Toowoomba firm sees InterLinkSQ being for intermodal what Wellcamp is for airfreight
Toowoomba-based Freight Terminals has been greeted warmly Asciano CEO John Mullen’s comments that his firm is gearing up for Inland Rail.
Freight Terminals CEO Michelle Reynolds was responding to Mullen’s American Australian Chamber of Commerce address, as reported in The Australian, in which he spoke of intermodal hub plans for locations outside Brisbane, Albury-Wodonga and Melbourne.
She is particularly pleased he had nominated Toowoomba as one of two locations in south east Queensland, the other being as well along with another “probably about 50km-60km inland from Brisbane”.
“This news is music to our ears,” Reynolds says.
“It shows the confidence that rail players have in our region and in reinventing the rail freight industry in this part of our State.”
The announcement is timely given the recent development approval received by InterLinkSQ for the first stages of the project and the lodging of the DA over the terminal precinct in September this year.
“The benefits that can flow to the Toowoomba region from the InterLinkSQ intermodal hub are enormous: jobs, improved access to markets for existing industries – and the opportunity for new enterprises to spring up,” Reynolds says.
She points approvingly to Wellcamp Airport, which saw its first Asian airfreight exports last week on a Cathay freighter, as an example of how InterLinkSQ might help Toowoomba position itself as a nationally significant surface freight and logistics hub.
“Rail will play a critical role in the future of logistics in south-west and south-east Queensland into the future,” Reynolds says.
“Now is the time for government commitments on the rail infrastructure – particularly on the existing lines from Charleville and Thallon through to the Port of Brisbane.
“Private enterprise has demonstrated their commitment and desire and it is now time for government, as owner of the infrastructure, to match that commitment.
“We need everyone involved if we are to create the jobs and the industries of the 21st century.”
Freight Terminals is currently developing InterLinkSQ, a 200 ha intermodal terminal and industrial precinct located 13km west of Toowoomba.
It features a rail terminal with nearly 3km of frontage to the current West Moreton rail line and the proposed Inland Rail alignment.
The company intends to offer an open access rail terminal with over 100 hectares of direct private connection to the terminal.
The rail precinct will incorporate grain and commodities storage, processing and loading facilities as well as rail maintenance and provisioning and a container handling and storage area.