# Pacific National

Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses.

## History

In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments, were combined with FreightCorp, owned by the New South Wales Government, and sold to a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings, trading as Pacific National.
In February 2004, Pacific National purchased Australian Transport Network, operator of ATN Access and AN Tasrail. In August 2004, Pacific National purchased Freight Australia, giving Pacific National control of the Victorian non-urban rail track, excluding the interstate network which is controlled by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission attached special conditions to the sale to ensure competition in the rail freight industry. The company was required to provide a "starter pack" of locomotives, wagons, train paths, and freight terminals for a third party rail operator on the east-west route across the Nullarbor Plain. To fulfil that, Pacific National sold nine refurbished G class locomotives to competitor SCT Logistics to allow it to operate its own services.
In March 2005, Pacific National Queensland became the first non-Queensland Rail narrow gauge commercial rail operation in Queensland, with the commencement of container services between Brisbane and Cairns.
In November 2006, Pacific National entered into an agreement to sell the remainder of its Victorian rail lease of the network back to the Victorian Government. The sale was completed in May 2007, with the government-owned V/Line taking over management of the track.
In 2005, Toll Holdings launched a successful hostile takeover of its joint venture partner Patrick Corporation, giving Toll Holdings 100% ownership of Pacific National. In 2007, Toll Holdings was restructured into two separately ASX listed companies: Toll Holdings and Asciano Limited. As part of this restructure, Pacific National became a wholly owned subsidiary of Asciano Limited.
In 2009, Pacific National Queensland further expanded its narrow gauge operations, entering the export coal market, then dominated by incumbent Queensland Rail.
In 2016, Asciano agreed to sell Pacific National to Australian Logistics Acquisition Investments Pty Ltd, a consortium of Global Infrastructure Partners, CPP Investment Board, China Investment Corporation, GIC Private Limited and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. The transfer was completed on 19 August 2016.

## Controversy
### Tasmania, 2005.

In September 2005, Pacific National angered the Tasmanian State and Australian Federal Governments when it threatened to withdraw all services unless the governments paid a $100 million subsidy. Initially the governments refused to act on the issue claiming they would not be "held to mercy" by Pacific National, owned by Toll and Patrick Corporation, "which are extremely profitable multi-national companies". However, state infrastructure minister Bryan Green and federal counterpart transport minister Warren Truss announced a $120 million rescue package.
In May 2007, the Tasmanian Government, the Federal Government and Pacific National came to an agreement regarding the funding, ownership and operation of the Tasmanian railway network; with the Tasmanian Government acquiring the railway infrastructure previously leased to Pacific National, who would continue to provide above rail services on the network. In September 2009, the Tasmanian Government purchased the Tasmanian rail business, with rail infrastructure and railway operations to be maintained, managed and owned by a new TasRail.

### Rural & Bulk, 2007.

In December 2007, Pacific National announced plans to sell or close its grain transport and Portlink rural container business operations in Victoria, selling or closing Patrick's intermodal freight business in Tasmania, and downsizing to a bare minimum Pacific National's grain operations across New South Wales. The decision was criticised as it forced grain growers to use higher cost road transport to transport the annual grain harvest from rural silos to the ports. The decision has seen many commentators accuse Pacific National of acquiring the operations of Freight Australia in 2004 only for the purposes of asset stripping and eliminating competition in rail freight.
In 2008, the company declined to sell wagons which had reached the end of their useful life to other Australian rail operators, indicating that the wagons would be scrapped or exported to Saudi Arabia.
The container freight service to Horsham, Victoria was almost cancelled in April 2008 but was given a three-month reprieve by the company. In July 2008, the service was taken over by QR National and later Qube.

## Operations

Pacific National operates in all mainland states and territories. As of June 2012, the company operates 596 locomotives and 12,875 wagons. Services include bulk freight (coal, grain, steel, ore), intermodal containers (domestic and import-export), and specialised services such as 'hook and pull' for long-distance passenger trains.
The Pacific National steel contract was renewed with BlueScope and OneSteel in 2006 for $1bn, making it the largest ever freight rail contract in Australia. The deal involves haulage of about 3 million tonnes of steel over seven years. Pacific National has intermodal freight facilities at the Brisbane Freight Terminal in Queensland, the Melbourne Freight Terminal in Victoria, the Sydney Freight Terminal in New South Wales, the Adelaide Freight Terminal in South Australia and the Kewdale Freight Terminal in Western Australia.

