Save our Blue Mountains! NSW

[andros88]

Hello nature lovers,

 

After raging fires, drought, COVID-19, our Blue Mountains are under threat again, with the proposed duplication of the Great Western Highway. Unlike QLD and VIC who prioritise their rail strategies, NSW is investing heavily in roads to carry freight in B-double & B-triple trucks. Some of the benefits of rail over road include:

 

• Rail helps make businesses more competitive. To move one tonne of freight one kilometre by an articulated truck costs 2.79 cents, and 0.24 cents by rail. In other words, you’ll pay more for the same product if its delivered to you by road instead of rail.

• Rail is better for the environment. Rail uses one third of the diesel that trucks use in haul freight. Moving all truck freight to rail would save 450 million litres of diesel each year. Carbon dioxide emissions would reduce by more than one million tonnes.

• Rail helps save lives. There were over 1100 road fatalities in 2019 compared to 20 rail fatalities (not involving cases with suspected suicide).

Queensland and Victoria recognise the benefits of rail and are prioritising their rail freight strategies. Only NSW seeks to accommodate more freight by increasing dangerous B-double and B-triple truck activity. We stand to lose with this decision. The main beneficiaries of road freight are not the truck drivers who work hard in a dangerous occupation, but trucking companies with lobbying power like TNT and Lindsay Fox.

 

We need another 5000 signatures to have this matter debated in parliament & to find a rail solution for all of NSW - please consider signing here: http://chng.it/4rt5YYFp8Z 

 

[Northerner]

Signed and shared.