Australian National Railways Commission

The Australian National Railways Commission was a railway operator owned by the Australian Government that existed from 1975 until 1998. It traded as Australian National Railways (ANR) in its early years, before being rebranded as Australian National. AN was widely used as an acronym from 1980, the logotype being registered as a trade mark.

The commission was established following an election commitment made during the 1972 federal election by the Whitlam federal government. The Whitlam government invited the state governments to hand over their railway systems to the federal government. On 1 July 1975, the Australian National Railways Commission took over responsibility for the operations of the federal government owned Commonwealth Railways and branded itself Australian National Railways.

The state governments of South Australia and Tasmania, whose railway systems were deeply in debt, accepted. During the next two years, following discussions between the two states and the federal government new staffing and operating agreements enabled the transfer in March 1978 of all South Australian Railways services (except the Adelaide metropolitan passenger network) and all Tasmanian Government Railways services to Australian National Railways, the latter being branded AN Tasrail.

Overnight, Australian National Railways went from an organisation with 4000 employees operating routes of just over 2000 kilometres (1200 miles) – 20 per cent of Australia's rail network – to just over 12,000 employees operating 7890 km (4900 mi). Reflecting the persistence of three mainline gauges that had afflicted Australia since 1865, the total comprised 2395 km (1488 mi) of 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge, 2812 km (1747 mi) of 1435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge and 2683 km (1667 mi) of narrow gauge track.

Australian National Railways was a federal government owned corporation and in 1978, the Fraser government made it clear it was expected to achieve a financial break-even point during the next 10 years. This decision was unique in Australia's railway history because with the exception of Commonwealth Railways, all the state systems were running at a loss, being financially supported by their respective governments. The commission appointed a professional engineer with overseas experience as General Manager in a break from the traditional railway practice of making such appointments from within the organisations.

The commission's first corporate plan in 1979 set out six ways that the commission was to pursue if it was to survive. These were:

In 1980, a delegation of senior staff and led by the General Manager visited North America to examine current railway practices. In Canada, the delegation had talks with Canadian National Railway (which like Australian National was government-owned) and Canadian Pacific Railway. In the United States, contact was made with Chessie System and Southern Pacific Railroad. The areas looked at included marketing and pricing, finance and planning, engineering and staff training.

On 12 March 1980, a new green and yellow corporate identity was launched with GM1 the first locomotive painted.