The Docklands development could force some rail freight services to country
Victoria to transfer to road following the relocation of V/Line freight
operations.
Freight due to leave Melbourne on Friday remained in the city over the weekend
when Fast Track workers held a stopwork meeting over the relocation, which,
they say, will destroy the rail freight service.
The relocation will also involve further job losses in a V/Line area that has
seen staff numbers plummet from 1500 in the early 1980s to 70 permanent and
casual staff.
Fast Track, a subsidiary of the V/Line Freight Corporation, handles parcels
and pallet freight to country areas. It is earmarked for privatisation as part
of V/Line Freight later this year.
It shares the old Melbourne Freight Terminal with the Amcor and Toll groups,
which use rail to haul paper from Amcor's Maryvale paper plant in Gippsland.
But under the relocation plan, Fast Track and Amcor/Toll will move to a new
shared centre at the North Dynon railyards, although leases have not been
signed.
Fast Track workers are angry that they will get only one third of the space at
the new shed and that part of their operation will have to go to another site.
Fast Track will also have restricted use of the rail line at the North Dynon
site and a V/Line memorandum, obtained by The Sunday Age, explains that
"restricted rail loading and unloading environment" was a key factor in the
move to road haulage.
Seven of Fast Track's freight routes - Bendigo, Ballarat, Kerang, Swan Hill,
Warrnambool, Maryborough and Colac - will now be served by road instead of
rail.
The Public Transport Union says it is clear from the relocation plans that
V/Line wants Fast Track to fail and is anticipating a move to road freight
after privatisation.
A union spokesman, Mr Dave Kerin, said the facilities at North Dynon were
totally inadequate and would not allow the Fast Track business to grow and
prove itself viable. He said the plans contravened a management/union
agreement that the relocation would not prejudice the Fast Track business.
Mr Kerin said the Government's handling of Fast Track, combined with the
automatic ticketing "fiasco" in passenger transport, showed that its
privatisation plans were in tatters.
The chief executive officer of V/Line Freight Corporation, Mr Rod O'Loan, said
he expected the move from rail to road to be temporary and that the amount of
freight involved was "an important but not substantial" part of V/Line
Freight's business.
He said the Government required V/Line, under a community service obligation,
to provide service to rural areas; the move to road would not disadvantage
rural customers.
Mr O'Loan said the service would be in place for three years, but it was not
clear what would happen after that time under a new private owner.
He said he was also obliged to adhere to the enterprise bargaining agreement
relating to the privatisation of V/Line freight business and to make sure
V/Line was in good shape before privatisation.