New intermodal container terminal set for south-west of the Port of Melbourne
Burgeoning rail-freight concern Pacific National unveiled plans to develop a new intermodal container terminal in Little River to connect Melbourne’s major freight zone in the west to Inland Rail.
The company had secured an option over a 540-hectare site to construct the terminal and develop a surrounding logistics precinct on the existing interstate rail corridor west of Melbourne’s CBD and port.
“Pacific National’s new Little River site is in a prime position on the main interstate rail line and close to the Princes Freeway, delivering efficient freight transport connectivity to nearby logistics companies, distribution centres, warehouses, shippers, and manufacturers,” Pacific National CEO Paul Scurrah said.
“Close to Melbourne’s freight centre of gravity, Pacific National’s plans for Little River will help to shift more freight from road to rail until delivery of the Western Interstate Freight Terminal (WIFT).”
Pacific National is investing $20 million to secure land options in Little River and begin detailed planning and design works, with the aim for an 80ha intermodal terminal to be operational by 2026 and directly supporting more than 200 frontline rail freight jobs.
“In the future, the broader logistics precinct – serviced by the rail terminal – will feature extensive warehousing, cold storage, and re-fuelling facilities, generating more than 4,000 skilled jobs,” Scurrah said.
The company points out that the Little River site is located near Melbourne’s major freight catchment zone to the west of the CBD, where more than 70% of containerised rail volumes are concentrated, and conveniently only 39km by rail to the Port of Melbourne.
Though not mentioned, the site would also be adjecent to to the bayside area where the proposed Bay West container port is expected to be.
It believes a Little River terminal would better service the major east-west market – a critical corridor in the national supply chain – where some 3m tonnes of containerised freight is hauled annually by rail from Melbourne to Adelaide and then across the Nullarbor to Perth.
“Pacific National is investing heavily in an extensive national terminal strategy in response to surging customer demand for containerised interstate rail freight services,” Scurrah said.
“The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the trend towards online shopping and created disruptions and delays in road and shipping operations, creating greater demand for rail freight services.”
Read how Scurrah views the national freight challenge, here
He added that Pacific National is securing key sites along the Inland Rail alignment to unlock benefits of the project and haul greater containerised volumes by rail not only between Melbourne and Brisbane but also from Australia’s east coast to Western Australia.
“As Australia’s most trusted logistics partner we deliver what matters for our customers, including investing in new and improved rail freight infrastructure to help reduce traffic congestion, road accidents, and emissions in the overall national supply chain,” he said.
In recent years, Pacific National has invested $35 million to deliver regional Australia’s largest intermodal terminal at Parkes in the Central West of New South Wales and secured Acacia Ridge Terminal in South East Queensland via a $205 million acquisition – both are located on the alignment of the future Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail.
Scurrah took time to reinforce his firm’s opposition to the Beveridge hub option, saying several government-sponsored studies confirmed the best location for a major Victorian interstate rail terminal was west of Melbourne’s CBD and port, in Truganina, rather than to the north.
“Unfortunately delays and funding blocks in progressing the WIFT option, including the proposed enabling infrastructure called the Outer Metropolitan Ring transport corridor, mean a terminal cannot be delivered in time to meet industry needs and ahead of completion of the Inland Rail in 2027,” he said, insisting a proposed terminal at Beveridge, 55km north of Melbourne’s CBD and port, would derail government plans to shift more freight from trucks to trains.
“Containers picked up by trucks and hauled from the port or a warehouse in Melbourne’s western freight zone will simply travel up the Hume Freeway (M31),” he said.
“It will always be cheaper for those large trucks loaded with freight to keep going, drive past the gates of a terminal in Beveridge and deliver their goods by road across the state border into NSW.”
Mr Scurrah said an intermodal container terminal in Little River will complement a future WIFT in Truganina – both helping to service Melbourne’s growing western freight zone.
“The $15 billion Inland Rail project is forecast to accelerate growth of container freight volumes on the interstate rail network to more than one million TEUs by 2035, making it critical for the Australian and Victorian governments to work closely together to deliver a future WIFT,” he said.
Pacific National estimates if a terminal was located north of Melbourne in Beveridge instead of west of the CBD and port it would mean an:
- additional 250,000 unnecessary truck trips on Melbourne’s road network a year by 2031, growing to more than 400,000 by 2050
- extra 900,000 additional truck kilometres on the nation’s interstate road network each day by 2031, growing to more than 1.5 million by 2050
- additional 470,000 tonnes of C02 emissions by 2031, increasing to nearly 800,000 tonnes by 2050 due to extra trucks and loss of rail mode share.