Pacific National

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Pacific National Pty Ltd

NR103 at Spotswood in August 2005
Company type	Private company
Industry	Rail transport
Predecessor	FreightCorp National Rail
Founded	February 2002
Headquarters	Sydney , Australia
Area served	Mainland Australia
Services	Rail haulage services
Revenue	A$2,378 million (June 2017)
Operating income	A$443 million (June 2017)
Net income	A$260 million (June 2017)
Total assets	A$5,220 million (June 2017) 596 locomotives and 12,875 wagons (June 2012)
Total equity	A$1,274 million (June 2017)
Owner	Global Infrastructure Partners, CPP Investment Board, China Investment Corporation, GIC Private Limited and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation
Number of employees	approx. 4,000
Divisions	Bulk, Coal, Intermodal and Steel
Website	www.pacificnational.com.au

Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses.

In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments, were combined with FreightCorp, owned by the New South Wales Government,^[1] and sold to a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings, trading as Pacific National.^[2]

In February 2004, Pacific National purchased Australian Transport Network, operator of ATN Access and AN Tasrail.^[3][4] In August 2004, Pacific National purchased Freight Australia, giving Pacific National control of the Victorian non-urban rail track, excluding the interstate network which is controlled by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.^[5]

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission attached special conditions to the sale to ensure competition in the rail freight industry.^[6] The company was required to provide a "starter pack" of locomotives, wagons, train paths, and freight terminals for a third party rail operator on the east-west route across the Nullarbor Plain. To fulfil that, Pacific National sold nine refurbished G class locomotives to competitor SCT Logistics to allow it to operate its own services.^{[7][dead link]}

In March 2005, Pacific National Queensland became the first non-Queensland Rail narrow gauge commercial rail operation in Queensland, with the commencement of container services between Brisbane and Cairns.^[8][9]

In November 2006, Pacific National entered into an agreement to sell the remainder of its Victorian rail lease of the network back to the Victorian Government.^[10] The sale was completed in May 2007, with the government-owned V/Line taking over management of the track.^[11]

In 2005, Toll Holdings launched a successful hostile takeover of its joint venture partner Patrick Corporation, giving Toll Holdings 100% ownership of Pacific National.^[12] In 2007, Toll Holdings was restructured into two separately ASX listed companies: Toll Holdings and Asciano Limited. As part of this restructure, Pacific National became a wholly owned subsidiary of Asciano Limited.^[13]

In 2009, Pacific National Queensland further expanded its narrow gauge operations, entering the export coal market, then dominated by incumbent Queensland Rail.^[14]

In 2016, Asciano agreed to sell Pacific National to Australian Logistics Acquisition Investments Pty Ltd, a consortium of Global Infrastructure Partners, CPP Investment Board, China Investment Corporation, GIC Private Limited and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.^[15] The transfer was completed on 19 August 2016.^[16]

In September 2005, Pacific National angered the Tasmanian State and Australian Federal Governments when it threatened to withdraw all services unless the governments paid a $100 million subsidy.^[17] Initially the governments refused to act on the issue claiming they would not be "held to mercy" by Pacific National, owned by Toll and Patrick Corporation, "which are extremely profitable multi-national companies". However, state infrastructure minister Bryan Green and federal counterpart transport minister Warren Truss announced a $120 million rescue package.^[18]

In May 2007, the Tasmanian Government, the Federal Government and Pacific National came to an agreement regarding the funding, ownership and operation of the Tasmanian railway network; with the Tasmanian Government acquiring the railway infrastructure previously leased to Pacific National, who would continue to provide above rail services on the network.^[19] In September 2009, the Tasmanian Government purchased the Tasmanian rail business, with rail infrastructure and railway operations to be maintained, managed and owned by a new TasRail.^[20]

In December 2007, Pacific National announced plans to sell or close its grain transport and Portlink rural container business operations in Victoria, selling or closing Patrick's intermodal freight business in Tasmania, and downsizing to a bare minimum Pacific National's grain operations across New South Wales.^[21] The decision was criticised as it forced grain growers to use higher cost road transport to transport the annual grain harvest from rural silos to the ports.^[22] The decision has seen many commentators accuse Pacific National of acquiring the operations of Freight Australia in 2004 only for the purposes of asset stripping and eliminating competition in rail freight.^[23]

In 2008, the company declined to sell wagons which had reached the end of their useful life to other Australian rail operators, indicating that the wagons would be scrapped or exported to Saudi Arabia.^[24]

The container freight service to Horsham, Victoria was almost cancelled in April 2008 but was given a three-month reprieve by the company.^[25][26] In July 2008, the service was taken over by QR National and later Qube.^[27]

Pacific National operates in all mainland states and territories. As of June 2012, the company operates 596 locomotives and 12,875 wagons.^[28][29] Services include bulk freight (coal, grain, steel, ore), intermodal containers (domestic and import-export), and specialised services such as 'hook and pull' for long-distance passenger trains.

