A LOW proportion of rail freight at Port Botany can be overcome via a new dedicated freight route, a key transport conference has heard.
In his welcoming address to the AusRAIL conference in Melbourne, Australasian Railway Association chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo said across Australia, rail’s share of container traffic was falling.
This was despite rail freight contributing $6.3bn in national GDP annually and generating 22,400 direct jobs.
Other AusRAIL speakers highlighted the dominance of trucks for the movement of containers to and from ports.
Transport for New South Wales director freight network optimisation, Navneel Ram, said around 85% of containers at Port Botany were moved by road.
Port Botany handles almost all of the state’s container imports and exports.
To address road congestion, Transport for NSW is seeking to create a dedicated rail freight line from Port Botany to western Sydney, servicing a new intermodal terminal south of St Marys.
This line is to form part of the National Land Transport Network.
The Western Sydney Freight Line and Intermodal Terminal would “improve resilience, efficiency and support sustainable demand for decades to come”, Mr Ram said.
Transport for NSW project director for the Western Sydney Freight Line and Intermodal Terminal, Ken Sun, said it was “extremely difficult” to get trains to Port Botany with five-minute headways between trains and lines shared with passenger services.
Transport for NSW is seeking industry and stakeholder feedback on the proposed rail freight route.
The rail freight route is planned to unfold two stages, beginning with 20km of new rail line and a new intermodal terminal at the Mamre Road precinct.
The second stage is expected to be a new 10 km line connecting the new intermodal terminal to the main west line near St Marys via the Outer Sydney Orbital corridor.
“Everyone benefits,” Mr Sun said. “By taking more freight off roads, we’re relieving road congestion, strengthening supply chains and helping decarbonise the freight sector.”