Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

Historic rail agreement

A major boost for national freight future

In an historic rail agreement, the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) will lease the New South Wales interstate track and Hunter Valley rail freight corridors. The agreement will be for 60 years from April this year, opening the way for the creation of an internationally competitive national freight network.

Freight movements around Australia are currently 72 per cent by road and only 26 per cent by rail. Growth in freight traffic is forecast to increase dramatically over the next 20 years, and with rail’s share in the north-south market less than 20 per cent compared to around 80 per cent across the Nullabor, the agreement between the Australian and New South Wales Governments is critical.

More than $870 million will be invested in rail infrastructure as part of the agreement so the interstate track can carry the predicted near doubling of freight from the current 375 billion tonne kilometres to 648 billion tonne kilometres in 2020.

ARTC was established as an Australian Government business enterprise in February 1998. As the map above shows, the corporation owns and manages the track from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Broken Hill in New South Wales and Wolseley in South Australia. It also manages the interstate standard gauge rail network in Victoria under a 15 year lease, and has access agreements with WestNet Rail in Western Australia and Queensland Rail.

More information is available at www.artc.com.au

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