type subsidiary industry rail transport predecessor freightcorp national rail founded february 2002 headquarters melbourne australia area served mainland australia services bulk services intermodal network and operation services revenue 2.378 billion june 2013 total assets 596 locomotives and 12 875 wagons june 2012 number of employees over 4 000 parent australian logistics acquisition investments pty limited website www.pacificnational.com.au pacific national is one of australia s largest rail freight businesses . formed in february 2002 as a joint venture between patrick corporation and toll holdings it is now a subsidiary of asciano limited . contents 1 history 2 controversy 2.1 tasmania 2005 2.2 rural services 2007 3 operations 4 current locomotive fleet 5 former fleet 6 photo gallery 7 references 7.1 bibliography 8 external links history edit nr16 hauling the overland at north shore in november 2008 in february 2002 national rail s freight operations and rollingstock 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 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 pacific national trains departing from bathurst february 2009 as part of the sale conditions 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 fulfill this pacific national sold nine refurbished g class locomotives to competitor sct logistics to allow it to operate its own services 7 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 hostile takeover bid for its joint venture partner patrick corporation which was successful 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 their narrow gauge operations entering the export coal market dominated by incumbent queensland rail . 14 in 2016 asciano agreed to sell pacific national to australian logistics acquisition investments pty limited 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 controversy edit tasmania 2005 edit in september 2005 pacific national angered the tasmanian state and australian federal governments when it threatened to withdraw all services unless the governments paid a 100 million subsidy . 17 initially the governments refused to act on the issue claiming they would not be held to mercy by pacific national owned by toll and patrick corporation which are extremely profitable multi national companies . however state infrastructure minister bryan green and federal counterpart transport minister warren truss announced a 120 million rescue package . 18 in may 2007 the tasmanian government the federal government and pacific national came to an agreement regarding the funding ownership and operation of the tasmanian railway network ; with the tasmanian government acquiring the railway infrastructure previously leased to pacific national who would continue to provide above rail services on the network . 19 in september 2009 the tasmanian government purchased the tasmanian rail business with rail infrastructure and railway operations to be maintained managed and owned by a new tasrail . 20 rural services 2007 edit in december 2007 pacific national announced plans to sell or close its grain transport and portlink rural container business operations in victoria selling or closing patrick s intermodal freight business in tasmania and downsizing to a bare minimum pacific national s grain operations across new south wales . 21 the decision was criticised as it forced grain growers to use higher cost road transport to transport the annual grain harvest from rural silos to the ports . 22 the decision has seen many commentators accuse pacific national of acquiring the operations of freight australia in 2004 only for the purposes of asset stripping and eliminating competition in rail freight . 23 the company has told competitors wanting to acquire unwanted rolling stock from the company that it would rather scrap wagons or export them to saudi arabia before they would be made available domestically . 24 the container freight service to horsham victoria was almost cancelled in april 2008 but was given a three month reprieve by the company . 25 26 in july 2008 the service was taken over by qr national . 27 operations edit pacific national operates in all mainland states and territories . as at june 2012 the company operates 596 locomotives and 12 875 wagons . 28 29 services include bulk freight coal grain steel ores intermodal containers domestic and export and specialised services such as hook and pull for long distance passenger trains . pacific national has five separate operating divisions which operate as separate companies for accounting reasons 30 and often do not share locomotives with other divisions . the divisions are 31 bulk rail formerly rural and bulk born out of the former freightcorp and freight australia companies major traffic include grain fuel agricultural products and cement . trains run on both standard and broad gauges . intermodal operates intermodal freight and steel trains on the interstate standard gauge network . formed from the merger of the national rail toll and patrick rail freightcorp and freight australia . coal transport of export coal on the new south wales hunter valley coal chain . queensland intermodal freight and export coal on the narrow gauge network of queensland . pnr see below . the pacific national steel contract was renewed with bluescope steel 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 . 