Reductions in grain rail services will hurt local government
December 19, 2007
Cr Paul Bell, President of the Australian Local Government Association, expressed concern at the possible safety impacts and increased costs for council roads of Asciano's reported intention to restructure its rail services in rural NSW and Victoria.
"Apparently Asciano briefed its investors last week on plans to restructure its Pacific National rural services business in NSW and Victoria, which provide the majority of grain transport in these states," Cr Bell said. "This is an extremely unwelcome development for local communities which will lead to many more trucks putting pressure on the local road system in the grain growing regions.
"The additional movements of grain by road will place huge financial strains on the local road systems and without any mechanisms for councils to recover the costs this will lead to significant impacts on council finances.
"These councils have been some of the hardest hit by drought in the last 7 years and have little financial capacity to meet these additional costs.
"The increase in truck traffic will also have impacts on the amenity of many local communities that will be faced with increased truck traffic through their streets."
It is not clear from the Asciano briefing which rail services will be stopped. If the bulk haulage of grain to the export terminals ceases, this will also have impacts on communities in major centres such as Newcastle, Wollongong and Geelong.
Cr Bell said the increased truck traffic would have safety implication for both our regional and urban road systems and was inconsistent with the Government’s priorities to reduce greenhouse gases.
"The new Rudd Government recognized the issue during the election campaign and announced it would undertake reviews of the future of grain lines. The announcement by Asciano makes those reviews more urgent," he said.
"Local Government calls on the Commonwealth Government to proceed with the reviews of grain as matter of urgency now that Asciano has announced its intention to withdraw from these businesses."
Cr Bell said that he will look at raising this matter during discussions on infrastructure with COAG in Melbourne on Thursday which he will be attending on behalf of local government.
- Contact
- Amanda Lynch, Director, Government Relations – 0419 123 862 / 02 6122 9434
