Australia’s largest private rail freight company has announced it will spend $20 million to secure land options, and commence detailed planning and design works, on a new intermodal container terminal in Little River that will support more 4200 jobs.
Pacific National chief executive Paul Scurrah said the aim is for the 80-hectare intermodal terminal to be operational by 2026.
The company has secured an option for a 540-hectare site in Little River to construct the terminal and develop a surrounding logistics precinct on the existing interstate rail corridor west of Melbourne’s CBD and port.
“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 4000 skilled jobs,” Mr Scurrah said.
The terminal will also directly support more than 200 frontline rail freight jobs.
A statement from Pacific National said that building the terminal in the west of Melbourne will reduce the freight sectors’ total C02 emissions by almost 500,000 tonnes by 2031 and take 250,000 trucks off Melbourne’s road network each year.
“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,” Mr 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).
The state government is planning to construct a intermodal freight precinct in either Truganina or the town of Beveridge in the Whittlesea municipality, with both the federal and state government presently developing a business case for the project.
Mr Scurrah said that a Little River terminal would better service the major east-west market, upon which approximately three million tonnes of containerised freight is hauled annually by rail from Melbourne, to Adelaide and then across the Nullarbor to Perth.
Mr Scurrah said several government-sponsored studies have confirmed the best location for a major Victorian interstate rail terminal would was Truganina, rather than to the north.
He said that building an intermodal container terminal in Little River would complement a future WIFT in Truganina, with both sites helping to service Melbourne’s growing western freight zone.