32 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 and the kewdale freight terminal in western australia . in 2011 pacific national merged the divisions of intermodal and bulk rail to form the new division of pacific national rail . this new division referred to as pnr has slowly seen the combining of management and training structures . as of may 2012 each division still lists its own separate revenue and loss making figures . current locomotive fleet edit class image type gauge top speed km h built number notes rural and bulk division 45 diesel electric standard 115 1962 2 ex patrick corporation . all stored . 48 diesel electric standard 115 1959 1970 48 ex freightcorp . 15 stored . 80 diesel electric standard 115 1979 1983 20 ex freightcorp . 12 stored . 81 diesel electric standard 115 1982 1991 83 ex freightcorp 830 diesel electric 115 1960 1963 3 ex australian transport network . all stored . a diesel electric broad 115 1984 7 ex freight australia . all stored . g diesel electric broad standard 115 1985 1989 20 ex national rail corporation and freight australia . 9 sold to sct logistics in 2007 . h diesel electric broad 100 1968 5 ex freight australia . 4 stored . l diesel electric standard 115 1967 1969 3 ex australian transport network . all stored . p diesel electric broad 100 1985 5 ex freight australia . all stored . pl diesel electric standard 115 1999 2001 7 ex freightcorp . 1 stored . s diesel electric broad standard 115 1957 3 ex freight australia . 2 stored . t diesel electric broad standard 100 1964 1968 5 x diesel electric broad standard 115 1966 1976 21 ex freight australia . 4 stored . xr diesel electric broad standard 115 2002 2006 9 6 ex freight australia 3 built in house . y diesel electric broad standard 65 1963 1968 11 ex freight australia . 1 stored . rt diesel mechanical broad standard 15 1957 1969 22 ex freight australia . 4 stored . intermodal division 93 diesel electric standard 115 2012 2013 17 3 more on order an diesel electric standard 115 1992 1993 10 ex national rail corporation . bl diesel electric standard broad 115 1983 1984 10 ex national rail corporation . dl diesel electric standard 115 1988 1990 14 ex national rail corporation . 3 stored . nr diesel electric standard 115 1996 1999 119 ex national rail corporation . xrb diesel electric standard 115 2005 2006 3 built in house . coal division 82 diesel electric standard 115 1994 1995 55 ex freightcorp . 90 diesel electric standard 80 1994 2005 35 ex freightcorp . 92 diesel electric standard 115 2008 2009 15 ex freightcorp . d16 diesel electric standard 35 1959 1964 5 ex bluescope steel . 3 stored . d35 diesel electric standard 50 1975 1 ex bluescope steel . pb diesel electric hybrid standard 80 2014 1 6 on order . tt diesel electric standard 115 2009 2012 37 v diesel electric standard 115 2002 1 ex freight australia . pacific national queensland 71 electric narrow 80 2009 2011 32 83 diesel electric narrow 100 2008 2013 46 88 diesel electric narrow 100 2014 5 pn diesel electric narrow 100 2005 13 ph37acmai diesel electric narrow 100 3 on order 33 in addition pacific national leases locomotives from cfcl australia and operates three wh class locomotives on behalf of whitehaven coal . former fleet edit class image type gauge top speed km h built number notes pacific national queensland mka diesel electric narrow 80 1967 1972 3 purchased from malaysia . used in queensland 2004 2006 . transferred to pacific national tasmania . sold to tasrail . all pacific national tasmania locomotives were sold to tasrail in 2009 . photo gallery edit pacific national operations a pair of g class locomotives in melbourne in february 2007 freight australia liveried x class at grovedale victoria in april 2007 bemax containerised ore train near mannahill south australia triple header 92 class coal train crossing the hunter river at singleton in april 2012 pn002 at downer rail maryborough in november 2004 pn004 at stuart depot townsville in august 2006 . freight australia liveried a class in melbourne in february 2007 references edit freightcorp for sale with national rail railway digest october 2000 page 17 freightcorp and national rail corporation sold to national rail consortium for one billion dollars abc news 31 january 2002 acquirer pacific national pty ltd ; target australian transport network ltd australian competition & consumer competition 30 march 2004 re pacific national australian transport network ltd toll group 26 february 2004 victorian government grants consent to pacific national acquisition of freight australia toll group 16 august 2004 sydney morning herald accc won t oppose freight australia takeover 2 july 2004 toll boss bows to accc pressure courier mail 13 december 2005 pacific national queensland . www.pacificnational.com.au . retrieved 22 june 2010 . jenny woodward 11 march 2005 . making tracks . stateline queensland .