The Guardian 2 April, 2008
The train wreck of rail privatisation
Anna Pha
"Victorian railways are characterised by ageing infrastructure and rolling stock. Additional risk monitoring, asset replacement programs, maintenance and speed monitoring strategies are required to prevent serious accidents like collisions and derailments," a report by the Victorian government’s public transport safety experts has warned. At the same time Pacific National is threatening to stop operating major freight trains (mostly grain) because it says the tracks are in such poor conditions the trains have to travel too slowly.
The report, stamped "confidential", was written back in January 2006 but its contents were only revealed to the public by The Age newspaper two weeks ago.
The system was so old and run down that it posed a risk to public safety. That was 18 months before the tragic Kerang rail accident in which 11 people died in June 2007.
The report stated that the improvements in rail safety promised when the former Kennett Liberal government privatised the rail system in 1999 had not eventuated. At the time premier Jeff Kennett claimed that privatisation would save $1.8 billion and bring $1.6 billion in infrastructure investment. The private contractors made commitments to upgrade and increase services.
In late 2002, the National Express Group walked away from its three franchises. By then Labor was in government and the franchises owed $55 million to around 900 creditors. Forget the public savings, it became a question of how much more the public would pay out. Privatisation also failed on infrastructure improvements.
The government stepped in to ensure metropolitan tram and train and country V/Line passenger services continued.
The other operators, Connex and Yarra Trams, also ran into difficulties and attempted significant restructurings.
The privatisation of Victoria’s public transport system collapsed, despite the government varying their contracts and increasing its subsidies.
Ian Hammond, writing in the International Railway Journal (July 2003) notes that a major shortcoming of the privatisation model was the lack of investment associated with it. "The previous government trumpeted the prospect that the new operators would invest many millions of dollars in new rolling stock, but in fact the number of vehicles ordered fell far short of the needs for fleet renewals, particularly considering the previous dearth of investment and the fact that the franchise terms were between 10 and 15 years."
Today Connex operates and maintains the rolling stock and tracks for metropolitan rail and Yarra Trams likewise for public trams with new franchises.
Pacific National took over the country rail freight operations and network under another franchise. About 18 months ago the government spent $120 million to purchase back the maintenance of infrastructure because it was in such a poor condition!
Now, having failed to maintain the infrastructure and pocketing money for their effort, Pacific National is threatening to stop operating major freight trains, mostly wheat, because the tracks which they had responsibility for are in such poor condition.
If it does, then workers in the various depots face the sack, and roads that were not built to take such freight will suffer considerable damage and congestion. Communities will feel the brunt of the extra heavy traffic — safety-wise and from the pollution.
Anyone who has travelled recently on major highways has horror stories to tell about close shaves with long, heavy articulated vehicles. The winding back of rail freight that has already occurred has created extremely dangerous conditions; there needs to be less not more heavy vehicles on the highways.
Freight and passenger services would be far better off if the government were to take back the maintenance and operation of services, to completely remove it from the private for-profit sector.
History in Australia and experiences in Britain, New Zealand and elsewhere show that privatisation of public transport results in endless massive handouts to the private sector, failure to meet passenger needs and the running down of infrastructure through neglect of maintenance. Eventually governments are left holding the bills and fixing the system as the big corporations walk away, pocketing their profits.