PRIVATE rail freight company Pacific National is increasing services in response to a surge in demand for capacity across intermodal (containerised freight) routes.
Pacific National operates up to 400 freight services each week.
Pacific National chief commercial officer Andrew Thomson said, “As the nation’s leading freight rail operator, we recognise that demands from customers on containerised services is higher than current supply, due to a shift from road to rail that’s been driven by COVID-related interstate border crossing challenges.
“The result of this is that average monthly volumes across our intermodal network have risen by almost 15%, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“This has seen Pacific National operate at what is effectively peak capacity for the last twelve months.”
Entering the 2021 peak period for interstate rail operations, Pacific National has refreshed its booking system; launching Advancepriority and Standardreserve.
These two booking products ensure scarce capacity is allocated, thereby helping to enable access to rail freight services for new or lower volume customers.
Ultimately, Pacific National is moving to introduce additional capacity to give customers greater certainty.
“Pacific National will increase its capacity for container movements on rail by more than a third, compared to pre-pandemic levels, in less than three years,” Mr Thomson said.
“We are also committed to a further increase of 10% by March 2022 in containerised freight capacity and a further 5% by September 2022.
“Additional capacity will be boosted another 25% in the next four years. This represents a significant commitment of capital and resources to continue the growth of freight on rail to deliver reliability and further meet the demands of our customers,” he said.
