A RAIL freight hub at the town of Wodonga on the Victoria-New South Wales border is set to ease pressure on the movement of goods close to Melbourne.
That’s the view of SCT Logistics general manager business development, Pat Kerin, who spoke at a recent industry breakfast that had the theme of ‘Connecting Sea, Rail, Property & Road’.
Mr Kerin said SCT had invested $18m in the terminal, with additional support from the local council and the Victorian government.
“We have 23ha of land with an option of 20ha more. We are building a 5000m2 cross-dock facility with direct rail access and a 6000m2 container park,” he said.
“We have 5km of internal rail track. The Wodonga Council has had this in the making for some 12 years and this is all about to come to life for Wodonga.”
Mr Kerin said the development was exciting.
“We certainly believe this will be an integral part of the (SCT) business moving forward.
“The site is located adjacent to the main rail line that runs between Melbourne and Sydney and certainly has easy access to the Hume Highway,” he said.
“It is a bit of a pressure valve and takes pressure off our key Altona facility to enable us to grow into new corridors as well.”
Mr Kerin said SCT already had a large customer base in Wodonga, albeit they currently used road to get their goods into Melbourne.
“What we’re going to be doing up there is loading our rail vans direct out of Wodonga,” he said.
“It is not pretend, it’s real.”
He described SCT as “fiercely independent” and perhaps a business that was less well-known outside the freight sector but “now is the time to share our story”.
This article originally appeared on Rail Express affiliate site Lloyd’s List Australia.
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