Pacific National

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Pacific National Pty Ltd
Company typePrivate company
Industry Rail transport
Predecessor FreightCorp
National Rail
FoundedFebruary 2002
Headquarters
Sydney
,
Australia
Area served
Mainland Australia
ServicesRail haulage services
RevenueDecrease2.svg A$2,378 million (June 2017)
Decrease2.svg A$443 million (June 2017)
Decrease2.svg A$260 million (June 2017)
Total assets Decrease2.svg A$5,220 million (June 2017)
596 locomotives and 12,875 wagons (June 2012)
Total equity Decrease2.svg A$1,274 million (June 2017)
Owner Global Infrastructure Partners, CPP Investment Board, China Investment Corporation, GIC Private Limited and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation
Number of employees
approx. 4,000
Divisions Bulk, Coal, Intermodal and Steel
Website www.pacificnational.com.au

Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses.

Contents

History

NR16 hauling The Overland at North Shore, November 2008 Pacific National liveried NR16.jpg
NR16 hauling The Overland at North Shore, November 2008

In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments, were combined with FreightCorp, owned by the New South Wales Government, [1] and sold to a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings, trading as Pacific National. [2]

In February 2004, Pacific National purchased Australian Transport Network, operator of ATN Access and AN Tasrail. [3] [4] In August 2004, Pacific National purchased Freight Australia, giving Pacific National control of the Victorian non-urban rail track, excluding the interstate network which is controlled by the Australian Rail Track Corporation. [5]

Pacific National train departing from Bathurst, February 2009 Pacific National departing Bathurst.jpg
Pacific National train departing from Bathurst, February 2009

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission attached special conditions to the sale to ensure competition in the rail freight industry. [6] 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. To fulfil that, Pacific National sold nine refurbished G class locomotives to competitor SCT Logistics to allow it to operate its own services. [7] [ dead link ]

In March 2005, 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. [8] [9]

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. [10] The sale was completed in May 2007, with the government-owned V/Line taking over management of the track. [11]

In 2005, Toll Holdings launched a successful hostile takeover of its joint venture partner Patrick Corporation, giving Toll Holdings 100% ownership of Pacific National. [12] In 2007, Toll Holdings was restructured into two separately ASX listed companies: Toll Holdings and Asciano Limited. As part of this restructure, Pacific National became a wholly owned subsidiary of Asciano Limited. [13]

In 2009, Pacific National Queensland further expanded its narrow gauge operations, entering the export coal market, then dominated by incumbent Queensland Rail. [14]

In 2016, Asciano agreed to sell Pacific National to Australian Logistics Acquisition Investments Pty Ltd, a consortium of Global Infrastructure Partners, CPP Investment Board, China Investment Corporation, GIC Private Limited and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. [15] The transfer was completed on 19 August 2016. [16]

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. [17] 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. [18]

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. [19] 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. [20]

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. [21] 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. [22] 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. [23]

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. [24]

The container freight service to Horsham, Victoria was almost cancelled in April 2008 but was given a three-month reprieve by the company. [25] [26] In July 2008, the service was taken over by QR National and later Qube. [27]

Operations

Pacific National operates in all mainland states and territories. As of June 2012, the company operates 596 locomotives and 12,875 wagons. [28] [29] Services include bulk freight (coal, grain, steel, ore), intermodal containers (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 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. [30] 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, the Adelaide Freight Terminal in South Australia and the Kewdale Freight Terminal in Western Australia.

