Australian Railroad Group
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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Rail freight |
| Successor(s) | QR National |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Area served | Australia |
| Parent | QR National |
| Website | www.arg.net.au |
Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was one of Australia's largest private rail operators, operating across almost 10,000 kilometres of track and began operating in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business. It was acquired by QR National. The main commodities hauled by ARG included grain, mineral sands, alumina, bauxite, coal, woodchips, quartz, nickel and iron ore around Western Australia.
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[edit] History
The venture was formed in 2000 as a consortium of US based rail operator Genesee and Wyoming Inc and Australian rural services company Wesfarmers, to bid for the freight operator Westrail which was being sold by the owner, the Western Australian state government. Genessee and Wyoming had previously had an Australian presence, with their Australian Southern Railroad operations in South Australia acquired from Australian National in November 1997.[1]
Initially trains in Western Australia were operated under the Australian Western Railroad name, with AWR logos being applied to locomotives in the orange black and yellow of the parent organisation G&W. This was followed by the ARG's involvement with the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium building the Adelaide-Darwin railway, with locomotives construction the line receiving Australian Northern Railroad logos.[1] With this expansion it was decided to rationalise the trading entities under the ARG brand and logo, which was implemented on 1 August 2002.[1]
In February 2006 Wesfarmers announced it had reached an agreement with its joint venture partners to sell ARG for $1.3 billion. Babcock & Brown would own and run ARG's rail business in Western Australia, mainly track and infrastructure, while QR will own and run the rail haulage business and infrastructure.[2] Queensland Rail would pay $446 million for the rolling stock, depots and customer contracts, making them move in order to become a national player in Australian rail freight.[3] In March 2006 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would not oppose the takeover, competition would not be impacted due to existing competition between ARG and QR being limited.[4] The takeover was completed in June 2006.[5] The SA below rail business was retained by Genesee & Wyoming as Genesee and Wyoming Australia.
On 13 December 2010 the CBH Group announced that ARG had lost the grain haulage contract in Western Australia, and would cease operations around April 2012. The contract would taken over by CBH Group supplying its own new rollingstock and operated by the experienced United States transportation group Watco Companies.
On late 2011 QR Limited successfully completed its separation from Queensland Rail and became QR National. QR National has it services divided under various section. and as of July 2011 ARG is no longer a stand alone company but has become part of the much larger QR National Freight Bulk West division.
[edit] Locomotive fleet
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With the introduction of the ARG name and corporate colours, ARG began a gradual process of standardising the locomotive classification based on horsepower, with a progressive (and still incomplete) renumbering as follows:
Note: As of February 2006 new letter classes will be used in conjunction with the new horsepower based numbering system (The Z on the end of some class letters refers to locomotives fitted with ZTR) .
- 600 class (ex SAR 600 class)
- 700 class (ex SAR 700 class)
- 830 class (ex SAR 830 class)
- DA/900 class (ex AN DA class)
- CK/1000 class (ex AN CK class)
- A class (ex WAGR A class)
- DE/1300 class (ex BHP DE class)
- AB/1500 class (ex WAGR AB class)
- NJ/1600 class (ex CR NJ class)
- GM/1800 class (ex CR GM class)
- DA/DAZ/1900 class (ex WAGR DA class)
- DC/2200 class (ex NSWGR 422 class)
- DB/DBZ/2300 class (ex WAGR DB class)
- D/2350 class (ex WAGR D class)
- P/2500 class (ex WAGR P class)
- CL/CLZ/3000 class (ex AN CLF/CLP classes)
- L/LZ/3100 class (ex WAGR L class)
- ALF/3200 class (ex AN ALF class)
- S/3300 class (ex Westrail S class)
- Q/4000 class (ex Westrail Q class)
- AC/4300 class (new build UGL Rail C43aci)
[edit] West Australian facilities
- Forrestfield Yard, Forrestfield, suburban Perth
- Kwinana Yard, Kwinana
- Avon Yard, Northam
- West Merredin Yard, Merredin
- Picton Yard, Bunbury
- West Kalgoorlie Yard, Kalgoorlie
- Narngulu Yard, Narngulu, Geraldton
- Esperance Depot, Esperance
- Wagin Depot, Wagin
- Albany Depot, Albany
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Peter Attenborough (October 2005). "Australian Railroad Group". Australian Model Railway Magazine: pages 26–29.
- ^ "Qld Rail buys into freight market". The Age. 14 February 2006. http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/Qld-Rail-buys-into-freight-market/2006/02/14/1139679576182.html. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ "Qld Rail 'goes national' with freight expansion". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 February 2006. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2006/02/14/1569375.htm. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ Philip Hopkins (31 March 2006). "ARG on board Queensland Rail". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/arg-on-board-queensland-rail/2006/03/30/1143441279693.html. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ "QR closes national rail freight deal". QR Corporate - Media Releases. 2 June 2006. http://www.corporate.qr.com.au/Corporate/News_Room/Archive/Press_releases/980.asp. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
[edit] External links
Media related to Australian Railroad Group at Wikimedia Commons
