News
Issue No. 15 - February/March 2004
Adelaide—Darwin rail link is Open for Business
by Mr Bruce McGowan
January 15 2004 heralded a new and momentous era for the movement of freight from Australia’s southern markets to the north and beyond with the launch of the first freight train to make the journey from Adelaide to Darwin.
It also marked the debut of FreightLink, the country’s newest rail freight line owner and operator.
The newly completed 1,400km AustralAsia Railway (Alice Springs to Darwin link) now connects our southern markets via Adelaide with central Australia, Darwin to Asia and beyond.
It’s a connection that is set to create commercial opportunities, possibilities and potential once only dreamed of by Northern Territory and South Australian industry.
Beyond our shores, we also want to create opportunities to improve access to new markets particularly in Asia. The rail link, built mainly to carry freight, will create new export and import opportunities through the newly developed Port of Darwin, cutting transit times from southern Australian markets into Asia by up to six days.
FreightLink is offering freight forwarders, importers and exporters the very best when it comes to service — a competitive and reliable rail freight service that is comparable with road, particularly when it comes to pricing.
Each 3,000km one—way trip will take less than 46 hours and our timetables are designed to connect with regular interstate freight train schedules through Adelaide, providing competitive transit times with road transport.
We’re very confident in our ability to achieve our aim because rail is the ideal choice for industries that depend on low cost land transport and reliable delivery to be commercially competitive.
Transporting large volumes of freight over long distances by rail offers significant advantages compared to road and sea transport. It’s faster; increasing the shelf life of perishables, and is less labour intensive.
It’s envisaged that FreightLink will carry some 80% of the c...
