Ports Rail Shuttle Network

21 March, 2023

Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (19:22): (110) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Ports and Freight, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit my electorate of Greenvale and to update me on the Andrews Labor and federal governments’ $58 million port rail shuttle network. In January of this year I was delighted to hear Intermodal Terminal Company, or ITC, announce that it would soon be starting construction of a $400 million intermodal freight terminal at the Austrak Business Park in Somerton, forming a key node of that port rail shuttle network. This substantial private sector investment, a real vote of confidence in our local economy and in the investment environment created by this government’s economic policies, will benefit communities in my electorate by creating good, well-paid local jobs. Not only that, it will remove thousands of truck trips from our suburban roads, easing congestion and making journeys safer for Greenvale residents.

I love railways and the people who work on them – Rail, Tram and Bus Union members and others. Thanks to this strategically located intermodal terminal, close to the key national routes of the Hume Highway and the Melbourne to Sydney rail line, and the Albion–Jacana freight bypass line, trucks will be able to deliver or pick up containers from the terminal instead of driving all the way into the Port of Melbourne, Australia’s busiest port but also at the metropolitan residential heart of Melbourne. More freight on rail, of course, also means lower carbon emissions and increased efficiency and safety for producers, farmers, freight operators and exporters. The port rail shuttle network will see benefits flow right across Melbourne by shifting containers that would otherwise reach their destination on the back of a truck onto rail, to the port, via suburban hubs like Somerton in my electorate of Greenvale. I look forward to seeing the minister there.