1990s and recent developments Privatisation In 1992, the largely Federal Government owned National Rail Corporation took over interstate rail freight operations from Australian National, FreightCorp and the Public Transport Corporation, and commenced operations on the interstate network. National Rail Corporation's freight operations and rolling stock (not infrastructure) were combined with the New South Wales Government owned FreightCorp and sold to Toll Holdings and Patrick Corporation as Pacific National in 2002. Australian National was privatised in 1997. Its Tasmanian operations and infrastructure (TasRail) were sold to Australian Transport Network, which was taken over by Pacific National in 2004. South Australian branch lines were sold to Genesee & Wyoming Australia. Its passenger operations were taken over by Great Southern Railway. State freight and country passenger operations were privatised. Urban passenger trains remained in government ownership, except in Victoria, because such services are politically sensitive and these operations could not operate profitably. New operating companies appeared included: Aurizon Australian Railroad Group Bowmans Rail FreightLink Patrick Rail Operations Qube Logistics Rail First Asset Management SCT Logistics Silverton Rail South Spur Rail Services Southern Shorthaul Railroad Watco Australia Licensing of personnel with nationally recognised credentials facilitates the transfer of those people from one state or operator to another, as traffic demands. Separation of infrastructure and operations Construction and maintenance of network infrastructure were consolidated into non-profit government bodies, in the case of the interstate network and the non-urban railways of New South Wales (Australian Rail Track Corporation) and Western Australia (WestNet Rail). This was intended to provide access to new and existing players. The interstate rail network of the former Australian National Railways was transferred to the newly established Australian Rail Track Corporation in 1998. In 2002, the Tarcoola–Alice Springs line was leased to the AustralAsia Rail Corporation. The ARTC track consists of the track from Kalgoorlie to Broken Hill and Serviceton. The ARTC also manages under lease the interstate standard gauge rail network in New South Wales and Victoria and has rights to sell access between Kalgoorlie and Kwinana to interstate rail operators under a wholesale access agreement with the Western Australian track owner and operator, Brookfield Rail. It also "has a working relationship with Queensland Rail about the use of the 127 kilometres of standard gauge line between the Queensland border and Fisherman Islands. ARTC intends to start discussions with Queensland about leasing this track once the NSW arrangements are bedded down". The