NSW Ports welcomes Infrastructure Australia’s recognition of the importance of the Port Botany Freight Line Duplication
NSW Ports welcomes Infrastructure Australia’s acknowledgement of the “strong strategic merit” of the Port Botany Freight Line Duplication and its endorsement of the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) business case for the project which will support increased volumes of containers being moved by rail to and from Port Botany.
The project, which involves the duplication of the remaining 2.9 km freight rail single track section of the Port Botany Rail Line between Mascot and Botany and construction of a passing loop on the Southern Sydney Freight Line at Cabramatta, is fully funded by the Australian Government and will be delivered by the ARTC.
Funding of the $400 million project was announced by the Australian Government in May 2018. In October 2019, ARTC submitted the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project to the NSW Department of Planning for approval. The EIS is in the final stages of the planning approval process.
NSW Ports CEO Marika Calfas said, “The project will benefit the consumers and businesses of NSW with improved supply chain efficiency, resilience and environmental sustainability. Having been under development for many years, this project is ‘shovel ready’ and should be progressed as a priority to deliver long term port supply chain productivity benefits and provide needed economic stimulus for the State.
“Port Botany handles 99 per cent of NSW’s container volume and has the highest volume of containers transported by rail of all ports in the country, at 440,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs)* per year. Using rail, together with trucks, to move the goods for all Sydneysiders who rely on containerised freight for our everyday needs will reduce the growth of trucks on Sydney’s road network. For every 1 million TEU moved by rail the number of trucks around the port are reduced by 900 trucks per day.”
She added that the project aligns with NSW Ports’ own long-term strategy to move 3 million TEU by rail, “Port Botany is the only container port in Australia with on-dock rail at all three of its container terminals and, together with the stevedores, we are making significant investments to increase port-side rail capacity to meet this goal. The first stage of investment of $190 million commenced in 2019 and will be complete by 2023. This will double existing rail capacity at Port Botany.”
Once complete, the Port Botany Freight Line Duplication is expected to increase the resilience of the freight rail network and provide the capacity required to meet the forecast rail demand generated by the supply chain activities of regional NSW and metropolitan intermodal terminals, including Enfield Intermodal Terminal, Moorebank Intermodal Terminal and future intermodal terminals in Western Sydney.
Marika said, “Our 30 Year Masterplan shows that 80 per cent of containers moving through Port Botany are delivered to locations within a 40km radius of the port and port rail shuttles are essential to help move more of the freight task to and from outer Western and South Western Sydney freight precincts and to reduce truck growth on Sydney’s roads.
“This is why we have also invested $250 million in the development of Enfield Intermodal Logistics Centre, including an intermodal terminal and warehousing. Reliable and efficient rail connections to and from Port Botany are vital to keep supply chain costs low, reduce cost of goods to families and businesses and keep our exports competitive.”
A copy of Infrastructure Australia’s media release can be found here.
* The standard measurement of a container.
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To download this media release click here.
For more media information please contact NSW Ports on 0410 597 547 or vida.cheeseman@nswports.com.au
About NSW Ports
NSW Ports manages Port Botany and Port Kembla, key export and import gateways connecting to global markets, and the Enfield Intermodal Logistics Centre and the Cooks River Intermodal Terminal. NSW Ports is a private consortium of leading institutional investors: IFM Investors (including Cbus, HESTA and Hostplus), AustralianSuper, Tawreed Investments Limited and Q Super. Our shareholders represent over six million Australian superannuation fund members and are long term investors with interests in a range of Australian infrastructure assets.