<p>The Australian rail industry must adopt a national transport “vision” if it was to push forward with the next round of productivity improvements, QR general manager of national policy Stephen Baines said yesterday (Tuesday, June 26).</p> <p>At the <em>Road and Rail Freight Infrastructure and Pricing Reform</em> conference in Brisbane, Mr Baines likened the rail industry’s productivity challenge to the introduction of the B-double to the road industry.</p> <p>The higher-productivity vehicle is credited with improving the productivity levels of the road freight industry, and now comprises 37% of the national articulated fleet.</p> <p>The B-double has enjoyed phenomenal growth – up 220% to 8,500 trucks since 2000 – and is now operating widely on urban arterials and into ports and freight terminals.</p> <p>“The decision to adopt B-doubles was policy-led,” Mr Baines said. “It involves governments facilitating productivity improvements. </p> <p>“We need to have more of that thinking – but across the transport sector – to break down the age-old barriers between road and rail, and look at how we can really make intermodal work.”</p> <p>While State Governments have set ambitious targets for improving rail’s share of the freight task, very few decisions had been made to support, or move toward, those goals, Mr Baines said.</p> <p>“If you travel on the dedicated freight line in Sydney, and look at, for example, the minimal number of structures that you’d have to modify to allow double-stacking between Port Botany and Enfield – these sorts of ideas require assessment and examination,” he said.</p> <p>“We’ve been locked into old ways of thinking and assumptions that things can’t be done.”</p> <br />
