Freight hubs in Melbourne’s north and west will be connected to the Port of Melbourne through a $25.7 million investment from the Victorian Government to shift the state’s freight network from road to rail.
Minister for Ports Luke Donnellan has announced $16.2 million to connect Austrak’s facility at Somerton and $9.5 million to connect SCT Logistics facility at Altona to the Port Rail Shuttle Network.
The investment will be met with an additional $46 million in private sector funded upgrades to take 70,000 containers off of local roads and onto the rail network.
Freight Victoria is currently assessing a proposal put forward by the Port of Melbourne Ltd to integrate the stevedore and rail terminals at the port.
Funding allocated for portside improvements will be placed on hold while the state government considers the proposal to deliver the port side stage of a Port Rail Shuttle Network.
The Victorian and Federal Governments have invested $58 million in the Port Rail Shuttle Network Project to provide initiatives to improve terminal access through rail connections.
Options to connect the city’s south-east to the Port Rail Shuttle network are being investigated.
Mr Donnellan said the projects will take tens of thousands of trucks off Melbourne’s streets, create hundreds of jobs and increase the competitiveness of Victorian industry.
“There’s still more to be done, that’s why we’re considering the Port of Melbourne’s proposal to deliver a full ‘on-dock solution’ which on interim advice from Freight Victoria would reduce rail supply chain costs and meet the expected growth in container volumes at the port,” he said.
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