It was announced last week that the new centre was going to Dubbo. Some have claimed it is pork barreling. 

Whether that is the case or not, former general manager of the workshop division at Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia (CFCLA) in Goulburn Bob Gioia said this city should have been chosen. 

“Absolutely in my opinion – Goulburn could have done it and it would have been a better location for it,” Mr Gioia said. 

“It is only for political reasons that it will be located at Dubbo. There is only one train service going out there. This is to prop up Troy Grant, who copped a backlash over his stance on the greyhound ban.”

“The distance to Goulburn is far shorter. There is a lot of ‘dead running’ in taking the trains to Dubbo. This is where a train is not carrying passengers or freight.

“It is also a single track over the Blue Mountains - as opposed to a double track from Sydney to Goulburn - so a train has to stop and wait for another to pass on that line – so to be told that Goulburn did not get this facility due to rail congestion is a load of rubbish.” 

Mr Gioia said due to its close proximity to major cities, skilled employees were more likely to relocate to Goulburn than Dubbo. 

“When I was running the facility it was always difficult to attract skilled workers and with no disrespect to Dubbo, skilled workers are less likely to relocate to take up a job out at Dubbo than in Goulburn.” 

Current CFCLA managing director Ian Gibbs said Goulburn or Bathurst would have been a more logical choice. 

“Goulburn is adjacent to the main Southern Line and is two hours out of Sydney whereas Dubbo is at the end of the line, but that said it is a vibrant city that has a lot going for it,” Mr Gibbs said.

“I actually thought it might have gone to Bathurst considering that city’s previous history of fabrication of locos.” 

Mr Gibbs said his company specialised in freight car maintenance rather than passenger cars, but they had been approached about it. 

“In recent times, we were approached by a manufacturer in regards to a prospective tender to fabricate and assemble new passenger rail carriages. That tender is still to be awarded,” he said. 

“That said, we are mainly involved in freight rail car maintenance not passenger rail cars and we have a massive amount of work on our books at the moment. With our current workload, we would not have been able to do it anyway - well we could have, but it would have meant shifting our focus from freight to passenger trains. 

“It is either freight or passenger cars – we can’t do both at the moment.” 

He was positive about his company’s future in Goulburn, saying they already employed 35 skilled workers and were looking to expand.  

“The three projects we have on the boil are providing major growth for us into the future,” he said. 

These projects include: (1) increased container traffic from Moorebank to Port Botany (2) the Inland Rail Project, announced in the budget to go ahead from 2018 and (3) the Murray Basin upgrade, which will upgrade the freights lines from Mildura to Melbourne to a standard gauge. 

“The Inland Rail Project is a real game changer for us. There is a lot of work in it.” 

He said the company’s log transport operation was also going great guns.  

“The log transport is fully up and running. We run two trains a week with containers full of logs. In fact, we are running 8000 containers per year with them,” he said.

Meanwhile, another rail expert, who did not wish to be named, said he could see no reason why Goulburn was not chosen.   

“The trains stop at Moss Vale. They then come on to Goulburn and then go back to Moss Vale,” he said. 

“Over the last 12 months, Pru Goward has been told that those trains could come on to Goulburn and be maintained here - at the Chicago facility or at the wheat yards with a new facility.

“It would be low cost and give Goulburn people an extra  train to Sydney on four occasions a week before 8am at no additional cost. You just run over the loco and clean it and get it back out again.”