The future for rail - a QR perspective

• There are a number of major projects in the QR pipeline, how will existing and future plans be affected by the current State governments planned restructuring of the organisation?
This is a really interesting question and I’m sure I’ll be spending a lot of time talking to my colleagues about that at AusRAIL. The key message is that at QR it’s ‘business as usual’. That is what our owners have said to us. They continue to support us as we manage this period which is of course uncertain, until we find out exactly what is going to happen.

My key message in our company is, as I say ‘business as usual’. It’s about safety, it’s about looking after our customers, it’s about performing well commercially and it’s about growing the business. We are focussed on all of these things and we have a series of plans underway around this.

We are seeing evidence of continuing improvement in our business. Some of the recent contracts that we’ve won show that, even in this period of uncertainty, we’re keeping our eye on the ball: we’re really focussed on looking after our customers, we’re really focussed on growing our business. Ultimately the question of privatisation is what we are interested in, but it’s a question for the owners.

• Rail is touted as the future for freight transport in a carbon constrained world, but some claim much of the existing road freight task is not interchangeable with rail. How can rail better position itself for the anticipated growth in freight towards 2030?
I think this has got to be a debate that is less about either/or and instead about how we do more with less. How we cooperate and how we really get the best out of a multimodal environment in Australia.

This is a debate that’s been going on for a while and that I’ve been engaged in from lots of different perspectives. As we think about carbon constrained growth and the scale of the growth, and notwithstanding the scale of the GFC, we still expect to see interstate volumes double in the next 15 years.

We can see the size of the resource task in Australia. Rail is well positioned around this and furthermore, we have the environmental advantage. We are building on the work that has been going on in the freight networks, particularly the investment that has gone into the interstate network, the considerable spending by the ARTC.

The challenge is how to take advantage of all of that: how do we have the right terminals? How do we put together, the right quality of service? How do we get the message out there that we have these environmental credentials and that we are able to trade on it to take maximum advantage out of it? Again, this is a large part of the discussion I think we’ve got to have as an industry and with our customers in the days, weeks and months ahead.

• Finally Lance, what positive messages do you hope to see coming out of AusRAIL Plus 2009?
I think it is all about leadership. We are in a very different situation [compared to previous years], we’ve experienced the real impact of the GFC over the last 12 months. Yet there is so much going on in our industry; whether, as in our case, it’s the whole question of privatisation and what it will mean for us, our major competitor in the freight space has been through a revitalisation, we can see the tremendous growth the passenger parts of our business are achieving, there are lots of great opportunities out there. Equally, there are lots of challenges that we’ve got to meet head on. That’s where leadership is important.

This is the opportunity for the entire breadth of leadership in and around this industry to come together, understand what those challenges are, talk about it and demonstrate the kind of leadership we need to really take our industry and our businesses forward. I’m looking forward to it. I think its going to be a great time and we’ll get a really good ‘kick along’ out of this conference. I think it will be a great time.

Siemens delivers first Class 7100 locomotive to Pacific National

The first Class 7100 locomotive for Pacific National was today dispatched from the Siemens Locomotive Manufacturing Plant in Munich enroute to Australia. Scheduled to arrive in early April, the narrow gauge, 25kV heavy haul electric locomotive is being transported from Brisbane to its commissioning site in the Queensland Goonyella Coal System by rail. The balance of the locomotives are currently under construction and testing, and will be delivered progressively over the next 12 months.

In late 2007 Pacific National awarded Siemens a contract for the design, supply, testing and commissioning, and warranty support of the Class 7100 locomotives. This milestone marked the award to Siemens of the third contract for this locomotive type within a two year period.

Mr. Philip Tonks, Project Director, Pacific National Queensland Coal, stated that the new Siemens locomotives form a key component of Pacific National’s objective to secure a portion of the coal export market in Queensland.

“Pacific National is Australia’s largest private rail freight business - therefore, to maintain our leadership in high volume rail haulage, we need to be at the forefront of innovative rail technologies that will provide competitive answers for our transport customers.

“We see our partnership with Siemens as an opportunity to leverage on their global experience of manufacturing rolling stock, which combines our need for innovation as well as a high level of service.

“Due to the continuous demand for our services, we need to be assured of the locomotives’ safety, reliability and efficiency. Minimising downtime is a priority for us and we believe that Siemens electric locomotives, service and spare parts logistics will be effective in meeting our needs,” Mr. Tonks reported.

