NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison will be a guest speaker at the ARA Rail Freight Conference, the only dedicated conference of its kind in Australia.
Ms Aitchison is a great supporter of rail freight and recently announced the opening of the new $6.2 million rail siding upgrade at Red Bend in Forbes, NSW. It is estimated the Red Bend upgrade will divert 26,000 tonnes of grain annually from trucks to trains, which would remove an estimated 660 truck movements from Central West roads.
The ARA Rail Freight Conference brings together senior executives from the rail freight and intermodal sectors, with presentations on the latest developments in the industry.
The program will include presentations on:
· Sustainability
· Technology and innovation
· Inland rail
· Intermodal and ports
· Supply chain
· Operations and productivity
To view the full program of speakers and panellists, visit the ARA website.
There is growing national attention on network interoperability, rail mode share and achieving net zero freight.
The ARA’s Rail Freight Strategic Plan, overseen by our Rail Freight Executive Committee, underpins our advocacy agenda.
The joint ARA-FORG Future of Freight campaign and landmark research report, launched last year, highlighted the need for rail to play a greater role to meet the nation’s growing freight task. The project made significant recommendations with a key focus on achieving modal shift, addressing infrastructure and planning requirements and safe and operations.
The second phase of activity over the coming months will focus our efforts on proactive government relations and advocating for adoption of the recommendations as part of their freight strategies.
The ARA’s CEO Caroline Wilkie was recently reappointed to the NSW Ministerial Freight Transport Advisory Council and invited to join a new Freight Victoria Industry Stakeholder Reference Group to provide expert input and advice for the refresh of the Victorian Freight Plan.
The ARA’s Rail Freight Executive Committee (RFEC) brings together senior leaders from across the rail industry including freight operators, track owners and port operators whose core goal is to ensure the rail industry can play a larger role supporting the nation’s growing freight task.