Nice article - lots of stats on rail vs road freight: In 1971, when big prime movers were starting to appear on our highways, just over half of Australia’s non-bulk freight – which is mainly consumer goods and business inputs – was moved via road. Today, road’s national share of non-bulk freight has risen to 83%, but on the eastern seaboard it’s around 95%, and as high as 97% on some routes. Rail’s share of eastern-seaboard freight was around the 30–40% mark in the early ’70s. The domination of road freight has in turn underpinned the multi-billion-dollar empires built by Linfox and other conglomerates. This development is in marked contrast with the situation in the United States. Even though many of the semis on our roads are made by the American companies Kenworth and Mack, the US still moves about 40% of its intercity freight via rail. The US rail system is one of the most efficient in the world, and it is also profitable. It’s such a good business that the shrewd investor Warren Buffett recently sank $US26.5 billion into buying a rail company. Key point is that rail freight works in the US, unarguably the closest to our dispersed population here in Oz. While high-speed commuter rail might be exiting to consider, its really rail freight that will change road congestion insofar as trucks are concerned.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 07:51:52 +0000