Bad Government Decisions to Cost Australia Billions

The decision to withhold funding to the railways and promote road transport over Government run rail transport meant Australians paid dearly. Trains cause less pollution, are far safer, and should be carrying more freight and passengers. The Road Transport lobbyists were far more effective with Governments than their own employees. The result was many of the costs of road transport were absorbed by the public purse allowing trucking companies a great advantage over rail.

 

 Articulated trucks comprise 12% of vehicle kilometres on the National Highway System (NHS), but cause two thirds of the road damage to that system. Cars comprise 81% of vehicle kilometres on the NHS, but cause only 0.1% of its damage. Cars are subsidising and giving the road transport industry a huge advantage over rail transport.

 

A fully loaded B-double truck causes as much damage to our roads as 20,000 cars. Heavy truck registration fees don't go anywhere near paying for the road damage caused. Yet, rail track access fees are far in excess of truck registration fees. This would suggest that truck registration fees should be increased to cover the cost of heavy trucks and lower car registration fees. This action would cause immense problems for heavy truck operators and many of them would be put out of business

 

Rail transport is seven times safer than road transport, 0.55 fatalities per billion tonne kilometres to 3.8 for road transport. The National Road Transport Commission suggests that fatigue was a factor in 70% of truck accidents. Of the total cost of transport accidents in Australia of $6.5 billion, road transport accounts for $6 billion (92%). Rail accidents are estimated to be just over 1% of that total. Australia's reliance on road transport is killing and injuring us at an alarming rate.

 

Road transport consumes almost 90% of Australia's transport energy with rail transport just 3% and only 2% of the nation's transport domestic greenhouse gas emissions with road transport a massive 86%. Transport now comprises 17% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions – an increase of 15% over its 1990 level. One freight train operating over the nearly 1,000 kilometres between Melbourne and Sydney can replace 150 semi-trailers and save 45,000 litres of fuel and 130 tonnes of greenhouse gases compared with road haulage.

 

Consider the implications. There are about 3,200 trucks per day between Melbourne and Sydney. That's one truck past any given point every 25 seconds. Yet, just ten additional trains each day each way between these two cities would remove all those trucks off the highway saving 330 million litres of fuel and 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year.

 

Instead of addressing these problems, it is forecast that fuel consumption by articulated vehicles will increase by 70% over the next fifteen years with greenhouse gas emissions 75% over the same period. That makes a mockery of Australia's commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions to be no more that 8% above its 1990 levels by 2012.

 

Between 1975 and 1988, the Federal Government invested $34.5 billion on roads and $1.8 billion on rail. As a result, Australia's rail industry has to deliver 21^st century service on 19^th century infrastructure.

 

The National Transport Planning Taskforce (NTPT) rated Australia's interstate rail corridors as generally well below world's best practice. Interstate rail corridors east of Adelaide were identified as having excessive curves and grades and restricted clearances. These significantly impede efficient rail operations by restricting train speeds, restricting trailing loads, preventing adoption of technological improvements such as double stacked containers (one container on top of the other) and causing higher fuel consumption and equipment maintenance than if track improvements were made.

Why do some consumers prefer road transport for general freight? It is cheaper and faster. The cost advantage is caused partly by extra taxes and costs heaped on rail transport and partly by cost conscious road transport operators who are able to force contract drivers to work prohibitive hours. The speed of delivery is hampered in rail transport by slow loading techniques and slow trains. With improved track conditions, modern fast trains could compete with road transport.

 

How do governments in the 21^st century correct the mistakes of earlier governments? They can't raise costs to road transport operators after decades of minimising their costs. We can imagine thousands of semi-trailers descending on Canberra if the government tried to do that. Not to mention the thousands of truck drivers who would be made bankrupt and out of work. Chaos would be caused to the truck sales industry with thousands of unsaleable trucks sending many businesses to the wall.

 

[BB]

 

The profile of rail transport must be raised in this country and upgraded to be a significant partner with road, sea, and air transport. Australia needs all systems of transport to compete on an equal playing field. This means lowering the cost and correcting the low investment in infrastructure for rail transport in the future.

 

The move to privatise the railways must be accelerated. The contest between the railways and road transport is a classic example of the difference between public and private enterprise with very predictable results. In short, the railways need entrepreneurs to revive and revitalise the industry. Where are the Sir Peter Abeles or the Sir Reginald Ansetts of the railways? They surely are needed.

