MELBOURNE, Australia — According to a wire service, the federal government Wednesday proposed what it described as the biggest overhaul of Australia’s rail network in 100 years — a multimillion dollar upgrade to help cope with growing freight traffic.
“If we can get this right, it’s the best shot we’ve had at serious revitalization of rail we’ve had for a century,” Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister John Anderson said.
Anderson said the 870 million Australian dollar (dlrs 470 million) proposal would deliver improved track infrastructure, better track management and a dedicated freight path between Australia’s two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne.
He said Australia’s rail network needed fixing to handle the switching of freight movements from road to rail.
“Land transport volumes are likely to double over the next 20 years. It can’t all go on our roads,” he said.
The funding for the proposed investment over five years would come from federal and state governments and the private sector.
It is contingent on the federal government-owned Australian Rail Track Corporation, which owns or leases the interstate rail network linking Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia states, also taking over the lease of New South Wales interstate railroad tracks — which currently is controlled by the state’s government.
New South Wales government is considering giving the corporation control of tracks in the state but did not immediately respond to Anderson’s comments.
Only about 15 percent of freight traveling between Melbourne, Sydney and the northeastern city of Brisbane goes by rail while 80 percent of freight traveling from Australia’s east coast to the western city of Perth goes by rail.
“The investment program would deliver enormous benefits for the rail industry, road users and the economy,” Anderson said.
As well as cutting rail journey times, the investment aims at reducing the number of truck trips along congested roads between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane by 110,000 per year.