Greens rail against trucks in NSW

Venue : Ballina: Intersection of Kerr Street and the Pacific Highway (This is the northern end of Kerr Street where it forms a T intersection with the Pacific Highway and Bangalow Road)

Time : 1 pm 23 January 2007.

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon will join Ballina candidate, John Bailey, on Tuesday January 23 rd to launch the Greens policy to shift freight transport back to rail and away from heavy trucks on our roads. This policy will phase out B-Doubles and other heavy freight trucks from the Pacific Highway.

“ The Greens are committed to banning B-Doubles from all NSW roads. We are working to phase out heavy freight trucks on the Pacific Highway by 2011. This is achieveable if we expand rural freight lines”, said Ms Rhiannon

Ms Rhiannon is campaigning on the north coast of NSW in the week starting January 22nd.

Mr Bailey said “About 350 B-Double trucks use the Pacific Highway each day. These trucks thunder through North Coast communities creating a road safety hazard and spewing out greenhouse gases.

“ The Bureau of Transport & Regional Economics predicts that domestic freight movements will increase by 80% between 2000 – 2020. This means there could be an extra 50,000 trucks on Australian roads by 2020. Communities along the Pacific Highway cannot sustain this increase.

“ The Pacific Highway still has many windy single-lane sections that desperately need upgrading. These trucks are accidents waiting to happen. On the National Highway System in NSW, about 1 road fatality in 3 involves an articulated truck.

Ms Rhiannon said “The ALP and the Coalition are all talk and no action on this issue. The Iemma government has forced freight onto the Pacific Highway by subsidising truck registration and relegating rural rail lines around NSW to the rust-pile.

“ Moving freight by rail is the cleaner, greener and safer option. Premier Iemma must rise to the challenge of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and restore the rural rail network in NSW”, Ms Rhiannon said.

Greens candidate for Ballina, John Bailey, said it is time the major parties stopped playing politics and made a firm and irreversal commitment to bringing back the Casino-Murwillumbah train.

“ Big freight trucks are clogging up our roads, ploughing through our communities, polluting our air and causing accidents on the North Coast. Meanwhile rural rail lines are decaying under our noses.

“ Getting freight ‘back on track' and off the Pacific Highway will be good for the environment, for road safety and for local communities”, Mr Bailey said.

For more information : Lee Rhiannon 9230 3551, 0427 861 568

John Bailey 6684 6126

Background:

Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of freight moved by road, rather than rail. The Bureau of Transport & Regional Economics predicts that domestic freight movements will increase by 80% between 2000 – 2020. This means there could be an extra 50,000 trucks on Australian roads by 2020. Already, there has been a more than threefold increase in the Australian ‘population' of B-doubles since 1997 (National Transport Commission, Facts on Freight Growth, Feb 2006).

This increase in freight trucks is becoming unsustainable on the Pacific Highway.

At the same time, rural rail in NSW is in a state of disrepair. Rural branch lines are closing or in decay and major lines are in poor condition. The parlous state of the NSW rail system is forcing freight onto our roads. Rail is underused:

• Between Melbourne and Brisbane: only 15% of freight goes by rail

• Between Melbourne and Sydney: only 10% of freight goes by rail

Rail is a cleaner, safer and cheaper alternative to transport freight

Transport by rail produces less greenhouse gases, which helps stop climate change. Road freight is the most energy intensive way of moving freight. Australia has the highest road freight per capita in the world and therefore the highest green house gas emission from freight movements per capita in the world (Austroads, Australia at the crossroads, 1997).

Trains are involved in significantly less crashes each year. One in four truck drivers on NSW roads were involved in an accident in 2005, while more than 40 per cent narrowly avoided an accident in that time. On the National Highway System in NSW, about 1 road fatality in 3 involves an articulated truck (Prof Phillip Laird, Inquiry into road and rail freight infrastructure pricing, Nov 2006)

Log books obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald show that a significant number of trucks have been found speeding along the Pacific Highway. Speeding freight trucks are a huge concern for road safety.

State government subsidies to heavy trucks

The real cost of road freight is hidden by generous government subsidies. This gives large heavy trucks an unfair advantage over rail freight.

The registration fee for B-Double trucks in NSW is heavily subsidised. It costs only $7,426 per year to register an 8 axle B-Double. 10 years ago, registration for B-Doubles was over $11,000 per year.

This registration fee does not take into account external costs associated with heavy trucks, such as the costs of road accidents, air pollution, health and environmental damage.

If these real costs were properly accounted for, road freight rates would have to go up 12% (relative to 2000) – but rail rates would only increase by 4%.