The Pacific National steel contract was renewed with BlueScope and OneSteel in 2006 for $1bn, making it the largest ever freight rail contract in Australia. The deal involves haulage of about 3 million tonnes of steel over seven years.^[30] Pacific National has intermodal freight facilities at the Brisbane Freight Terminal in Queensland, the Melbourne Freight Terminal in Victoria, the Sydney Freight Terminal in New South Wales, the Adelaide Freight Terminal in South Australia and the Kewdale Freight Terminal in Western Australia.

Class	Image	Type	Gauge	Top speed (km/h)	Built	Number	Notes
Rural and Bulk Division
82		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1994-1995	54	Ex FreightCorp.
830		Diesel-electric		115	1960-1963	3	Ex Australian Transport Network. 1 on-sold, 1 scrapped, 1 stored
48		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1959–1970	48	Ex FreightCorp. 16 In service
80		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1979-1983	22	13 stored, 5 scrapped, 4 operational
81		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1982-1991	84	Ex FreightCorp 83 in service, 1 scrapped, 8108, 8117 & 8121 allocated to Intermodal
BL		Diesel-electric	Standard, Broad	115	1983-1984	10	Ex National Rail Corporation. 9 in service. 1 stored
G		Diesel-electric	Broad, Standard	115	1985-1989	20	Ex National Rail Corporation and Freight Australia. 9 sold to SCT Logistics in 2007. G526, G530, G537, G538 & G542 allocated to intermodal
PL		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1999-2001	7	Ex FreightCorp, PL2-PL7 scrapped, PL1 in service port Augusta shunter
T		Diesel-electric	Broad, Standard	100	1964-1968	12	Ex Freight Australia, 1 in service, 3 sold, 4 scrapped & 4 stored
X		Diesel-electric	Broad, Standard	115	1966-1976	6	Ex Freight Australia. 4 stored.
XR		Diesel-electric	Broad, Standard	115	2002-2006	9	6 ex Freight Australia, 3 built in-house.
Y		Diesel-electric	Broad, Standard	65	1963-1968	11	Ex Freight Australia. All on-sold except for Y124
RT		Diesel mechanical	Broad, Standard	15	1957-1969	22	Ex Freight Australia. 4 stored.
Intermodal Division
94		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	2024-Present	50	Fleet rejuvenation in intermodal/interstate operations, plus future Inland Rail. Will have the Evolution series engine. 'C44ESACi'
AN		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1992-1993	10	Ex National Rail Corporation. AN1, AN3 & AN8 in service
DL		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1988-1990	14	Ex National Rail Corporation. All stored.
XRB		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	2005	3	Cabless units, all stored
NR		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1996-1999	117	Ex National Rail Corporation.
Coal Division
93		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	2012-2020	24
LDP		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	2009-2010	9	LDP001-LDP009 Sold to Pacific National.
90		Diesel-electric	Standard	80	1994-2005	35	Ex FreightCorp.
92		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	2008-2009	15
TT		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	2009-2012	40
Pacific National Queensland
71		Electric	Narrow	80	2009-2011	42
83		Diesel-electric	Narrow	100	2008-2013	52	8347-8352 entered service in 2018 ex Downer EDi.
88		Diesel-electric	Narrow	100	2014	5
PN		Diesel-electric	Narrow	100	2005	13
PH		Diesel-electric	Narrow	100	2014	3

Class	Image	Type	Gauge	Top speed (km/h)	Built	Number	Notes
A		Diesel-electric	Broad	115	1984	7	Ex Freight Australia. 6 Scrapped (71, 77, 79, 81, 83 and 85) and 1 (78) donated to SRHC
S		Diesel-electric	Broad, Standard	115	1957	3	Ex Freight Australia. S301, S306 & S307 all on sold to heritage groups in 2023 and 2024
P		Diesel-electric	Broad	100	1985	5	Ex Freight Australia. P19, P21, P22 and P23 on sold. P20 donated to 707 Operations
D16		Diesel-electric	Standard	35	1959-1964	12	Handed back to BlueScope
D35		Diesel-electric	Standard	50	1975	1	Handed back to BlueScope.
PB		Hybrid	Standard	80	2014-	7	Sold To watco
45		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	1962	2	Ex Patrick Corporation. Both scrapped.
MKA		Diesel-electric	Narrow	80	1967-1972	3	Purchased from Malaysia. Used in Queensland 2004-2006. Transferred to Pacific National Tasmania. Sold to TasRail.
H		Diesel-electric	Broad and Standard	100	1968	5	Ex Freight Australia. 1 scrapped (H4). 1 stored (H1) and 3 sold to Ettamogah Rail Hub in 2015 (H2, H3 + H5) then H1 - H3 + H5 on solf to WATCO Aus Mid-2023.
L		Diesel-electric	Standard	137	1967-69, 1972-73	2	Ex ATN Access. Both scrapped.
V		Diesel-electric	Standard	115	2002	1	Ex Freight Australia. Sold to One Rail Australia 5/2021.[31]

All Pacific National Tasmania locomotives were sold to TasRail in 2009.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pacific National.

• Pacific National website
• Asciano website
• Railpage Organisations
• Railpage - Pacific National Locomotives