WA grain rail package

The retention on grain haulage on rail in Western Australia is far more complex than first appears world events, national political agendas the fact these wheat branches have no other traffic other than grain really has sealed their fate.
It is not economic to spend huge amounts of money on lines that will see little if any use for a large part of the year.
Commodity prices are low and are not expected to incease any time soon therefore the producer [farmer] is looking to reduce costs at all stages including transport.
In the days of the one desk where only one buyer stood in the market freight costs could be subsidised the one desk is gone, there are numerous buyers in the market, they want flexibility and cheapest possible cartage and cross subsidisation is the last thing on their mind.
Decisions taken in some cases over 50 years ago liike closing and ripping up Corrigin Brookton line for examlpe. How much closer would that be now? Straight over to Brookton run to Avon yard down the valley to Forrestfield or Kwinana not up to Merredin tranship, load onto standard gauge run to Forrestfield Kwinana.
Through lines like Narrogin to Collie, Bruce Rock to Quairading, Merredin to Wyalkatchem were closed in the 1980s look now they would be useful as shorter routes.
Long before Westrail was sold, the dye was cast only main line operations forget the rest yes run 100 wagon 10,000 tonne wheat trains to Kwinana, easy done, its done in the US and Canada but remember wheat lines are struggling there too.

This info is a bit old but will kick this topic off in RailsWA.

Farmers want more from WA grain rail package
By Sineva Toevai

The Western Australian Farmers Federation has described the state government's $21.8 million commitment to keep grain on rail as a step in the right direction but has pushed for more funding.

WA transport minister Simon O'Brien announced on January 18th that the state government would contribute 50 per cent of the $43.5 million needed to re-sleeper the Avon-Albany rail line, $500,000 towards project development and pre-construction activities on the proposed Chester Pass Road upgrade and a $6.9 million assistance package to keep grain on rail during the current harvest.

But WA Farmers president Mike Norton said the grain freight package sounded “a lot better than it actually is”.
Mr Norton said about $129m million was needed to upgrade the Chester Pass Road.

“Western Australia's rail network is government-owned property and so it is up to the state government to elevate the standard of our grain freight network so that rail transportation is competitive with road,” he said.

[url] http://www.railexpress.com.au/archive/2010/january/january-20-2009/other-top-stories/news-in-brief-2013-13-19-january-2010 [/url]