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Grain players in rail-link upgrade talks
29 Jul 2004
AWB and GrainCorp are meeting with Pacific National this week to develop a plan to revamp their silo-to-port infrastructure. It will cost $100 million to upgrade the rail networks to an appropriate level for the transportation of grain, NSW Farmers said, including the upgrade of 15 branch lines owned by the NSW Government.
Pacific National bought National Rail Corp and FreightCorp in 2002 in a $1.2 billion deal with the federal and NSW governments. There was a $118 million discount, provided the purchasers spent it on upgrading rail services. NSW Farmers grains committee chairman Angus Macneil said more of the sale proceeds should be redirected to rural rail infrastructure and the NSW Government should foot the bill.
Pacific National agreed to guarantee a service level until 2007. Of the $118 million, PN is believed to still have about $60 million that it's most recently considered spending on silo links. But the NSW Transport Minister believes the money should be diverted to fixing the branch lines. He's asked the industry partners to take a co-operative view on which branch lines are viable and which aren't, and said the industry, not the Government, needs to decide which ones are worth retaining.
Australian Financial Review, 29/7/04.
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