Stage 3 of the Port Botany Rail Line upgrade has just passed its halfway point, with the federal government announcing that more than 55 per cent of works have been completed.
The completed works included 1.5 kilometres of track reconditioning, 9.9 kilometres of concrete re-sleepering, 8.4 kilometres of new rail, 6 kilometres of new drainage, and 2 new retaining structures.
Federal transport and infrastructure minister Darren Chester said that upgrades went towards boosting the line’s freight capacity to help meet growing demand from the freight industry for transport to Botany via rail.
“The most effective way to improve Port Botany’s efficiency and productivity is by enhancing the rail network and pushing more of the freight task through the port on to rail,” Chester said.
“This project offers improved access and connectivity for rail freight operators—and in taking freight off the roads is good for both the people and businesses of New South Wales as it ultimately assists in lowering the cost of transport.”
Chester said that freight and logistics companies had already invested over $1 billion to put more freight on rail.
“In the last six months alone, new freight loaded on to rail has taken the equivalent of more than 270 trucks a week—or more than 7,000 trucks—off the roads around Port Botany.”
These developments are “great news for Sydney’s motorists,” Chester said, as moving freight on to trains and taking trucks off the roads would lead to improvements in road safety, and a reduction in traffic congestion that would save time for drivers.
“While road freight is critical to the economy of New South Wales, Sydney’s rapidly expanding population and New South Wales’s future freight growth means it is no longer sustainable to be all carried by road, so rail needs to move more and more freight,” he said.
$75 billion of federal funds have been invested for the Stage 3 upgrades, which also includes initial project funding for a scoping investigation into potential capacity enhancements for the Southern Sydney Freight Line/Metropolitan Freight Network, and the Cabramatta Loop development phase, including construction design and geotechnical investigations.
The government expects the project to be completed in September 2019.
I would love it if there was a passenger train station at the naturally occurring Botany location where there is already a concrete walk way overpass. The locals here have to catch bus and train to get almost anywhere.
Would also save me having to drive on the M5 to get to work.