At the same time, we hear about how increased levels of heavy traffic, combined with the erosive elements of nature, are constantly making this job ever pricier.
There is a simple way to consider this – when you spend more money on roads it means less money for anything else. The answer? Discover a way to engineer and build better and more resilient roads or find an alternative means of transporting bulk products.
Pardon if it all seems a little too simplistic, but the ‘alternative’ in many cases has been there for more than 100 years. Yes, we still see, albeit far less than in the past, trains running through the region.
Okay, we understand that in a modern world there are a variety of logistical issues involving freight transport.
We also are keenly aware of a demand for flexibility in efficiently getting goods from one place to another.
But surely there is a formula out there that can better integrate various types of transport into a clever system. The intermodal freight-hub idea, where trucks take freight to rail and vice-versa seems ideal.
But it seems to lack any sort of profound oomph and needs serious analysis.
The Federal Government has called on farmers, state and local governments, industry and communities for connection-project ideas to capitalise on its Queensland, NSW and Victorian Inland Rail project.
The State Government, in estimating Victorian freight levels to triple by 2051, has also recognised a need to invest in rail freight.
The Victorian Farmers Federation, using data showing heavy use of a reinstated Rainbow-Dimboola rail-freight line, added that further investment was needed for the Murray Basin Rail Project.
The figures are starting to add up and weigh heavily towards a broad picture that many people have long been well aware.
We will always need road transport and roads, but we desperately need more freight on more trains.
The entire August 19, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
