QR National - History

History

The QR National brand was established in the 2004/05 financial year when Queensland Rail's coal, bulk and containerised business units were brought under one banner.

It also incorporated subsidiaries Interail, which had been acquired in March 2002 and operated services in New South Wales, and logistics company CRT Group, for which QR National already provided line haulage and purchased outright in June 2005.

In June 2006 QR National acquired Australian Railroad Group (ARG) which had operations in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. ARG remained a separate subsidiary operation until it was rebranded as QR National in July 2011.

In Queensland, the major traffic is coal, both for export and domestic power generation. In 2005 QR National commenced running export coal services in the New South Wales Hunter Valley and by November 2007 the QR National network covered the entire mainland (except the Northern Territory) with the operation of their first Melbourne to Perth intermodal container service. In August 2008 QR National took over the operation of Melbourne - Horsham container service for Wimmera Container Line, after Pacific National withdrew its service.

Following a vote by its shareholders, QR National was rebranded as Aurizon in December 2012.