Pacific National

Pacific National

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Rail transport
Founded	2002
Headquarters	New South Wales, Australia
Services	Bulk Services, Intermodal, Network and Operation Services
Revenue	A$1.6 billion (07/08)
Total assets	Over 600 locomotives and 14,000 wagons
Employees	over 4,000
Parent	Asciano Limited
Website	www.pacificnational.com.au

Pacific National is one of Australia's largest private rail freight businesses. Originally a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings; it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Asciano Limited following the restructure of Toll Holdings.

History

Pacific National liveried NR class locomotive at Spotswood, Victoria

In February 2002, the mainly Australian Government-owned National Rail Corporation's freight operations and rollingstock were combined with the New South Wales Government-owned FreightCorp and sold to Toll Holdings and Patrick Corporation as Pacific National.

In 2004, Pacific National purchased Australian Transport Network, operator of TasRail. In the same year, Pacific National also acquired Freight Australia, operator of freight services in Victoria, giving Pacific National control of the Victorian non-urban rail track, excluding the interstate network which is controlled by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

As part of the sale conditions the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) attached special conditions to the sale to ensure competition in the rail freight industry. The company was required to provide a 'starter pack' of locomotives, wagons, train paths, and freight terminals for a third part rail operator on the east-west route across the Nullarbor Plain. Pacific National has since leased to competitor Specialised Container Transport 9 refurbished G class diesel locomotives for use on SCT's trains, and had to continue the 'hook and pull' contract with SCT until their own locomotives arrived

In 2005 subsidiary company Pacific National Queensland became the first non-Queensland Rail narrow gauge commercial rail operation in Queensland, with the commencement of container services between Brisbane and Cairns.

In November 2006 Pacific National entered into an in-principle agreement to sell the remainder of its Victorian rail lease of the network back to the Victorian Government for $133.8m, during the caretaker period following the issuing of the writs for 25 November 2006 Victorian State election. The sale was completed on 7 May 2007, with state government owned V/Line managing the track.

In 2006 Toll launched a hostile take-over of Patrick Corporation which was successful and saw Toll Holdings receive 100% ownership of Pacific National. In 2007 Toll Holdings was restructured into two separately ASX listed companies: Toll Holdings and Asciano Limited. Part of this restructure, Pacific National became a wholly owned subsidiary of Asciano Limited.

In 2009 Pacific National Queensland further expanded their narrow gauge operations, entering the export coal market formerly dominated by incumbent Queensland Rail.

Controversy

Tasmania 2005

In September 2005 Pacific National angered the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian Federal Government as it threatened to 'withdraw all services' unless the governments paid a $100 million subsidy. This alarmed people of Tasmania because a pullout of rail services would result in thousands more trucks on already busy roads. Initially the governments refused to act on the issue claiming they would not be "held to mercy" by Pacific National, owned by Toll and Patrick Corporation, "which are extremely profitable multi-national companies". However, state infrastructure minister Bryan Green and federal counterpart transport minister Warren Truss announced a $120 million rescue package hoping the board will continue operation in the state.

In May 2007 the Tasmanian Government, the Federal Government and Pacific National came to an agreement regarding the funding, ownership and operation of the Tasmanian railway network; with the State of Tasmania acquiring the railway infrastructure previously leased to Pacific National, who would continue to provide above rail services on the network. In September 2009 the Tasmanian Government and Pacific National formally entered into a business sale agreement for purchase of the Tasmanian rail business, with rail infrastructure and railway operations to be maintained, managed and owned by a new State-owned rail company, Tasmanian Railway Pty Ltd trading as TasRail.

Rural services 2007

In December 2007 Pacific National announced plans to sell or close its grain transport and Portlink rural container business operations in Victoria, selling or closing Patrick's intermodal freight business in Tasmania, and downsizing to a bare minimum Pacific National's grain operations across New South Wales. The decision has been criticised as it will force grain growers to use higher cost road transport to transport the annual grain harvest from rural silos to the ports. The decision has seen many commentators accuse Pacific National of acquiring the operations of Freight Australia in 2004 only for the purposes of asset stripping and eliminating competition in rail freight.

The company has told competitors wanting to acquire unwanted rolling stock from the company, that it would rather scrap wagons or export them to Saudi Arabia before they would be made available domestically.

The container freight service to Horsham, Victoria was almost cancelled in April 2008 but was given a three month reprieve by the company. In July 2008 the service was taken over by QRNational. PN destroyed the Victorian freight network, leaving Victoria without BG Locomotives or rollingstock.

Operations

'Bemax' containerised ore train near Mannahill, South Australia

Operating in all states and the Northern Territory, the company operates some 1,000 locomotives and 10,200 wagons over 100 different sites. Services include bulk freight (coal, grain, steel, ores), intermodal containers (domestic and export), and specialised services such as 'hook and pull' for long-distance passenger trains.

Pacific National has five separate operating divisions, which operate as separate companies for accounting reasons, and often do not share locomotives with other divisions. The divisions are:

• Rural and Bulk: born out of the former FreightCorp and Freight Australia companies, major traffic include grain, fuel, agricultural products, and cement. Trains run on both standard and broad gauge.

• Intermodal: operates intermodal freight and steel trains on the interstate standard gauge network. Formed from the merger of the National Rail Corporation, Toll and Patrick Rail, FreightCorp, ATN and Freight Australia.

• Coal: transport of export coal on the New South Wales Hunter Valley Coal Chain.

• Queensland: intermodal freight and export coal on the narrow gauge network of Queensland, in competition with incumbent Queensland Rail.

The Pacific National steel contract was renewed with BlueScope Steel and OneSteel in 2006 for $1bn, making it the largest ever freight rail contract in Australia. The deal involves haulage of about 3 million tonnes of steel over seven years. Pacific National has intermodal freight facilities at the Brisbane Freight Terminal in Queensland, the Melbourne Freight Terminal in Victoria, the Sydney Freight Terminal in New South Wales, and the Kewdale Freight Terminal in Western Australia.

Rolling stock

A pair of G class locomotives in Melbourne

Pacific National operated cement train on the Victorian rail network using former Freight Australia locomotives

Pacific National operates a wide variety of locomotives and rolling stock acquired from predecessors. These include:

Rural and Bulk: (1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) and 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in))

• Various Victorian and New South Wales locomotives.
• 48 class
• 80 class
• 81 class
• Victorian Railways S class (diesel): 3

Intermodal: (1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in))

• AN class: 10
• BL class: 10
• DL class: 14
• G class: 20
• NR class: 119
• XRB class: 3
• 80 class: 12
• 81 class: 84

Coal: (1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in))

• 82 class: 55
• 90 class: 35
• 92 class: 15
• TT Class : 12

Queensland: (1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in))

• PN class: 13
• 83 class: 13
• 71 class: 32

Tasmania: (1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in))

• Various ex-TasRail locomotives

All locomotives and Rolling stock in Tasmania was transferred to Tasrail

External links

• Pacific National
• Asciano Limited