John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With the welcome and necessary upgrading of the Strathfield to Broadmeadow line, the noise from diesel locomotives is set to become an increasing problem for many of my constituents, particularly at night. Sixty valuable electric locomotives were scrapped under the Howard government because the bean counters falsely claimed that the cost of electricity was making them too expensive to operate. In fact, the cost of diesel fuel is at least as great as if not greater than the cost of electricity to haul the same load across the mountains, and that does not include the gain that can be made by using regenerated power produced on the downgrade to drive other trains in the opposite direction. That was a well-established practice in the Blue Mountains until the electric freight locomotives were withdrawn. The false claim that the cost of electricity was too high led to their scrapping despite opposition from senior engineers in rolling stock.

Before all the electric locomotives were withdrawn from service, the New South Wales railways rolling stock and freight division was in the middle of a modest electrification expansion plan that would have seen electric freight services extended to Port Botany. The half-finished wiring structures are still there. Incredibly, most of the freight from Port Botany now goes by truck.

Of course, there will be considerable resistance from the entrenched interests in the railways, who were responsible for the original bad decision to scrap the electric locomotive fleet. However, the economic and environmental advantages are considerable. Electric traction is used to haul about half of all rail freight around the world, and it is growing. Electric engines do not use oil, and considering the situation in the Middle East, where an attack on Iran is possible, some pundits say that the price of oil may increase to $200 a barrel as demand outstrips supply. In any case, leaving all our transport dependent on oil is not smart.

There will be an interest in the number of freight trains and the associated problems from noise and fumes from the weaker diesel locomotives, which struggle at full power to drag freight trains up the one-in-40 grades in the metropolitan area. They can be heard at night two kilometres away from the line, so anyone living closer must have real problems that will only get worse. It is now important to restore the electric locomotives, some of which are still ready for use, while the remainder are repairable.