Current locomotive fleet

ClassImageTypeGaugeTop speed
(km/h)
BuiltNumberNotes
Rural and Bulk Division
82 8230 at Kiama.png Diesel-electric Standard 1151994-199554Ex FreightCorp.
830 830 class loco-South Australia.jpg Diesel-electric1151960-19633Ex Australian Transport Network. 1 on-sold, 1 scrapped, 1 stored
48 48214 at Cootamundra.png Diesel-electric Standard 1151959–197048Ex FreightCorp. 16 In service
80 Pacific National 80 class loco (8013) at Port Kembla Downer EDi.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1151979-19832213 stored, 5 scrapped, 4 operational
81 Pacific National 81 class locos (8169 and 8137) at the Temora Sub Terminal.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1151982-199184Ex FreightCorp 83 in service, 1 scrapped, 8108, 8117 & 8121 allocated to Intermodal
BL Freight train on Stony Point railway line, Melbourne.jpg Diesel-electric Standard, Broad 1151983-198410Ex National Rail Corporation. 9 in service. 1 stored
S Pacific National S Class Locomotive.JPG Diesel-electric Broad, Standard 11519573Ex Freight Australia. S301 stored Newport, S306 & S307 on sold
A Lyndhurst-cement-train-newport.jpg Diesel-electric Broad 11519847Ex Freight Australia. 6 Scrapped (71, 77, 79, 81, 83 and 85) and 1 (78) Stored as of 10 April 2020.
G SSR Grain Crosses PN Mildura Fruit.jpg Diesel-electric Broad, Standard 1151985-198920Ex National Rail Corporation and Freight Australia. 9 sold to SCT Logistics in 2007. G526, G530, G537, G538 & G542 allocated to intermodal
P P22 trailing T357.jpg Diesel-electric Broad 10019855Ex Freight Australia. 4 on-sold 1 stored
PL PL6 Pelton.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1151999-20017Ex FreightCorp, PL2-PL7 scrapped, PL1 in service port Augusta shunter
T Restored victorian railways train.jpg Diesel-electric Broad, Standard 1001964-196812Ex Freight Australia, 1 in service, 3 sold, 4 scrapped & 4 stored
X X41 Stabled at Seymour.JPG Diesel-electric Broad, Standard 1151966-19766Ex Freight Australia. 4 stored.
XR Loco-xr558-xr552-nog.jpg Diesel-electric Broad, Standard 1152002-200696 ex Freight Australia, 3 built in-house.
Y El-zorro-y145-loco.jpg Diesel-electric Broad, Standard 651963-196811Ex Freight Australia. All on-sold except for Y124
RT RT class.jpg Diesel mechanical Broad, Standard 151957-196922Ex Freight Australia. 4 stored.
Intermodal Division
94 Diesel-electric Standard 1152024-Present50
AN Pacific National AN Class.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1151992-199310Ex National Rail Corporation. AN1, AN3 & AN8 in service
DL PN DL45 TwoWells Dec2007.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1151988-199014Ex National Rail Corporation. All stored.
XRB Diesel-electric Standard 11520053Cabless units, all stored
NR Pacific National liveried NR16.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1151996-1999117Ex National Rail Corporation.
Coal Division
93 Pacific National 9307 at Taree.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1152012-202024
LDP LDP005.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1152009-20109LDP001-LDP009 Sold to Pacific National.
90 9018 at Branxton (Cropped).jpg Diesel-electric Standard 801994-200535Ex FreightCorp.
92 Pacific National 92 Class.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1152008-200915
TT TT110 at Metford.jpg Diesel-electric Standard 1152009-201240
Pacific National Queensland
71 Electric Narrow 802009-201142
83 Diesel-electric Narrow 1002008-2013528347-8352 entered service in 2018 ex Downer EDi.
88 Diesel-electric Narrow 10020145
PN PN Class Loco PN002 at Downer EDI Maryborough (Qld)..jpg Diesel-electric Narrow 100200513
PH Diesel-electric Narrow 10020143

In addition, Pacific National leases locomotives from CFCL Australia and operates three WH class locomotives on behalf of Whitehaven Coal.

Former fleet

ClassImageTypeGaugeTop speed
(km/h)
BuiltNumberNotes
D16 Diesel-electric Standard 351959-196412Handed back to BlueScope
D35 Diesel-electric Standard 5019751Handed back to BlueScope.
PB Pacific National PB Class.jpg Hybrid Standard 802014-7Sold To watco
45 Diesel-electric Standard 11519622Ex Patrick Corporation. Both scrapped.
MKA Diesel-electric Narrow 801967-19723Purchased from Malaysia. Used in Queensland 2004-2006. Transferred to Pacific National Tasmania. Sold to TasRail.
H Victorian Railways H Class H1.JPG Diesel-electric Broad 10019682Ex Freight Australia. 1 stored. 3 sold to Ettamogah Rail Hub in 2015.
L Diesel-electric Standard 1371967-69, 1972-732Ex ATN Access. Both scrapped.
V Diesel-electric Standard 11520021Ex Freight Australia. Sold to One Rail Australia 5/2021. [31]

All Pacific National Tasmania locomotives were sold to TasRail in 2009.

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References

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Bibliography

  • Avery, Rod (2006). Freight Across the Nation: The Australian Superfreighter Experience. Brisbane: Copyright Publishing Co. ISBN   1876344474.