Pacific National

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,^[1] and sold to a joint venture between Patrick Corporation and Toll Holdings, trading as Pacific National.^[2]

In February 2004, Pacific National purchased Australian Transport Network, operator of ATN Access and AN Tasrail.^[3][4] 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.^[5]

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission attached special conditions to the sale to ensure competition in the rail freight industry.^[6] 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.^{[7][dead link‍]}

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.^[8][9]

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.^[10] The sale was completed in May 2007, with the government-owned V/Line taking over management of the track.^[11]

In 2005, Toll Holdings launched a successful hostile takeover of its joint venture partner Patrick Corporation, giving Toll Holdings 100% ownership of Pacific National.^[12] 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.^[13]

In 2009, Pacific National Queensland further expanded its narrow gauge operations, entering the export coal market, then dominated by incumbent Queensland Rail.^[14]

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.^[15] The transfer was completed on 19 August 2016.^[16]

Pacific National operates in all mainland states and territories. As of June 2012, the company operates 596 locomotives and 12,875 wagons.^[28][29] 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.^[30] 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.

Class	Image	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.[31]

All Pacific National Tasmania locomotives were sold to TasRail in 2009.