conduit of Australia’s imported and exported commodities.
“The road freight task between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane is forecast to reach around 140 billion tonne kilometres by 2030, up from around 60 billion tonne kilometres. That’s roughly the size of France’s current entire road freight task,” Dalla Valle told the gathered attendees.
“As you can see, our major motorways and highways are at risk of becoming a conveyor belt of trucks.”
While trucks will always remain the preferred option for “last mile” freight transfers to distribution centres and supermarkets, Dalla Valle said that inherent characteristics of rail make it the best option for the transportation freight over long distances, especially as city populations expand and the freight task becomes ever greater.
For instance, the ability for a single freight train to haul approximately 200 twenty-foot containers at once – the equivalent of 65 B-double trucks – recommends it as the transport mode of choice in a time of increasing awareness of the need to reduce emissions.
“Per tonne kilometre travelled, rail freight produces 16 times less carbon pollution that road freight, while the cost of road freight incidents and crashes are 14 times more than rail,” Dalla Valle said.
The Pacific National CEO said it was encouraging to see governments investing in projects that will boost the efficiency and competitiveness of rail freight, such as $10 billion Inland Rail, the $400 million duplication of the Port Botany Rail Line, and the $440 million standardisation of rail lines in the Murray Basin region.
But he argued that additional efforts had to be made – by both government and industry – in nurturing and furthering what he called Australia’s incipient “rail renaissance”.
The rail freight industry, Dalla Valle said, had to better “sell” the benefits and advantages of rail, using the best available means to communicate effectively with governments, customers, and the wider public.
“It’s incumbent on us to make sure Australians understand the benefits of efficient and well-planned supply chains and, dare I say, the benefits of putting more freight on rail.
“By their very nature, freight supply chains are large, complex and technical – our industry must become more sophisticated in our messaging to communities and the media.”
Dalla Valle also pointed to the importance of advocating “risk-based”, “simplified”, and “harmonised” regulation regimes to help drive safety and productivity outcomes and thereby enable rail to meet the growing freight demand now and into the future.
“Governments,” he remarked, “often underestimate how disruptive poorly designed regulations can be.”
He praised the efforts by the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) in modernising and standardising safety regulation, before advocating for the establishment of a rail regulator focussed on productivity in the manner of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.
“Regulation, in general, should take a risk-based approach that is outcome driven; not prescriptive,” he said.
“The rail freight sector needs to be regulated to actual risk, not perceived risk and certainly not outdated historical risks.”
Dalla Valle concluded by reminding governments and industry to be vigilant in attending to the preservation and expansion of private investment in key parts of the national freight supply chain. Complacency, he said, could be afforded in an age of internationally mobile and globally fluid capital flows.
“The heart of this issue involves government and industry partnering to enable the safest and most productive supply chains through a harmonized approach to rail regulation, improved technology and considered infrastructure planning.”