$400m freight terminal to unlock Aust’s supply chain

Developers say that an upcoming $400 million independently-owned freight terminal is set to unlock the nation’s supply chain in 2025.

The Intermodal Terminal Company, backed by Aware Super, on 26th January announced plans for the build in Melbourne’s North.

ITC said the terminal will provide “most cost-effective Melbourne-based bookend solution” for the $14.5 billion Inland Rail project.

In a media release, ITC founder Mishkel Maharaj said the 45 hectare Somerton Intermodal Terminal (SIT) would be Australia’s largest by the time it was up and running in 2025.

It would also take 500,000 truck trips off inner-Melbourne’s roads each year once at capacity.

“We welcome all participants in Australia’s supply chain to benefit from the strategic capacity this asset will introduce into the nation’s supply chain network,” Maharaj said,

“And we’re especially pleased that once operational, the terminal will deliver additional benefits to the people of Melbourne every single day of its operation – through reduced carbon emissions and air pollution, reduced road congestion, and improved road safety,” he said.

ITC explained that the terminal would provide a cost-effective and efficient solution to maximise the utilisation of Inland Rail, which was dude in 2027 and was otherwise without a viable endpoint in Melbourne.

SIT is expected to be the closest terminal in Melbourne able to accommodate double-stacked 1,800 metre trains, “realising the full potential from Inland Rail.”

It would also play a key part in the Port Rail Shuttle Network, helping to ensure a significant proportion of cargo from the Port of Melbourne, the nation’s biggest port, could be transported by rail rather than on trucks via a connective freight hub.

The terminal would be built at the Austrak Business Park on a site leased from Austrak, with the company servicing the business park’s tenants as well as all of Victoria’s interstate freight.

The federal government in October announced a review into the Inland Rail network, saying it inherited a a project that was over-budget and behind schedule without a plan for where it would start or end.

The review was expected to examine options for where intermodal terminals would be built in Melbourne and Brisbane.

It is expected to be completed early this year, when its findings will be handed over to the government for consideration.

With news from AAP.