One Rail Australia


One Rail Australia Pty Ltd is a private Australian rail freight operator company incorporated in February 2020. It is the successor to the first rail privatization in Australia's history, in 1997, by Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a short-line and regional freight railroad holding company based in the US that owned or maintained an interest in more than 100 railroads in several countries. A succession of company structures and joint ventures saw rail assets branded as Australian Southern Railroad from 1997 to 2006 and Genesee and Wyoming Australia from 2006 to 2020. One Rail Australia Pty Ltd is jointly owned by Stichting Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn and Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets.

History

On 1 November 1997, Genesee & Wyoming acquired the South Australian rail freight assets of Australian National from the Australian Government including a 50-year lease on the network from the Government of South Australia. Operations commenced in November 1997 with the operation branded Australian Southern Railroad.
In 1999, ASR commenced operating services from Adelaide to Melbourne for Patrick Corporation. On 1 December 1999, the company took over operation of the BHP Whyalla Tramway network.
In December 2000, Australian Railroad Group, a 50-50 joint venture between Genesee & Wyoming and Wesfarmers took over the Westrail freight business in Western Australia with the operation rebranded Australian Western Railroad. As part of the joint venture agreement, ownership of ASR passed to the ARG. In 2002 both ASR and AWR were brought together under the ARG brand.
In May 2001, ARG commenced operating services from Adelaide to Sydney via Broken Hill and Cootamundra. In December 2003, it commenced operating services within New South Wales when it commenced a five year contract to haul flour, grain and starch for the Manildra Group.
On 1 June 2006, ARG sold its Western Australian operations to Queensland Rail and WestNet Rail. Simultaneously, Wesfarmers sold its 50% interest in the remainder of ARG to Genesee & Wyoming with the operation rebranded Genesee & Wyoming Australia.
In 2008 GWA signed a five-year deal with ABB Grain to haul grain trains in Victoria.
In June 2010 GWA purchased the assets of FreightLink from its receivers leading to GWA taking over operation of freight trains on the Adelaide–Darwin railway. After this transaction, GWA became the largest of the 11 Genesee & Wyoming operating regions around the world.
On 1 December 2016, GWA, in conjunction with Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets, acquired Glencore's Hunter Valley business with GWI concurrently acquiring a 49% equity stake in GWA.
GWA already operated the Glencore rail assets with fellow Genesee & Wyoming subsidiary Freightliner under a 20-year contract, annually hauling some 40 million tonnes of coal to the Port of Newcastle.
When GWA's parent company was sold to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and GIC Private Limited in 2019, GWA was not included. Because Brookfield already has other rail assets in Australia that would likely lead to objections from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, G&W's 51% shareholding in GWA was sold separately to PGGM. It was rebranded as One Rail Australia.
In 2020 One Rail will commence operating a contract to haul coal in Queensland with five GWN class locomotives transferred from South Australia.

Operations

One Rail operates trains on narrow and standard gauge lines throughout South Australia and the Northern Territory, and in New South Wales and Victoria. Major traffic flows include intermodal, grain, gypsum, iron ore, manganese, copper and other minerals over a network.
When One Rail operates over track networks owned by others, including networks owned by the Australian Government and state governments, the owners of the network rather than the operators are responsible for scheduling the use of the tracks as well as for determining the amount and timing of the expenditures necessary to maintain the network in satisfactory condition. Therefore, in areas where One Rail operates over tracks owned by others, it is subject to train scheduling set by the owners as well as the risk that the network will not be adequately maintained.
In South Australia, if demand for services on a line ceases and no new demand eventuates, the rail track is classified as discontinued and put into a dormant state on care and maintenance for a period of five years. During this period One Rail are responsible for ongoing care, security and maintenance that includes maintaining the working order of all equipment, i.e. level crossings, signals, controls and switches so that a train can operate within 24 hours notice and will reinstate at its own cost if an access seeker negotiates to return a train to operation. The discontinued track is transferred back to the South Australian Government after five years if services do not return.

Lines

Multi-state

One Rail operates on interstate Australian Rail Track Corporation standard gauge lines.
A 50-year lease on the Tarcoola–Darwin line was acquired with the purchase of FreightLink in 2011. One Rail provides train control functions for the line, which is owned by the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium.

New South Wales

One Rail Australia operates coal haulage services through the Hunter Valley coal corridor along the Main Northern line.

South Australia

Under a 50-year contract that expires in 2047, One Rail leases the following lines from the Government of South Australia:

Broad gauge

As at October 2014, GWA owned 103 diesel-electric locomotives.
ClassImageNo.
in
use		No.
stored		GaugeMax.
speed
Year
built		Owner
when new;
class		Owner
before
GWA
500—1Standard801964SAR
ARG
700—3Standard1151971SAR
ARG
830210Broad,
standard,
narrow		1151960–
1966		SAR
ARG
9006—Broad,
narrow		1151960–
1966		SAR
ARG
12002—Narrow1960–
1967		WAGR
ARG
13004—Narrow1956–
1961		BHP
ARG
160031Narrow1971CR
ARG
19001—Narrow1972WAGR
ARG
22005—Standard1151969–
1970		Dept of
Railways
NSW
ARG
ALF7—Standard1151976–
1977		AN
ARG
CK4—Narrow1001967–
1968		VR
ARG
CLF2—Standard1151970–
1972		CR
ARG
CLP4—Standard1151970–
1972		CR
ARG
FJ2—Standard1151966WAGR
FreightLink
FQ4—Standard1152003FreightLink
FreightLink
GM19Standard1151965–
1967		CR
ARG
GWA10—Standard1152011–
2012		GWA
GWA
GWN5—Narrow1002012GWA
GWA
GWU9—Standard1152012GWA
GWA
XRN30—Standard1152010-12XstrataGlencore
GWB3—Standard1152019GWA
GWA
22505—Narrow1151971Queensland RailSouth Africa