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Council urges government to buy back rail freight lease

The opportunity to divert industrial freight from overloaded Gippsland roads and onto recently upgraded rail infrastructure, is being stifled by current leasing agreements between the state government and Pacific National, Latrobe City has claimed.

By Latrobe City Council - 9th October 2006 - Back to News

At a summit involving 22 mayors from across regional Victoria earlier this week, Latrobe City mayor, Cr Lisa Price, urged the Victorian Government to buy the lease back from Pacific National; saying this was the only practical solution for getting freight back onto the rail system.

"At the moment we are faced with a cartel that seems to have a vested interest in diverting rail traffic to roads which are funded through the public purse, rather than accepting the responsibility of investing in the rail system it is supposed to maintain.

"Rail infrastructure in parts of the state has been falling into disrepair as a result of neglect by numerous governments over the years, and in more recent times, lessees. Some councils are facing line closures, whilst others have lines where rail speeds are down to 20 km/hour," Cr Price said.

"In Latrobe’s case, a massive investment has recently been made by the state government through the Regional Fast Rail program, upgrading our rail infrastructure to accommodate new and faster passenger services. This upgrade should also be harnessed for freight, yet this opportunity is being totally ignored through a cartel that seems to have another agenda. We have seen a significant investment in our line, yet not one extra freight container has been taken off our road system and put onto rail.

Cr Price said that as a result of state government investment on rail lines servicing the Latrobe Valley, Latrobe City was able to speak at the summit from a fairly unique perspective. "The summit was called to discuss the rail freight crisis across the state, and it became very clear to all attending that many areas in the state are experiencing a real crisis.

"The regional mayors in attendance unanimously expressed their extreme dissatisfaction with the current and unacceptable state of the country and regional rail freight network; demanding that the state government establish a funded rail freight advisory council to undertake planning to create an agreed long term vision and business plan for the country and regional rail freight network, both to be completed by the end of 2007.

"The summit called on all parties to commit to creating a viable, seamless, connective, and competitive country and regional rail freight network," Cr Price said.

Latrobe City Council was one of three local government areas to address the summit, with Glenelg Shire Council and Mildura Rural City Council providing their own unique perspectives on the challenges of utilising rail freight.

Latrobe City Councillor, Graeme Middlemiss, provided an overview of experience with the Gippsland line. Cr Middlemiss spoke to the mayors about the challenges of the Gippsland Intermodal Freight Terminal and associated Gippsland Logistics Precinct which centre on an equitable access and pricing regime. Cr Middlemiss questioned the legitimacy of the Victorian Government’s freight target of increasing the proportion of freight transported to ports to 30% by 2010.

The Summit was addressed by Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Carlo Carli, Liberal Party Shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Terry Mulder, MP; and National Party Transport Spokesperson Hon Barry Bishop MLC.


Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com



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