EVEN though it’s not for sale, if Everald Compton gets his way, he will have purchased the Townsville to Mount Isa rail line by this time next year.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who is currently privatising sections of the Central Queensland coal rail line, has repeatedly said there were no plans to sell off the lucrative Queensland Rail (QR) operated North Queensland line.
However not one to be easily deterred, Australian Transport and Energy Corridor (ATEC) chairman Everald Compton will continue his plans to make an unsolicited bid for the line after forming a coalition of cooperation with North West cattle and mining industry leaders in Mount Isa last week.
Mr Compton met with 15 mining company representatives and two cattle industry leaders on Thursday night at the Redearth Hotel where he sought informal pledges of support for his long held desire to purchase the line and rebuild it.
He said everyone in the room that night was supportive of his privatisation vision, which is nothing short of ambitious.
Mr Compton plans to double maximum capacity on the line by 2015 and eventually treble capacity.
He said the only way to do this was to rebuild the line, which he believes would take up to five years, between Mount Isa and Hughenden to avoid the flood plains.
In the meantime, he plans to upgrade sections of the existing line badly needing repair and introduce up to three transport operators onto the line.
Mr Compton estimates the project should cost between five and eight billion dollars.
If the rail was under his control, Mr Compton would link Mount Isa and Cloncurry because he feels the current line running to Duchess was “very time consuming” in the overall transportation process.
He also said the long debated Mount Isa to Tennant Creek line was a “natural progression” of the project to provide mining companies the choice to transport minerals to the Darwin Port.
And while debate rages over whether QR will continue transporting cattle on the North West line, Mr Compton said he was committed to moving as many cattle as possible by rail.
He said he expected the State Government would include these pledges as conditions in any future rail asset sale.
Now he has informal support for the bid, Mr Compton plans in the upcoming months to hold formal negotiations with the region’s cattlemen and mining officials to put in writing their commitment to increasing the amount of minerals transported on a newly privatised and upgraded rail line.
For some companies, he plans to obtain their commitment to open new mines in the region if the line could increase its capacity.
“There are 10 new mines that will not open in this region unless they can get some sort of guarantee they can get their minerals to the port,” he said.
Mr Compton said these contracts would enable ATEC to secure funding for the project.
Then he would be in a position to begin negotiations with Premier Bligh.
But the question still remains – will the State Government reconsider selling the asset?
Mr Compton remains confident.
“The current rail line cannot shift the amount of minerals it needs to,” Mr Compton said.
“For Anna to fix it she’s got to invest billions of dollars in the long term that the government has not got. That’s where we believe private enterprise can step in – at a time when the government is trying to make cutbacks to save money, we will create revenue in the way of royalties for the government because we will put more minerals on the track.”
The unions have staunchly opposed any privatisation sale in Central Queensland.
However, Mr Compton believes he can sway the North Queensland unions.
“The unions presume the sale will cost job losses - but we will create jobs,” he said.
“QR has closed down every freight depot between Hughenden and Mount Isa and sacked everyone who works at them. We will reopen every one of those freight depots and give the unions a plan as to how we will create more employment.”
Mr Compton said he hoped to take over the line in 2010.
“There are people making unsolicited bids for assets everywhere,” he said.
“There’s no law to say you can’t put a bid on the table.”
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