Logistics firm to focus on operations while property company eyes hub development
The Victorian intermodal alliance between logistics firm Qube and property developer Salta has hit the buffers.
Formed in March 2012, the link centred on developing three metropolitan intermodal hubs linked by rail to the port of Melbourne, at Somerton in the north, Altona in the west and Lyndhurst in the south east.
The strategy is aimed as a congestion-buster and has been a Salta target for a decade.
Both sides have downplayed the impact of the decision on the future of container intermodalism in the city.
A Qube spokesman tells ATN the firm is committed to its operations there and reiterates its view reported elsewhere that “the alliance was no longer required to achieve out aims”.
Salta Properties MD Sam Tarascio Jnr told The Australian that its intermodal property plans would remain unaffected and that it would proceed with development of Lyndhurst and Altona.
Reasons for the alliance’s cessation remain unclear.
Though industry observers suggest the long-term needs of property developers and logistics companies were likely to diverge eventually, the pair had foreseen it lasting at least until Lyndhurst, planned then to be up and running in 2018, came on stream.