## Current locomotive fleet

| Class | Type | Gauge | Top speed (km/h) | Built | Number | Notes |
| Rural and Bulk Division ||||||||
| 82 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1994-1995 | 54 | Ex FreightCorp. |
| 48 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1959–1970 | 48 | Ex FreightCorp. 16 In service |
| 80 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1979-1983 | 22 | 13 stored, 5 scrapped, 4 operational |
| 81 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1982-1991 | 84 | Ex FreightCorp 83 in service, 1 scrapped, 8108, 8117 & 8121 allocated to Intermodal |
| BL | Diesel-electric | Standard, Broad | 115 | 1983-1984 | 10 | Ex National Rail Corporation. 9 in service. 1 stored |
| G | Diesel-electric | Broad, Standard | 115 | 1985-1989 | 20 | Ex National Rail Corporation and Freight Australia. 9 sold to SCT Logistics in 2007. G526, G530, G537, G538 & G542 allocated to intermodal |
| PL | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1999-2001 | 7 | Ex FreightCorp, PL2-PL7 scrapped, PL1 in service port Augusta shunter |
| T | Diesel-electric | Broad, Standard | 100 | 1964-1968 | 12 | Ex Freight Australia, 1 in service, 3 sold, 4 scrapped & 4 stored |
| X | Diesel-electric | Broad, Standard | 115 | 1966-1976 | 6 | Ex Freight Australia. 4 stored. |
| XR | Diesel-electric | Broad, Standard | 115 | 2002-2006 | 9 | 6 ex Freight Australia, 3 built in-house. |
| Y | Diesel-electric | Broad, Standard | 65 | 1963-1968 | 11 | Ex Freight Australia. All on-sold except for Y124 |
| RT | Diesel mechanical | Broad, Standard | 15 | 1957-1969 | 22 | Ex Freight Australia. 4 stored. |
| Intermodal Division ||||||||
| 94 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 2024-Present | 50 | Fleet rejuvenation in intermodal/interstate operations, plus future Inland Rail. Will have the Evolution series engine. 'C44ESACi' |
| AN | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1992-1993 | 10 | Ex National Rail Corporation. AN1, AN3 & AN8 in service |
| DL | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1988-1990 | 14 | Ex National Rail Corporation. All stored. |
| XRB | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 2005 | 3 | Cabless units, all stored |
| NR | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1996-2021 | 117 | Ex National Rail Corporation. |
| Coal Division ||||||||
| 93 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 2012-2020 | 24 | |
| 92 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 2008-2009 | 15 | |
| LDP | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 2009-2010 | 9 | Ex Downer EDi |
| TT | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 2009-2012 | 40 | |
| 90 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 80 | 1994-2005 | 35 | Ex FreightCorp. |
| Pacific National Queensland ||||||||
| 71 | Electric | Narrow | 80 | 2009-2011 | 42 | |
| 83 | Diesel-electric | Narrow | 100 | 2008-2013 | 52 | 8347-8352 entered service in 2018 ex Downer EDi. |
| 88 | Diesel-electric | Narrow | 100 | 2014 | 5 | |
| PN | Diesel-electric | Narrow | 100 | 2005 | 13 | |
| PH | Diesel-electric | Narrow | 100 | 2014 | 3 |

## Former fleet

| Class | Type | Gauge | Top speed (km/h) | Built | Number | Notes |
| A | Diesel-electric | Broad | 115 | 1984 | 7 | Ex Freight Australia. 6 Scrapped (71, 77, 79, 81, 83 and 85) and 1 (78) donated to SRHC |
| 830 | Diesel-electric | | 115 | 1960-1963 | 3 | Ex Australian Transport Network. 1 on-sold, 1 scrapped, 1 stored |
| S | Diesel-electric | Broad, Standard | 115 | 1957 | 3 | Ex Freight Australia. S301, S306 & S307 all on sold to heritage groups in 2023 and 2024 |
| P | Diesel-electric | Broad | 100 | 1985 | 5 | Ex Freight Australia. P19, P21, P22 and P23 on sold. P20 donated to 707 Operations |
| D16 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 35 | 1959-1964 | 12 | Handed back to BlueScope |
| D35 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 50 | 1975 | 1 | Handed back to BlueScope. |
| PB | Hybrid | Standard | 80 | 2014- | 7 | Sold To watco |
| 45 | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 1962 | 2 | Ex Patrick Corporation. Both scrapped. |
| MKA | Diesel-electric | Narrow | 80 | 1967-1972 | 3 | Purchased from Malaysia. Used in Queensland 2004-2006. Transferred to Pacific National Tasmania. Sold to TasRail. |
| H | Diesel-electric | Broad and Standard | 100 | 1968 | 5 | Ex Freight Australia. 1 scrapped (H4). 1 stored (H1) and 3 sold to Ettamogah Rail Hub in 2015 (H2, H3 + H5) then H1 - H3 + H5 on solf to WATCO Aus Mid-2023. |
| L | Diesel-electric | Standard | 137 | 1967-69, 1972-73 | 2 | Ex ATN Access. Both scrapped. |
| V | Diesel-electric | Standard | 115 | 2002 | 1 | Ex Freight Australia. Sold to One Rail Australia 5/2021. |
All Pacific National Tasmania locomotives were sold to TasRail in 2009.