The NSW government recently leased Port Botany container terminal for 99 years, to raise capital for state infrastructure projects. Such a terminal would be able to handle all of Sydney’s container requirements with unlimited scope for expansion, to meet demand well into the next century. To cope with the growth in container movements, the NSW government intends to build an intermodal terminal at Eastern Creek. But by 2030, the number of container movements is estimated by the NSW government to be 7 million TEU. Last year, containers moving through Port Botany terminal numbered 2 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). Port Botany container terminal would continue to operate until the Newcastle-Glenfield freight rail line was completed. Paying for the projects would be possible by replacing trucks with trains for transporting containers for the Sydney market, and using rail for all interstate freight entering Sydney. Private enterprise would fund and build the three projects because they are all commercially viable. The solution is to build a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle and rail containers directly to an intermodal terminal at Eastern Creek using the freight rail by-pass. Therefore, the NSW government is unable to fund either of its two options for increasing freight rail capacity by 2028, even though the lead time is 10 – 15 years. However, the NSW government has no funds for increasing freight capacity after 2028, which is estimated to cost $4.4 billion, in present value terms. ![]() Sydney will have sufficient freight rail capacity until 2028, as a result of an upgrade of the Main North line, costing $1.1 billion. ![]() There would be a link from Hexham to the Port of Newcastle.Ĭonstruction would take 10 – 15 years but the NSW government has no plan to start work because there are no funds. It no longer makes any sense to use precious Sydney rail capacity to carry freight.Ī freight rail by-pass through outer western Sydney is New South Wales government policy.Ĭommencing at Glenfield in Sydney’s southwest, the line would pass through Badgery’s Creek, Eastern Creek and west of the Central Coast to Hexham, 15 km west of Newcastle. Rail services can be increased by using all network capacity for passenger trains and removing freight trains.ĭeloitte Access Economics estimates that ”in Sydney, if rail absorbed 30% of the forecast increase in urban travel then congestion, safety and carbon emission costs could be reduced by around $1 billion a year by 2025”. Sydney people need more public transport.
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