Freight myopia in Sydney's strategic economic future

Sydney Ports Corporation, Logistics Review 2010/11

Governments cannot direct boxes onto rail or road and indeed they do not know consignee details. The point is, regardless, as the iNSW inquiry said, "most attention has focused on lifting rail share by boosting rail supply capacity, without a similar level of focus on demand generators. This can be traced back to at least the … Freight Infrastructure Advisory Board, which recommended that the then 40 per cent rail share target be met through additional intermodal terminal capacity, without adequately assessing the factors that drove freight users to travel by road". (The rail share is down to 14 per cent, less than half of rail's capacity.)

iNSW was not aware of a Shipping Australia report, "Metropolitan Intermodal Terminal Study (SAL, 2011). It contained many relevant observations but notably summarised the costs involved in moving a 20' container from the Port to its end point on the first leg. Rail is already competitive by SAL's numbers and relative changes will occur as land-side and road/rail systems improve:

Empty containers are held at container park for separate on-transport to port or to be filled elsewhere

With this in mind, we can re-interpret iNSW's own words (they deferred all strategic rail freight improvements to future dates) –

… it is argued rail has the potential to compete with road freight. Analysis … suggests that rail could be cost competitive or cheaper than road freight for these movements providing the following circumstances were met:

• volumes to increase substantially to gain economies of scale

• portside handling movements to be reduced through terminal reconfiguration

• investment in intermodal terminal capacity, enabling rail to road transfer (and vice versa)

• investment in warehousing and empty container facilities close to these intermodal terminals.

Not one regional body has risen to the challenge, all being deliberative and consultative in a context where available State funds are hypothecated to northern Sydney long-term passenger projects of marginal benefit. An example is RDA/Sydney which is charged with Commonwealth/State planning of Sydney and which issued Strategic Plans in 2011 and 2012. It pushes an outer circumferential rail line that would service Badgerys Creek employment lands; but no agency has done an assessment of that against the alternative E-W options raised by Ron Christie and the Government.