By Jennifer Perry
Dall said that QR intends to be world class in safety but to get to that level the organisation has to improve.
“Our goal as an organisation is to achieve zero injuries,” Dall said.
“We have a set of safety principles that are the focus of the safety culture we are building – that safety is a core value rather than a priority, that all injuries can be prevented, that management is responsible…for preventing injuries and working safely is a condition of employment.”
As a leading rail infrastructure business that serves the coal, freight, intermodal and passenger markets, QR has 10,000 kilometres of network 1000 people working across Queensland $6 billion in assets which makes up 45 per cent of QR’s balance sheet and a $7 billion capital investment plan over the next five years. It transports 180 million tonnes of freight, 60 million passenger journeys each year and 1000 train movements per day.
Providing insight into QR Network, that became a standalone subsidiary of QR Limited along with QR Passenger in September last year, Dall said that the network accounts for 45 per cent of the business and facilitates the movement of around 55 per cent of Australian coal tonnes.
“In 2007-08 we moved about 164 million tonnes of coal in Queensland and surprisingly, this year our preliminary numbers are indicating something in the vicinity of 169 million tonnes for 2008-09,” he said.
“Last year was an interesting one for us as we were forecasting somewhere in the vicinity of 600 million tonnes in the next five years…we’re all guessing about what will happen in the future.”
Emphasising both the importance and difficulty of supply chain maximisation, Dall said that it is something that is “easy to say, easy to draw but hard to do”.
“Whenever you have a group of companies… that have goals of optimising their own business it’s often at the expense of the supply chain,” he said.
“Supply chain cannot work when one of the parties wants to own the whole of the supply chain and doesn’t want to work in collaboration.
“In our network we like to see ourselves as an enabling organisation for multiple operators…QR Network has a strong focus on forward planning and creating infrastructure in advance of demand….we work in collaboration with industry because their success is our success.”
QR Network is continuing to deliver a record infrastructure investment of over $1 billion in the last 12 months, up 300 per cent during the last three years.
It has a number of infrastructure projects in the pipeline including the Jilalan Terminal that will begin facilitating the flow of about 150 million tonnes of coal per year through the Goonyella system when it is expected to open in August.
Other projects include level crossing protection, track duplications and five electrical feeder stations – four in the Blackwater system and another in the Goonyella system.
“As we move into emissions trading, electric traction will be a major benefit and provide competitive advantage in the coal system – we will be aiming to position as many electric haul trains as we can,” Dall said.
With a $68 million early works investment, QR Network has commenced an environmental impact study (EIS) for the proposed Wiggins Island coal terminal and are planning to build additional electrified track infrastructure, holding yards and rolling stock maintenance facilities.
Dall said that while the Goonyella to Abbot Point expansion has been around for a “quite a while”, QR had recently gained agreement from the customers involved for the Northern Missing Link (69 kilometres of new rail) to proceed from pre-feasibility to feasibility stage, with QR now looking at revised scope and costs to reflect the latest view of tonnages from industry.
Commercial negotiations are continuing for underwriting the project which QR expects to be finalised in the next few months.