Aurizon

Re-branding as Aurizon

Following a vote by its shareholders, in 2012 QR National was rebranded as Aurizon. The CEO at the time, Lance Hockridge, said the new name derived from the words Australia and horizon. Marketers opined that the name was "a nearly perfect example of all that can go wrong with a rebranding" and that it was "a classic case of people making a weird hybrid name to try and make it unique and interesting so that people will remember it. This is not true: people don't remember made-up words."

East coast container service

In February 2023, Aurizon inaugurated two Melbourne–Perth containerised freight services and in September 2023 a weekly return container service on the Melbourne-Sydney–Brisbane corridor in collaboration with its customer, Team Global Express.

Former fleet

Details of Aurizon's former fleet are as follows:

Purchase of One Rail Australia non-coal assets

In October 2021, Aurizon agreed terms to purchase One Rail Australia. The transaction was approved in July 2022 by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) after the commission accepted Aurizon's court-enforceable undertaking to dispose of the seller's Hunter Valley coal haulage and Queensland coal haulage business to maintain competition levels. The ACCC Chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said: "We are also satisfied that the divestment of One Rail's east coast business would preserve it as a potential competitor to Aurizon for the supply of non-coal bulk rail haulage in the future, and Aurizon would continue to be constrained by a number of existing bulk rail haulage competitors.” The sale was completed on 29 July 2022, and Aurizon took over One Rail Australia's South Australian, Northern Territory and interstate operations the following day under the brand, "Aurizon Bulk Central".

In December 2022, Aurizon agreed to an offer by Magnetic Rail Group Pty Ltd to purchase the divested assets. The buyer was to pay about $A425 million ($US284.3 million) – the equity value of the east coast business – and assume existing debt facilities, which originally totalled $A500 million. Proceeds$, A125 million of which was to be deferred for 12 months, would be used initially to reduce Aurizon's debt and would form part of Aurizon's available capital. After the ACCC gave regulatory approval, the sale was completed on 17 February 2023.

Events after purchase of ORA non-coal assets

On 20 February 2023, Aurizon announced it had re-entered the interstate intermodal market on being awarded a A$1.8 billion 11-year contract with Team Global Express (formerly Toll Global Express) – the largest non-coal contract in the history of the company. The company stated that services would begin in April 2023 and that by April 2024, five weekly services would run east–west (Melbourne–Sydney–Adelaide–Perth); two would run north–south (Brisbane–Sydney–Melbourne). The first revenue service of this contract departed Melbourne for Perth on 8 April.

In March 2023, Aurizon and Viterra proposed that the Australian federal government supply A$220 million in funding to repair and upgrade the Eyre Peninsula Railway lines. The proposal included re-opening the Port Lincoln–Wudinna and Cummins-Kimba lines and upgrading the outloading facilities at Viterra's Lock, Wudinna, Cummins, Kimba and Rudall sites. An annual target of at least 1.3 million tonnes of grain haulage was estimated. Aurizon and Viterra planned to have the network reopened within 12 months if funding were approved.

Price regulation

As Aurizon's infrastructure was a monopoly, it was subject in 2018 to regulation by government organisations including the Queensland Competition Authority. Aurizon disputed the price that it should be allowed to charge its clients – for example when the Authority used a lower weighted average cost of capital that did not account for the risk that clean energy poses to fossil fuel.

Accidents

On 23 February 2022, during the 2022 eastern Australia floods, freight train Y279 derailed at approximately 3:30am, due to a track washout at the 149.020 km point, just south of Traveston, Queensland.