{"id":31659,"date":"2024-04-28T12:03:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T02:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=31659"},"modified":"2024-04-28T12:04:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T02:04:04","slug":"exploring-the-rail-freight-opportunity-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=31659","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the rail freight opportunity in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prological\u2019s Peter Jones explains in this MHD<\/em> op-ed the benefits of rail freight and how adopting aspects of the European model can help us decrease our reliance on road freight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefits of rail freight compared to road transport are transparent. Trains use significantly less fuel to transport freight long distances, carry far more weight and volume, reduce highway congestion, improve safety by reducing the strain on commercial trucking and provide reliable and on-time delivery and scheduling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, just two per cent of freight between Melbourne and Sydney goes by rail, down from near 40 per cent in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to research by The Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics, for every one per cent of freight shifted from truck to rail nationally, an average of $71.9 million would be saved annually in terms of environmental damage, road conditions and pollution-related health outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, Australia is seeking global partners to transition our rail network and decarbonise our transport sector, which accounts for 19 per cent of our country\u2019s total carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inland Rail Network has been set up to reduce our reliance on roads for moving freight, while high speed rail has become a priority on the Australian government\u2019s agenda, even setting up a High Speed Rail Authority in June last year 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of our Inland Rail Network will be to connect Melbourne and Brisbane with a 1700km end-to-end rail freight corridor spanning rural Victoria, New South Wales and South East Queensland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will not only connect our rural industries with ports and logistics centres in the major cities, but also link Australia\u2019s 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> largest cities with a faster rail service unencumbered of the constraints the existing \u2018coastal via Sydney\u2019 option is constrained by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This investment in rail freight begs the question, why hasn\u2019t Australia been able to reduce its domestic road freight? The primary answer is cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fixed costs of the rail infrastructure and operations are spread across lower volumes, raising the cost per unit being transported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combined with the transloading and terminal infrastructure at both ends of the journey means the transition to rail hasn\u2019t been financially viable in recent decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, all rail options being offered to date involve the freight being containerised (excepting SCT\u2019s wagons), which then requires significant changes in infrastructure for both senders and receivers. It also requires the impost of the land bridge costs at the origin and destination for pick up and delivery of the containers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The MODALOHR system is compatible with Australian trailers, which are longer, taller and carry higher mass. Image: Prological.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To solve this problem, I had what I thought was an original idea. To show engineering firms and our rail industry how this might work, I had briefed an animator to create a video of the concept, only to have a colleague then find my \u2018original idea\u2019 was already operational in Europe with some maturity and very efficient, removing many of the barriers of road to rail transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of 2023, I travelled to the intermodal terminal Bettembourg-Dudelange in Luxembourg to explore their systems for rail freight and determine whether such processes could be used in Australia to assist in road to rail conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new solution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 26 1956, a converted World War II tanker became the first ever container ship, sailing from the Port of Newark to Houston with 58 aluminium boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, shipping containers have become standardised, and so have all containers for road and rail freight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inefficiencies of using containers for rail freight has held back its adoption, but European engineers have been implementing different systems to change this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, to better integrate freight generators and customers, engineers made modifications to semi-trailers so that they could be lifted directly onto the train, which results in a lot less movement and less time taken through the terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand how Europe compares to Australia\u2019s infrastructure and processes, it\u2019s helpful to consider the \u2018generations\u2019 of converting road to rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With better infrastructure in place, Europe is on its fourth generation of rail freight \u2013 in moving rail containers off trains, Europe has seen four generations of process evolution. Australia is behind this development, having only experienced the first two generations of rail freight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n