NSW Freight on the Rails, not on the Roads
Constantly our newspapers are overflowing with bad news about the NSW trains. Everyone has stories about how the rail system has let them down. In rural areas the cancellation of the country Rail XPT services does more than inconvenience passengers. The closing of country freight lines is placing an enormous increase of trucks onto already overcrowded roads.
Some dangerous issues remain. Last week, in Parliament, I asked the Minister for Transport Services a question without notice:
“Is the Minister aware that it has been three years since Peter McInerney called for a single radio network, following the Glenbrook disaster, on all trains operating within New South Wales instead of the current four separate systems? Will the Minister explain why this urgently needed communications system has not been introduced? What is the Minister doing to fast-track the introduction of an integrated system of communication on the rail network to ensure safer rail systems?”
The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA replied:
“The State of New South Wales has sold its interests in rail freight operations, which now reside with the private sector”.
It should be realised what this means. It now means country freight will go by road. It’s not just rural roads that are at risk of being pulverised by the convoys of extra truck traffic likely to follow the closure of country railway lines in NSW — Farmers calculate that 3.2 million 200-litre (44 gallon) drums of crude oil will be needed every year to manufacture extra truck tyres used to carry grain crops by road instead of rail. NSW is likely to be burying, burning or dumping an extra million truck tyres each year if the State Government walks away from paying for upgrades to the branch lines in the grain belt.
The State’s 15 ageing “restricted” branch lines now carry the equivalent of 79,000 B-double truck movements a year, including more than 60 per cent of NSW’s export grain crop. The statistics have horrified NSW Farmers from grain belt districts around Grenfell, Dubbo and Parkes and other areas. And it should horrify each of us who drive on roads as well. Freight should be kept on the rails, not on the roads. I will continue to question the Minister of Transport services on these issues.
THIS IS GORDON MOYES.
