FreightLink is a railway freight operator in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 that operates over the Adelaide–Darwin railway.

History

In 2000, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation

AustralAsia Rail Corporation

The AustralAsia Railway Corporation was established in 1997 by the Government of the Northern Territory to build the Darwin - Alice Springs section of the Adelaide-Darwin Railway. 50% of its board positions and voting right are assigned to the South Australian Government...

 awarded the contract to build and operate the Adelaide to Darwin railway as a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer back project to the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium

Asia Pacific Transport Consortium

In 2000, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation awarded the contract to build and operate the Adelaide to Darwin railway line as a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer back project to the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium, which consists of:*Kellogg Brown & Root...

, which in turn awarded the contract to FreightLink to build and operate the project.

FreightLink commenced operations in January 2004 on the Darwin-Tarcoola line. FreightLink has intermodal terminals at Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, Alice Springs

Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...

, Tennant Creek

Tennant Creek, Northern Territory

Tennant Creek is a town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the fifth largest town in the Northern Territory and it is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western terminus of the Barkly Highway....

, Katherine

Katherine, Northern Territory

Katherine is a town situated southeast of Darwin in the "Top End" of Australia in the Northern Territory. It is the fourth largest settlement in the Territory after the capital Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs...

, and Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

 . It performs marketing, integrated service management and management of service providers. A number of operational activities are outsourced to specialist providers including train and terminal management, port terminal operations and rail maintenance.

In May 2008 the Consortium of banks and infrastructure companies behind Freightlink decided to sell the railway and its operating company In June 2008 FreightLink announced that it would add an extra weekly rail service between Adelaide and Darwin due to growing demand, taking the total number of services to six. During November 2008 the company was placed into voluntary administration

Administration (insolvency)

As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – an alternative to liquidation – is often known as going...

. This resulted in FreightLink's bankers exercising their rights to appoint a receiver, KordaMentha

KordaMentha

KordaMentha is an Australian business known for their work as insolvency and restructuring practitioners. They also provide Corporate Recovery Services, Turnaround Restructuring Services, Real Estate Advisory and Forensic services...

 which then took control of the company, as the deal to sell the company fell through after the a small number of the banks funding Freightlink refused to the terms of the sale to the preferred bidder.

On 9 June 2010, Genesee & Wyoming Inc signed an agreement with the receivers to buy the assets of FreightLink for $

Aud

Aud might refer to*Australian dollar *Ambedkar University, Delhi *American University in Dubai *Doctor of Audiology *Auðr, the son of Nótt and Naglfari in Norse mythology...

334 million. It would be operated as part of Genesee and Wyoming Australia

Genesee and Wyoming Australia

Genesee and Wyoming Australia is an Australian rail freight operator based in Adelaide, South Australia. It is a 100 percent owned subsidiary of Genesee and Wyoming Inc based in the USA, and was formed in June 2006 to run the South Australian operations of the Australian Railroad Group joint...

.

Fleet

Diesel locomotives owned by FreightLink include:

• 4x FQ class mainline units (new build Downer EDI Rail GT46C
  Downer EDI Rail GT46C
  The GT46C is a model of high-horsepower mainline diesel electric locomotive designed and built by Clyde Engineering / EDI Rail using Electro-Motive Diesel components...
  
  )
• 2x FJ class shunters (second hand WAGR J class
  WAGR J class (diesel)
  The J-class is a Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotive, built by Clyde Engineering in Granville, NSW, for the Western Australian Government Railways. Adapted from the EMD G6B design and based on the VR Y-class, they were first introduced in July of 1966, and were used for shunting on the new standard...
  
  )