The Goonyella coal chain stretches from Central Queensland coal mines onto the rail network, through the ports and onto the loading vessels, and has been under constant scrutiny of late as producers complain of inadequate infrastructure to support the growing coal demand.

The review was announced in April after coal producers and customers accused Queensland Rail in particular of mismanagement and unreliable deliveries.

The report, released yesterday, makes recommendations to lift throughput for coal miners, as well as suggesting long-term investment plans for rail and port upgrades.

Premier Peter Beattie and Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said the independent report by former mining and railway executive Stephen O’Donnell made three key recommendations:

• A central coordination role be created to oversee and, if necessary, coordinate all activities which span the whole of the Goonyella supply chain;
• QR National (QRN) to immediately commence a process to purchase additional train sets to allow it to meet projected volumes; and
• A business improvement program be commenced across the supply chain, starting immediately with rail operations as this is the current bottleneck.

“Industry has clearly put QR and Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal on notice. Even though their work to upgrade the system and provide more resources has been underway for some time, they need to lift their game even more,” Beattie said.

“There’s certainly a new-found resolve among industry participants – the miners, QR and the ports – to address the issues collaboratively acknowledging that no one party can be responsible for total supply chain performance.”

Beattie said he was confident that QR has taken the recommendations on board to further improve performance and boost capacity issues.

Roche said the QRC was keen to have a genuine assessment of issues and a practical outcome for the coal industry.

“I think that has been achieved here. Now the real issue is getting and delivering results,” Roche said.