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Port of Melbourne invests in rail infrastructure

Port of Melbourne rail infrastructure

The Victorian state government tells MHD why exporters will be the big winners from Port of Melbourne’s investment in new rail infrastructure.

The investment will deliver new sidings and rail connections to Swanson Dock – home to two of Victoria’s three stevedores.

Improving rail access to the Port of Melbourne was a legislated condition of the port lease negotiated between the Victorian government and the port’s new owners in 2016.

The Port Rail Transformation Project will make rail transport more competitive, cut the high cost of the last mile and reduce truck congestion at the port gate. It will boost rail’s share of the port’s transport task, which currently sees fewer than 10 per cent of containers handled by rail.

It will also form a crucial part of the Victorian government’s plans for a short-haul rail network connecting freight hubs in Melbourne’s north and west to the port.

The Port Rail Shuttle Network will be key to the Victorian government’s plans to deliver importers and exporters new efficiencies in their supply chains by moving more freight onto rail.

Rail has been underutilised in Melbourne for short-haul freight operations, with the entire metropolitan freight task currently undertaken by road transport. 87 per cent of import containers handled by the port travel to a destination less than 50 kilometres distant.

Rail is also seen as critical to the Port of Melbourne’s future success as container throughput triples by 2050.

The proposed Port Rail Shuttle Network will establish terminals in the city’s west, north and south-east, where import containers are railed prior to delivery by road to their final destinations.

The proposed network promises an efficient and cost-effective alternative to road transport, as well as catering for empty containers and potentially interstate freight.

The Victorian government has partnered with the private sector to develop the network. Operators of terminals located at Altona, Somerton and Dandenong South have been selected to build the new rail sidings and connections needed for the efficient operation of the network.

Victoria will also be seeking additional interstate rail capacity to capitalise on the benefits being delivered by the Inland Rail Project.

The Victorian government is planning for a new intermodal freight precinct at Truganina in Melbourne’s west. The role of the new precinct will be primarily to handle interstate freight, but also the import and export container trade. The Victorian government will also protect land for a new freight precinct in Melbourne’s outer north for development in the longer term.

Victoria’s freight volumes are expected to grow to around 900 million tonnes annually by 2050, up from around 400 million currently. The new intermodal precincts will perform a key role in handling this forecast increase in the state’s freight volumes.

The co-location of warehousing, distribution centres and other associated functions with the new precincts, combined with initiatives like the Inland Rail, are aimed at boosting rail’s share of the interstate freight task.

The state’s interstate rail freight task is handled mostly within the Dynon freight precinct. Dynon has a number of limitations that preclude a significant increase in capacity. They include:

  • Lack of space to store and handle containers
  • Conflicts with competing land uses
  • Road connections that generate amenity issues for nearby residential areas
  • Rail connections that preclude double stacking of containers on trains
  • A track layout that limits the efficient handling of longer trains.
  • In the longer term, the development of new intermodal freight precincts will:
  • Significantly improve the capacity of interstate freight transport in the north-south and east-west national corridors
  • Complement other improvements to the north-south intermodal rail supply chain with matching capacity and service level improvements
  • Enhance national productivity by lowering the door-to-door cost of freight for interstate movements
  • Create opportunities for urban renewal in the North Dynon area
  • Reduce truck movements through Melbourne’s inner west
  • Improve rail access for port-related freight by removing many non-port freight movements from the Dynon precinct. 

For more information on the Victorian Department of Transport, click here

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