THE Freight on Rail Group has called for the next federal government to prioritise several rail freight issues after the May election.
In drafting coastal shipping regulation, FORG called on the next government to “recognise investments in land transport operations and provide for efficient utilisation of land transport modes where infrastructure and services are available”.
The organisation said that coastal shipping regulation should not provide “unreasonable” competitive advantages to foreign-flagged ships to enter and participate in the domestic freight services market where ships compete with land-transport supply chains.
“FORG recommends that transport policy and regulation should better protect the sovereignty and security of Australia’s domestic supply chains against foreign-flagged ships,” the group said.
The group also called on the next government to prioritise rail infrastructure resilience, deliver the Inland Rail project, and use rail freight to reduce transport sector greenhouse gas emissions.
FORG also said the next government should provide a level playing field for rail and road with infrastructure pricing policy.
It said the current policy of federal and state governments has resulted in favourable road user charges for trucks that are not “cost reflective”.
Additionally, FORG recommended a nationally co-ordinated focus on improving the productivity of rail freight. The group said it should do this by addressing impediments to productivity identified in studies, making investment, integrating rail-based supply chains with other modes, and a co-ordinated federal and state government approach to implementing rail-freight productivity improvement priorities.
FORG said its members contribute more than $11 billion to Australia’s economy each year, employ almost 20,000 people, operate 1600 freight locomotives and manage 23,000 kilometres of rail track.
Its members include Pacific National, Australian Rail Track Corporation, One Rail Australia, Aurizon, Qube Holdings, SCT Logistics, Arc Infrastructure, Watco Australia and Southern Shorthaul Railroad.
