Operators
Historically the government owned Queensland Rail has been the main rail operator in Queensland.
The exception has been the standard gauge link from New South Wales into Brisbane, since completed in 1930 it was operationally a part of the New South Wales system and run by their government owned railways, even though the line itself was owned by Queensland. From 1994 National Rail took over the operation of virtually all standard gauge freight services to and from Brisbane, as part of a reorganisation of interstate freight in Australia.
It was not until 2002 that QR entered the standard gauge market through subsidiary Interail, by 2004 they were running freight services from Brisbane through to Melbourne. Today standard gauge freight services are operated by Pacific National after their acquisition of National Rail, and QR subsidiary QRNational.
On the narrow gauge Queensland Rail operates all passenger services and haul the majority of freight. In 2005 the first non-QR narrow gauge commercial rail operation started in Queensland, with Pacific National Queensland (a subsidiary of Pacific National) commencing operation of container services between Brisbane and Cairns, followed in 2009 by their entry into the export coal market. Queensland Rail's subsidiary Australian Railroad Group have also entered the Queensland narrow gauge freight market, operating trains between Townsville and Mount Isa in their own right. Standard gauge passenger services are provided by the New South Wales based CountryLink using their XPT.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transport In Queensland