Siemens Vice President, Mobility, Mr. Paul Bennett, said Siemens is pleased to be working with Pacific National and providing world class locomotives to support their entry into the Queensland coal market.

“Our locomotives are designed and built in Germany with bogies from our global Centre of Competence located in Graz, Austria and will enable Pacific National to deliver a reliable operation in the arduous heavy haul coal operations over a lifetime of at least 30 years.

“The Class 7100 locomotives are customised to meet specific requirements of rail operation in Australia and are part of the Siemens locomotive family E40AC, designed for heavy duty freight services which provides the highest reliability combined with low maintenance cost.

“The locomotives are equipped with three bogies - each with two powered axles - providing many operational advantages. These benefits include low weight shift, low lateral and vertical forces and optimum weight distribution enabling maximum load haulage.

“We are also proud of the PN 7100’s low energy consumption which significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions due to the highly efficient AC drive system and regenerative braking ability. Adding to this, the high traction locomotives maximise the use of the available track adhesion and thus, the payload which can be hauled by each train, resulting in improved cost efficiencies,” Mr. Bennett confirmed.

Ansaldo STS wins EUR 12 million (AUD 20 million) order from Trenitalia

Ansaldo STS, the lead bidder of a temporary consortium set up with Alstom Ferroviaria, has acquired a multi-year contract from Trenitalia for the maintenance of the on-board signalling system on 32 high-speed ETR 500 trains.

The maintenance services relate to the safety and signalling systems designed and built by Ansaldo STS to the European standard (ERTMS L2), which are fitted on the ETR 500 trains.

The value of the EUR 25 million contract to Ansaldo STS is EUR 12 million (AUD 20 million).

Siemens delivers first Class 7100 locomotive to Pacific National

The first Class 7100 locomotive for Pacific National was today dispatched from the Siemens Locomotive Manufacturing Plant in Munich enroute to Australia. Scheduled to arrive in early April, the narrow gauge, 25kV heavy haul electric locomotive is being transported from Brisbane to its commissioning site in the Queensland Goonyella Coal System by rail. The balance of the locomotives are currently under construction and testing, and will be delivered progressively over the next 12 months.

In late 2007 Pacific National awarded Siemens a contract for the design, supply, testing and commissioning, and warranty support of the Class 7100 locomotives. This milestone marked the award to Siemens of the third contract for this locomotive type within a two year period.

Mr. Philip Tonks, Project Director, Pacific National Queensland Coal, stated that the new Siemens locomotives form a key component of Pacific National’s objective to secure a portion of the coal export market in Queensland.

“Pacific National is Australia’s largest private rail freight business - therefore, to maintain our leadership in high volume rail haulage, we need to be at the forefront of innovative rail technologies that will provide competitive answers for our transport customers.

“We see our partnership with Siemens as an opportunity to leverage on their global experience of manufacturing rolling stock, which combines our need for innovation as well as a high level of service.

“Due to the continuous demand for our services, we need to be assured of the locomotives’ safety, reliability and efficiency. Minimising downtime is a priority for us and we believe that Siemens electric locomotives, service and spare parts logistics will be effective in meeting our needs,” Mr. Tonks reported.

Siemens Vice President, Mobility, Mr. Paul Bennett, said Siemens is pleased to be working with Pacific National and providing world class locomotives to support their entry into the Queensland coal market.

“Our locomotives are designed and built in Germany with bogies from our global Centre of Competence located in Graz, Austria and will enable Pacific National to deliver a reliable operation in the arduous heavy haul coal operations over a lifetime of at least 30 years.

“The Class 7100 locomotives are customised to meet specific requirements of rail operation in Australia and are part of the Siemens locomotive family E40AC, designed for heavy duty freight services which provides the highest reliability combined with low maintenance cost.

“The locomotives are equipped with three bogies - each with two powered axles - providing many operational advantages. These benefits include low weight shift, low lateral and vertical forces and optimum weight distribution enabling maximum load haulage.

“We are also proud of the PN 7100’s low energy consumption which significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions due to the highly efficient AC drive system and regenerative braking ability. Adding to this, the high traction locomotives maximise the use of the available track adhesion and thus, the payload which can be hauled by each train, resulting in improved cost efficiencies,” Mr. Bennett confirmed.
Siemens. Innovation for generations.

For more information, please contact Siemens in Australia on 131 773 and in New Zealand on +64 9 580 5500 or visit www.siemens.com.au