Rail freight -- taking pressure off the roads

While the campaign to reopen the entire Blayney-Demondrille railway line gathers pace, the mayor of Parkes Shire, Ken Keith, wants to put a firecracker under the federal government to speed up the proposed inland rail freight line project.

The $4.7 billion scheme will link Brisbane with Melbourne following the route of the Newell Highway and enable freight to bypass Sydney if necessary.

As with the Blayney-Demondrille proposal, it would take freight off the roads at a time of a projected double or triple increase in road freight operations by 2020.

Mayor Keith says the line would carry long-haul container and bulk commodity freight.

Unlike the Demondrille proposal, the inland freight line is a done deal. It has federal government funding, and the Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has stated that pre-construction work will begin in 2014.

Ken Keith says three years before a start on planning is far too long to wait – it means four to five years before the project’s completed –  and the shire council is proposing a conference of all councils along the Newell Highway next year to urge the government to bring the project forward.

“We need to start on the project now,” he says, to reduce freight haulage pressure on the roads.

Mayor Keith sees the project as another sign of a possible “bit of  a resurgence” of railway transport in the years ahead.

“I’m sure that’s what it’s all about, and getting freight off the road and on to the rails will certainly help reduce greenhouse gas emissions for a start.”

Meantime, he says, the road haulage industry must be made to contribute to the region’s road maintenance programs, making up for the pressure the big trucks put on rural roads.”I’m in favour of the double tractor trailers,” he says. “They’re a lot safer than the semis, and one double carries as much freight as three semis.

“The AB triples, which are coming into service are a lot safer than road trains, too, but councils will need to put more work into roads and intersections, and of course there’s a cost associated with that.”

Triple haulage -- "safer than road trains"