The ARA is continuing to advocate for greater investment in rail freight ahead of the 2026-27 Federal Budget, highlighting the essential role rail will play in meeting current and future freight needs.
The ARA was pleased to see Infrastructure Australia’s Infrastructure Priority List, released in March, recognised the need for coordinated investment over the next 10 years to strengthen rail freight capacity and resilience and support greater use of rail across the national freight network.
The ARA welcomed Infrastructure Australia’s recognition of the value of rail freight and the importance of ongoing investment in the sector.
We were particularly pleased to see Infrastructure Australia’s focus on modernising rail infrastructure, improving interoperability, providing dedicated freight railways and strengthening connectivity, which aligned with the recommendations to support greater use of rail freight outlined in the ARA’s pre-budget submission.
The ARA has advocated for a long-term, recurrent Network Investment Program to address ageing infrastructure, improve resilience and support mode shift to rail in the freight sector.
Rail freight generates 16 times less carbon pollution compared to road and delivers significant safety and health benefits for the community.
However modal share on the east coast freight network in particular has declined in recent decades, with only two per cent of freight between Melbourne and Sydney moving by rail.
The ARA’s earlier Future of Freight report highlighted the range of obstacles to greater use of rail in the sector, and outlined a series of measures to support mode shift to rail as part of a more productive and sustainable freight sector.
The ARA is advocating for long-term funding for the maintenance, upgrade, modernisation and resilience of the national freight network to support improved transit times, reliability, capacity and resilience on nationally significant freight corridors.