Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses.
History
In February 2002,
National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...
's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the
Federal,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
and
Victorian Governments) were combined with
FreightCorp
FreightCorp (formally the ''Freight Rail Corporation'') was a railway operator owned by the Government of New South Wales responsible for intrastate and some interstate rail cargo handling from its creation in January 1989 until it was privatis ...
(owned by the New South Wales Government) and sold to a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...
between
Patrick Corporation and
Toll Holdings as Pacific National.
In February 2004, Pacific National purchased
Australian Transport Network, operator of ATN Access and
AN Tasrail
AN Tasrail was an Australian railway operator that operated the Tasmanian rail network from March 1978 until November 2004. Originally a subsidiary of the Federal Government's Australian National, it was sold to Australian Transport Network ( ...
. In August 2004, Pacific National purchased
Freight Australia
Freight Australia was an Australian railway company that purchased the V/Line Freight business from the Government of Victoria in 1999. Initially known as Freight Victoria, it operated rail freight services and controlled non-urban rail track in ...
, giving Pacific National control of the Victorian non-urban rail track, excluding the interstate network which is controlled by the
Australian Rail Track Corporation
The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is an Australian Government-owned statutory corporation.
It operates one of the largest rail networks in the nation spanning 8,500km across five states, 39 worksites and more than 50 First Nations.
...
.
As part of the sale conditions, the
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trad ...
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 party rail operator on the east-west route across the
Nullarbor Plain
The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its ...
. To fulfill this, Pacific National sold nine refurbished
G class G class or Class G may refer to:
Locomotives
* NZR G class (1928), a type of steam locomotive used in New Zealand
* Tasmanian Government Railways G class, a class of 0-4-2T steam locomotive used in Australia
* V/Line G class, a class of diese ...
locomotives to competitor
SCT Logistics to allow it to operate its own services.
In March 2005, Pacific National Queensland became the first non-
Queensland Rail
Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...
narrow gauge commercial rail operation in Queensland, with the commencement of container services between
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
and
Cairns.
In November 2006, Pacific National entered into an agreement to sell the remainder of its Victorian rail lease of the network back to the Victorian Government. The sale was completed in May 2007, with the government owned
V/Line taking over management of the track.
In 2005,
Toll Holdings launched a hostile takeover bid for its joint venture partner
Patrick Corporation which was successful giving Toll Holdings 100% ownership of Pacific National. In 2007, Toll Holdings was restructured into two separately
ASX listed companies: Toll Holdings and
Asciano Limited
Asciano Limited was an Australian freight logistics company, operating in railway freight and shipping. Asciano was demerged from Toll Holdings in 2007, and owned Patrick Corporation and Pacific National as subsidiary companies. Asciano specialis ...
. As 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 dominated by incumbent Queensland Rail.
In 2016, Asciano agreed to sell Pacific National to Australian Logistics Acquisition Investments Pty Limited, a consortium of
Global Infrastructure Partners,
CPP Investment Board
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB; french: Office d'investissement du régime de pensions du Canada), operating as CPP Investments (french: Investissements RPC), is a Canadian Crown corporation established by way of the 1997 ''Cana ...
,
China Investment Corporation,
GIC Private Limited and
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. The transfer was completed on 19 August 2016.
Controversy
Tasmania 2005
In September 2005, Pacific National angered the
Tasmanian State and
Australian Federal Governments when it threatened to withdraw all services unless the governments paid a $100 million subsidy. 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
Bryan Alexander Green (born 30 June 1957) is a former Australian politician. He was the leader of the parliamentary Labor Party in Tasmania from 2014 to 2017, and a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly in the electorate of Braddon from 1 ...
and federal counterpart transport minister
Warren Truss
Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...
announced a $120 million rescue package.
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 Tasmanian Government 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 purchased the Tasmanian rail business, with rail infrastructure and railway operations to be maintained, managed and owned by a new
TasRail
TasRail is the trading name of Tasmanian Railway Proprietary Limited, a Tasmanian Government state-owned enterprise that has operated the mainline railways in Tasmania since September 2009. It operates only freight services.
History
Establis ...
.
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 was criticised as it forced 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
Freight Australia was an Australian railway company that purchased the V/Line Freight business from the Government of Victoria in 1999. Initially known as Freight Victoria, it operated rail freight services and controlled non-urban rail track in ...
in 2004 only for the purposes of
asset stripping
Asset stripping is a term used to refer to the practice of selling off a company's assets in order to improve returns for equity investors. In many cases where the term is used, a financial investor, referred to as a ' corporate raider', takes con ...
and eliminating competition in rail freight.
In 2008, the company declined to sell wagons which had reached the end of their useful life to other Australian rail operators, indicating that the wagons would be scrapped or exported to
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
The container freight service to
Horsham,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
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
QR National and later Qube.
Operations
Pacific National operates in all mainland states and territories. As of June 2012, the company operates 596 locomotives and 12,875 wagons. Services include bulk freight (
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
,
grain,
steel, ore),
intermodal container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...
s (domestic and import-export), and specialised services such as 'hook and pull' for long-distance passenger trains.
The Pacific National steel contract was renewed with
BlueScope
BlueScope Steel Limited is an Australian flat product steel producer that was spun-off from BHP Billiton in 2002.
History
BlueScope was formed when BHP Billiton spun-off its steel assets on 15 July 2002 as BHP Steel. It was renamed BlueSco ...
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
Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...
facilities at the Brisbane Freight Terminal in Queensland, the
Melbourne Freight Terminal in Victoria, the Sydney Freight Terminal in New South Wales, the Adelaide Freight Terminal in South Australia and the
Kewdale Freight Terminal in Western Australia.
Current locomotive fleet
In addition, Pacific National leases locomotives from
CFCL Australia
Rail First Asset Management (RailFirst), formerly known as CFCL Australia (CFCLA), is an Australian rolling stock leasing company operating in the rail freight market. It leases assets to a number of private rail operators in the local rail indus ...
and operates three
WH class locomotives on behalf of
Whitehaven Coal.
Former fleet
All
Pacific National Tasmania locomotives were sold to
TasRail
TasRail is the trading name of Tasmanian Railway Proprietary Limited, a Tasmanian Government state-owned enterprise that has operated the mainline railways in Tasmania since September 2009. It operates only freight services.
History
Establis ...
in 2009.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
{{commons category, Pacific National
Pacific National websiteAsciano websiteRailpage OrganisationsRailpage - Pacific National Locomotives
Interstate rail in Australia
Freight railway companies of Australia
Rail transport in Tasmania
2002 establishments in Australia
Railway companies established in 2002