The Andrews Government’s failure to complete the Murray Basin Rail Project is being blamed for a halt to container rail services.
A Qube spokesman said its “Ultima to Port of Melbourne container train had been operating since mid-2019, however there is currently insufficient volumes to justify a regular service”.
“This remains under ongoing review and Qube will continue to run services as required,” the spokesman said.
Qube invested $4 million in its Ultima site on the Manangatang line, which along with the nearby Sea Lake track were meant to be converted from broad to standard-gauge rail as part of the $426.5 million Murray Basin Rail Project.
But the Victorian Government abandoned standardisations of both lines in 2020, after the cost of Basin Rail blew out to almost $800 million, with the Victorian Auditor General concluding it was plagued by “inadequate contract and project management”.
The failure to complete standardisation has forced rail freight operators to use broad gauge trains sets on the Manangatang and Sea Lake tracks, with no access to the rest of the standard gauge freight network.
Ouyen Inc consultant Michael O’Callaghan said the community wanted an outcome that was good for agriculture, reduced road freight and fed tablegrapes, wine, hay and mineral sands into Portland, Geelong and Melbourne via one fully standardised rail network.
“The large grain operators have said it is not sustainable to have to cater for two different rail gauges for freight in Victoria,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
“If the Manangatang line were converted to standard gauge, the Ultima intermodal train would still be running and it could easily service the proposed Marong-Bendigo intermodal hub via Inglewood.”
Mildura councillor and Rail Freight Alliance chair Glenn Milne said the failure to standardise all lines had “pushed a lot more freight onto our roads and left us with a rail service that is slow and inefficient”.
Mr O’Callaghan said that situation was set to get worse, as mineral sands projects at Balranald and Lalbert, south of Ultima, were developed.
When Iluka first proposed the Balranald project in 2015, it proposed using the Manangatang rail line for part of its haulage.
But in February, when Iluka’s board announced it would spend $480 million developing the Balranald mine, it stated 500,000 tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate would be trucked to a port in Victoria – most likely Geelong.
Further south VHM Limited has told the ASX it expects the Goschen Project to process five million tonnes per annum for 20 years, which it hoped to send in containers by rail, rather than truck, down the Manangatang line to Melbourne.
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