 

Australia must be able to enjoy the benefits of a robust and efficient rail system. Our future depends on it.

 

Brian Nye Chief Executive Officer of Australasian Railways Association, Inc. puts it this way when commenting on a report commissioned from Port Jackson Partners and Access Economics:

'The obvious question the report raises is, if rail is economically so sound, why is the modal share so low on some corridors? This raises a number of issues about the distorting effects of current government policy on competition, economic regulation, assess pricing, and industry structure.'

 

Perhaps the penny has dropped with the opening of the new Adelaide to Darwin rail link. More privately owned railways are finally promoting themselves. But there is a long way to go.

 

If only those Governments in the past had to for sight to see how their bad decisions would take decades or maybe centuries to fix.

 

Sources:  Austroads Website - Monash University research on truck accidents - Australasian Railway association Inc.Website.

 

Politics Factzone: The truth about Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il, the leader of the free world, has decided to move on to more fertile grounds, leaving with us just the memories of 8-color rainbows, singing Korean women and couple of nuclear weapons. But who was this man whose next ambition would have been to get the next Nobel Peace prize? Here are just a few facts you should know about. more Top 5 Conspiracy Theories Related to John F. Kennedy's Assassination 26.Aug 2011 Since just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories abou...read ISRAEL KEEPING GHADDAFI AFLOAT 10.Mar 2011 ...read Glen Beck Is NOT the Anti-Christ! 10.Mar 2011 Hurtful and fiery rhetoric is now media’s default setting! This slippery and m...read Recipe for A REVOLUTION! (10 easy steps - try not to get burned!) 28.Feb 2011 Rebellion is cooking in the air. People are mad as hell, and not going to take...read THE ASSANGE CASE. CIA INTERFERED WITH SWEDISH LEGAL PROCESSES EXTREME RIGHT POLITICS A DANGER TO EUROPEAN UNITY THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY. OUT OF TOUCH, OUT OF FOCUS, OUT OF CREDIBILITY AND HOPEFULLY, OUT OF THE DOOR Opinion World governments charged with criminal negligence (in response to Megaupload case) EARTH (thecheers.org) - Federal authorities of the universe have charged the governments of all the countries in the world as well as the operators actually in power in these countries with operating a criminal enterprise, the Galaxy warriors announced Today. more The Great OSCARS 2011 – or so it would seem 5.Mar 2011 So, how exciting......a morning off, the Academy Awards. I wish I could say the...read Top 7 Expensive Bordellos. Prostitution: Shakedown, Tier Down, and Priced Out 31.Jan 2011 According to a report of the Washington DC-based US Department of State, The Ph...read The Great Secret and Reason for the JFK Assassination 11.Oct 2010 The great question is why the great secret? On June 4 1963, President Kennedy s...read Don't Do it! The 3 Worst Times to Get Tattoos 4.Oct 2010 As a general rule, tattoos gotten after 2 am are a bad idea. But in a bigger pi...read

Travel Travel Warning 13 September 2010 - DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN 13.Sep 2010 TRAVELWISE has been watching the situation in Iran for some months in relation ...read more TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY 5th June 2010. DO NOT TRAVEL TO ISRAEL. 5.Jun 2010 Given the recent incident whereby the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, used...read TRAVELWISE. 16 APRIL 2010. EUROPEAN TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES 16.Apr 2010 Travelwise issues the following advice in relation to cancelled flights to, fro...read TRAVELWISE 6 APRIL 2010. AUSTRALIAN AIR TRAVEL. THE BEST WAYS TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN AUSTRALIA. 5.Apr 2010 Regular readers might have seen and read the various advisory and no-fly notice...read TRAVELWISE 2 APRIL 2010. QANTAS. 2.Apr 2010 Some concerns have been raised in relation to some of the maintenance practices...read Sport No Payoff From the Playoffs $16.50 will Get Anyone in the Hall Mr McGwire Stupid Athlete Tricks Technology Think Big! Think the World's Largest International Trade Show Top 9 cool laptop accessories for laptop geeks Twittering: I'm not that interesting Cheers Jesus' Answering Machine Brown Couch or twelve midgets in the town square How To Be Happy Drugged Out Saturday Nights Muslim Decapitation: Bad, or Simply Misunderstood?