New Generation Rollingstock trains spent months floating around South Pacific
NEW state-of-the-art trains bound for Brisbane from India spent months floating around the ocean amid a high-seas deadlock. It comes as concerns mount about whether the $4.4 billion train fleet will be running in time for next year’s Commonwealth Games.
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NEW state-of-the-art trains bound for Brisbane from India spent months floating around the ocean and sitting in Vanuatu in a cargo ship amid a high-seas deadlock.
As concerns mount about whether the desperately needed new $4.4 billion train fleet will be running in time for next year’s Commonwealth Games, The Sunday Mail can reveal relations between train builder Bombardier and the Palaszczuk Government hit a low point when a shipment of trains was turned away from Queensland and forced to sit idle in the South Pacific for months while behind-the-scenes negotiations dragged on.
The Government is now in a race against time to get 15 trains transported before the recent shipping debacle ready for the Games.
In the western Indian town of Savli, within the bustling Vadodara district, several giant, blue-striped manufacturing sheds can be found abutting a patchwork quilt of farmland.
Dwarfing smaller neighbouring manufacturing plants, the sheds lie just up the road from the busy Vadodara city, known for its palaces, parks, temples, tobacco and heavy industry.
Tourists can stop by for as little as $20 a night and get a meal for just $3.
It was in this factory, owned by Canadian transport firm Bombardier, that the latest of the New Generation Rollingstock trains bound for Brisbane rolled off the assembly line this year.
The 260-tonne trains began their long journey to Australia by road, a trip of about 500km, or eight hours’ driving time, to reach the historic shipping hub of Mumbai Port.
Their 10,500km journey across country and oceans was supposed to mirror that of the 15 trains already dispatched to Queensland from early 2016.
Back then, the arrival of the first trains at the Port of Brisbane created a flurry of interest for train enthusiasts and commuter groups, with online photos showing the trains being taken off a cargo ship by crane.
By June this year, the next batch was in storage at the port and awaiting shipment.
Back in Australia, however, trouble was brewing for the billion-dollar project.
It had fallen months behind schedule and concerns were mounting about nagging design issues, ranging from driver-line-of-sight issues to disability access problems.
In March, Transport Minister Jackie Trad fronted a press conference to announce the Government would halt all orders until the raft of design issues was resolved.
Despite this, the trains back at the port in Mumbai were loaded on to Dutch-flagged vessel Momentum Scan sometime in late June.
It is understood Bombardier made the decision to load the trains over concerns about storage space at the port; however, the company did not respond to questions.
The Momentum Scan, a 116m-long bright green and white cargo ship, was sighted rounding the tip of India, near Chennai, on July 6 as it made speed towards Queensland.
The ship had already made a similar NGR delivery in February without incident, but this time it would face a string of delays, which began with a hold-up at Mumbai Port – most likely over the project impasse back in Australia.
It was on track to deliver its cargo in mid-July but would hit further NGR-related hold-ups.
The ship, unwittingly caught up in a deadlock between Bombardier and the Palaszczuk Government, would spend more than 100 days at sea, mostly sitting idle in Vanuatu, before the ship’s captain was finally given the green light to drop off its cargo.
Analysis by The Sunday Mail of ship-movement logs, historical data obtained by tracking website VesselFinder and information from shipping sources has enabled the Momentum Scan’s movements to be traced across the ocean.
It shows the ship stopped to refuel in Singapore on July 12 before sailing past Indonesia and reaching Queensland waters just off Hinchinbrook Island on August 1.
It then docked at Port Alma, just north of the central Queensland town of Gladstone, and was due to sail directly from there to the Port of Brisbane, according to government logs.
Despite being just hours from its destination, the freighter suddenly turned away from the Queensland coastline and was plotted in the Coral Sea on August 11.
It pulled into Port Vila in Vanuatu days later, where it appears to have sat idle for nearly two months.
Bored crew were finally given orders to set sail to Brisbane in late September.
The Momentum Scan would still take another two weeks to finally arrive at the Port of Brisbane to offload the two six-carriage NGR trains.
Ms Trad said she had reached an agreement with Bombardier in March that no further trains would be shipped until the Government was ready to accept them.
“In July, we received advice that Bombardier had started to ship two trains to Queensland,” she said.
“I was very clear that we would not be accommodating any more trains from India and rang leading members of the consortium to stop the shipment.
“As a result, the ships were docked at countries in the South Pacific Ocean until we provisionally accepted the first train.
“This was at no cost to taxpayers – not one single cent.”
A shipping source, who asked not to be named, told The Sunday Mail the months wasted motoring around the ocean and sitting idle was almost unheard of in an industry where fierce competition meant tight shipping margins and carefully managed schedules.
Opposition transport spokesman Andrew Powell said the trains should have been taken off the ship so they could immediately begin working on any problems.
“What instead they have done is let them languish out at sea with now the potential we don’t have enough trains for the Commonwealth Games,” he said.
He also questioned why the shipping fiasco had not been made public at the time, as well as the cost of the delay.
“It’s comical, really, that you’ve got a large ship sitting in Vanuatu harbour with trains for Brisbane inside,” he said.
Just days before the order to return to Queensland, Ms Trad announced the Government would spend about $150 million fixing disability access issues and making other modifications to the fleet, with the money to come from within the NGR budget.
She also revealed it had given the first train provisional acceptance.
Labor this week announced it would give the $150 million in modification work to a local Maryborough plant if re-elected, in an effort to boost the electoral chances of local Labor MP Bruce Saunders.
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