Pacific National plans Penrith intermodal

Australia’s largest rail freight operator has set in motion “a plan to revolutionise freight movements across the length and breadth of the country,” said Pacific National CEO Dean Dalla Valle.
Mr Dalla Valle said Pacific National’s future goal is to offer its customers, including regional exporters, more efficient and productive connections to rail heads, ports, and intermodal freight terminals where trains and trucks meet.
“The spine of this network will comprise of the key freight hubs of Port Botany, Penrith, Parkes and Perth – what we like to call at Pacific National the ‘Four Ps’.
“Once the north-south Inland Rail is completed, the east-west spine at Parkes will have a faster and more efficient connection to the ports of Melbourne and Brisbane,” said Mr Dalla Valle.
Pacific National is currently constructing inland regional Australia’s largest logistics terminal at Parkes (to run 1,800-metre freight trains double-stacked with containers to Perth), whilst also proposing the development of a major freight hub at St Marys, near Penrith.
Mr Dalla Valle said the proposed St Mary’s Freight Hub is located within Sydney’s biggest catchment area for many of the country’s largest national distribution centres and warehouses which service Western Sydney – one of the most populous and fast-growing regions in Australia.
“St Marys is located within close proximity to the key industrial and commercial estates of Eastern Creek, Erskine Park, Wetherill Park, Arndell Park, and Marsden Park; not to mention the future Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek,” said Mr Dalla Valle.
Mr Dalla Valle said the proposed St Marys Freight Hub is a stone’s throw from the M4 and M7 motorways and Great Western Highway and has direct access to the T1 Western Rail Line allowing for a 58-kilometre shuttle run between Port Botany.
“With up to five train shuttle services each day, Pacific National will rail a total of 300,000 containers between Port Botany and St Marys each year, removing between 70,000 and 80,000 truck movements from Sydney’s heavily congested road network,” said Mr Dalla Valle.
Mr Dalla Valle said in the future, Pacific National’s St Marys Freight Hub will receive 1,200-metre regional trains from Parkes to be broken into 600-metre port shuttles to better access stevedoring terminals at Port Botany.
“The Penrith region will act as a conduit for regional freight between Western Sydney and Western NSW and further afield to Australia’s second largest port at Botany,” said Mr Dalla Valle.
Pending local and state government planning approvals, Pacific National aims to start construction of St Marys Freight Hub this year. First stage of the proposed freight hub development will support 60 full-time construction jobs.
When operational, the freight hub will create 150 new full-time jobs in Western Sydney.