Service to burnish further WA’s intermodal reputation
Perth’s leading position on port rail logistics gains a new boost as Pacific National (PN) reveals a new container shuttle service there.
PN estimates that more than 20,000 return truck trips could be taken off Fremantle and Perth roads annually as part of a new port rail shuttle service between North Quay Rail Terminal at Fremantle Port and Perth Freight Terminal in Kewdale.
The service is aimed at containers otherwise moved along the Leach and Roe highways.
PN reckons the service on the Kwinana freight line has potential to initially shift up to 26,000 shipping containers onto trains each year.
“Shifting haulage of large volumes of containerised freight from road to rail benefits the broader WA community,” PN CEO Dean Dalla Valle says.
“It results in fewer road accidents and fatalities, reduced traffic congestion and vehicle emissions, and less wear and tear on local and state roads.”
Read about WA’s Revitalising Agricultural Region Freight Strategy, here
Dalla Valle said trucks play an important role in transporting containerised and palletised freight the ‘first and last mile’ between rail terminals and supermarkets and warehouses.
However, he believes trucks shouldn’t be doing every mile of the freight task to and from port.
“Daily train shuttle services between Fremantle Port and Perth Freight Terminal are by far the safest, most efficient and environmentally-friendly way to haul large volumes of freight,” he says.
Pacific National is offering its freight customers up to five port shuttle services a week, with each service hauling up to 100 containers from NQRT to Perth Freight Terminal.
The first trial return service was successfully launched last month, with operations to ramp-up in September. The freight train journey between NQRT and Kewdale takes only 75 minutes.
Dalla Valle believes the Covid-19 pandemic has allowed for a stronger public grasp on the importance of freight and supply chains and rail’s part in them.
“For the first time in a long time, people have started to understand and appreciate the finely tuned nature and criticality of our nation’s freight supply chains,” he says.
“They are the arteries supplying our economic lifeblood.”
Dalla Valle underlines that efficient freight supply lines and services are a job saver, controlling costs for rail freight operators, freight forwarders, importers and exporters; not to mention end customers.
“I firmly believe countries that lift the capacity of their freight supply chains during the Covid crisis will emerge with stronger economies, enduring businesses and lower jobless rates,” he says.