How Trailerail fits into The RoadRailer Scene Circa 1994 Trailerail, the new joint venture established by the Australian Nationa1 Railways Commission (AN) and the National Rail Corporation Limited (NR), is a roadrail vehicle service operating dedicated trains currenly between Adelaide and Perth. It commenced operations in November 1993 with two services a week which it hopes to increase to four this year as it slices into the 800 or so semitrailer road container shipments a week across the Nullarbor. Australian National(AN) is the licence holder for the RoadRailers in Australia the technology owner being Wabash in the United States of America. AN, however, has had to dip out of national freight, along w1th all the state rail systems, with the Federal governments formation of the National Rail Corporation. It had spent three years building up the RoadRailer Image in Australia and developing specialised Road-Rail Trailers for particuLar commodities. Because the RoadRailer name could not be used by another company Trailerail has come into existance but the technology of changing trailer Operation from road to rail and vice versa in a few minutes with relative ease is exactly the same. Trailerailers General manager, Brian Conroy, says he is directly targeting the road freight market by seeking arrangements w1th freight forwarders and truck operators. The Trailerail units have been tested up to 145 km/h and dedicated trains provide a faster service than normal freighters and at a lower cost to shippers than current road transport charges. The Trailerail service will progressively be extended throughout the National rail freight network. At present it operates 94 trailers leaving Adelaide on Saturday and Wednesday mornings and arriving in Perth in the early hours of the Second morning equal to road freight time. These Bimodal trains have the edge over road transport in a number of areas including efficiency, environmental impact, cost, and safety of freight carriage, Mr Conroy said. The incidence of damage is almost negligible because the ride is so smooth. Extract from " Network " ROA