Increasing rail’s share to 30 per cent of Victoria’s freight task will be key to easing road congestion, unlocking significant safety and environmental benefits, an industry submission to the Victorian Freight Policy Reform Program says.
The submission by the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), on behalf of the rail freight industry, said it was critical reforms focus on removing unnecessary barriers hampering rail freight productivity, efficiency and reliability.
The submission recommends 30 per cent of contestable freight to be moved by rail and for Freight Victoria to be given greater powers to oversee the implementation of the new state freight policy, including the ability to require six-monthly public reporting to the Minister for Freight and Ports on performance.
It also recommends expanding supply of industrial land through rezoning and servicing of additional land and for it not to be rezoned (including in urban areas) or large parcels subdivided.
The ARA submission emphasises the importance of intra-state interoperability to enable more efficient, reliable operations across rail networks, aligned with national interoperability priorities.
ARA CEO Caroline Wilkie said the comprehensive review of freight policy in Victoria must ensure reforms enable the rail freight sector to be more productive, efficient, and sustainable.
“Rail freight has the potential to play a much greater role in Victoria’s growing freight task and we must implement practical policy reforms that remove the productivity and efficiency barriers that are preventing more freight moving on rail,” Ms Wilkie said.
“A larger freight mode shift onto rail will take considerably more cars off the road, providing significant safety and environmental benefits and create a more efficient overall freight system.
“Rail is an important part of Victorian and national supply chains. This critical review provides an opportunity for long-lasting reform to create a more resilient, robust and thriving rail freight industry that benefits everyone in Victoria and beyond.”
Many of rail freight’s interoperability challenges could be addressed without significant investment through better coordination of Victoria state agencies and contracted service providers, the submissions says.
“Rail freight in Australia is considerably constrained by the differences which exist between jurisdictions and intra-state networks. A lack of interoperability across the country is the single most significant drain on productivity for the rail freight sector, directly contributes to the cost of operating rail freight services, reduces operational efficiency and flexibility, dampens the uptake of new technology and pace of innovation, and ultimately hampers the ability to compete with other transport modes,” it says.
Key recommendations include:
- Develop a Victorian Government goal for 30% of contestable freight volumes being moved throughout the state on rail;
- Assess long-term network capacity requirements and development of a 10-15 year Network Investment Strategy;
- Empower Freight Victoria by elevating representation to Deputy Secretary level with DTP overseeing agencies’ implementation of freight policy;
- Ensure metropolitan operating franchise contracts reflect the role of the metropolitan network operator facilitating, planning for, and engaging with freight customers;
- Establish a terminal investment fund to support suitable initiatives to achieve network connectivity for new terminals or terminal upgrades which leverages private co-investment;
- Commission an investigation into the most effective rail freight coordination model across networks and commitment by all Victorian RIMs together with ARTC to the development of an integrated automated scheduling system across Victoria;
- Review passenger priority access arrangements to resolve a more flexible and transparent approach to managing network access across passenger and freight services; and
- Victoria contribute to the development of a shared national approach for governments and industry to support the decarbonisation of rail freight operations.
Rail freight produces 16 times less carbon pollution than road freight per tkm travelled, road accident costs are 20 times higher than rail for every tkm of freight moved and a 1 per cent shift away from road to rail would reduce accident costs nationally by $28.6 million per year, according to the ARA’s Value of Rail 2020 report.
Read the full submission.
