Infrastructure development to expand Qube intermodal capability
A new rail loading facility near the Port of Geelong is slated to bolster Qube’s service offering for client Boral’s future cement plant there.
The Victorian government is particularly keen on the development, which builds on the negotiations between the Department of Transport, Metro Trains Melbourne and V/Line that paved the way for Qube to transport Boral cement from the Dynon rail freight terminal in West Melbourne to Dandenong South since August 2019.
That arrangement is said to remove the equivalent of 40 truck trips every day, or nearly 10,000 trips per year, based on a standard semi-trailer load.
“Integrated with the passenger train network, the freight train carries about 40 containers and can operate every weekday, depending on demand, transferring around 1,000 tonnes of cement each trip,” a government statement reads.
“From Dynon, the train primarily uses the metropolitan rail network for the journey to Dandenong South.
“There, the train uses the former Kimberley Clark siding just south of the Dandenong Bypass, where Qube has invested in fresh ballast, new sleepers and rail, and a hardstand to load and unload containers.
“The rail leg of the journey is currently 37 kilometres from Dynon to Dandenong South.”
How Qube sealed empty container park space from the Port of Melbourne, here
It’s noted Qube intends to rail the containerised cement 100 kilometres to Dandenong South from a rail loading facility to be built at North Shore, near the Port of Geelong, once Boral’s new cement plant at Lascelles Wharf is completed later this year.
“When the plant is operational, it will reduce the road transport part of the journey to a one-kilometre trip between Lascelles Wharf and the container loading facility at North Shore.”
Qube general manager commercial Shaun Harris says Qube intends to expand the service to other customers, offering a rail service from Geelong to the Port of Melbourne and the Port of Melbourne to Dandenong and back.
“Combined with the Port Rail Transformation Project, this train will take a significant volume of truck movements from the Princes and M1 freeways,” Harris says.
“We are very excited about its future.”
In the meantime, Qube is railing containerised cement from Boral’s cement plant in Berrima in New South Wales to Victoria Dock for transfer by truck to the Dynon rail terminal for its Dandenong South cement train.
“The train from NSW also unloads containers of cement at Benalla, en route to Victoria Dock, for use in making pre-cast concrete sections for the West Gate Tunnel Project, with the sections trucked to Melbourne.”