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Well...it seams Rail America has finally given up on thier Australian subsady, "Freight Australia"...and on the 17th of August 2004, Freight Australia was offically sold to Pacific National.From this site....http://au.news.yahoo.com/040816/3/qcbd.htmlMonday August 16, 07:52 PM Australia's Victoria Allows Pacific National To Acquire Freight Australia MELBOURNE, Aug 16 Asia in Focus - PACIFIC NATIONAL has been given the greenlight to acquire Victorian rail operator FREIGHT AUSTRALIA. Pacific National, a joint venture of TOLL HOLDINGS LTD (ASX:TOL) and PATRICK CORP LTD (ASXRK), had signed an agreement to buy Freight Australia from RAILAMERICA INC in March.* The state government's consent for the $A285 million ($US203.42 million) acquisition was needed under Freight Australia's 45-year lease of the Victorian freight network. ADVERTISEMENT
* Freight Australia principally hauls grain in Victoria and provides rail track infrastructure services. This would now mean that there are 2 major railways in Australia...Pacific National (AKA...PacNat) and GWI owned Australian Railroad Group (AKA: ARG).Also for anyone in the West...gone are the days of seeing V, G and/or X Class hauling SCT Trains between Perth and Melbourne...it will be AN or NR hauled trains.PHOTOGRAPH FREIGHT AUSTRALIA WHILE YOU CAN!!! I know I will be in October!!>Mike Forster< Perth, Western Australiapacificnational_nr103@hotmail.com http://www.trainweb.org/aussiepix
so, what, there's only three main players in Australian rail now? GWI (or Australian Rail Group, i guess is the proper name for that divison) PN, and VR?!Wonde rif the US allowed monopolies such as that if it owuld look the same (yeah, GWI is trying to take over the planet you all should know that)
-------- If you're gonna send me an email, send it to JNetzlof@alltel.net Thank you!
No....here is what happened.....VR in 1982(ish) became "Vline" which controlled all freight and passenger movements in Victoria. In 1995...they split into "Vline Passenger" (Blue/Red/White scheme) and "Vline Freight" (Grey/Orange). In 1998, Rail America purchased V/Line Freight to form "Freight Victoria". Later on...they renamed themselves to "Freight Australia" after picking contracts for cross-country trains. Now they are Pacific National.There are QR (perhaps thats what you meant! ), PN, ARG....and about a billion small rail operators like South Spur Rail, LVRF, CFCLC Australia...etc...>Mike Forster< Perth, Western Australiapacificnational_nr103@hotmail.com http://www.trainweb.org/aussiepix
