In response to Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott continuing his truck drive from Brisbane to Terrigal, Australasian Railway Association (ARA) CEO Bryan Nye has invited Mr Abbott to travel by rail instead.
Daniel Hurst / Brisbanetimes.com.au photo.
Mr Abbott's journey is expected to emit almost 500kg of additional carbon dioxide emissions that would have been prevented had he travelled by rail.
"I invite the Leader of the Opposition to come see the advantages of moving freight on rail rather than on our already congested road networks, and to also see where more investment in rail needs to be prioritised," Mr Nye said.
"The average freight train takes 110 trucks off the road, reduces carbon emissions by a factor of 10, dramatically increases road safety and is the most efficient mode of transport for journeys over 500 kilometres.
"Whilst efforts to highlight road safety are to be commended, in some sections of the Brisbane to Sydney road corridor trucks make up over 30% of the traffic- clearly what our roads need is less trucks, not more."
And yet rail investment continues to be at a disadvantage to roads in terms of overall funding and cost recovery.
"Remarkably, on some sections of the Brisbane to Sydney rail line, the track still follows the same out-dated single track corridor alignment designed for steam trains," continued Mr Nye.
Sadly though, were Mr Abbott travelling the same corridor with a rail freight operator, he might have to finish his journey even further from Sydney, due to congestion resulting from an historical lack of investment on that area of the rail network.
"During peak hours, rail freight into and out of Sydney grinds to a halt when the overcrowded passenger rail network takes priority," said Mr Nye.
The priority investment required to free up freight capacity on the north-south corridor is further funding for the Northern Sydney Freight Corridor (NSFC).
"Whilst I congratulate the Federal and New South Wales Governments for joint funding of over $1 billion dollars for the initial stages of the NSFC, more is needed to fully realise the potential benefits of further stages of the project."
"Clearly, in the Brisbane to Sydney corridor an investment in rail is more sorely needed than additional trucks going through regional centres up and down the coast."
