Impediments to the competitiveness of rail sector in the Australian port-based container market

The number of containers handled by Australian seaports has quadrupled over the past two decades due to significant growth in Australia’s international trade and increasing population. This paper first aims to establish a transparent image of the role of rail in the Australian port-based container flows using both published statistics and authors’ original analysis and second, to empirically identify the key impediments to the competitiveness of rail in the port-based market. An in-depth survey was distributed among the ports with intermodal operations. The results identify that despite the significant growth in the container volumes, rail’s share in the land-based movement was very small, principally due to lower service levels. Data obtained from the survey shows that ports believe there is no effective transport policy in action to promote a greater role for rail. Second, respondents demonstrated that development of dedicated freight links from ports to the national rail network is essential for enhanced connectivity and improved service levels, but also as a key motivation for ports to invest in rail infrastructure. Finally, there is a strong belief that although more volumes are likely to be carried by rail due to growing market, it is hard to expect a greater market share.