This new level crossing is located on ‘Intermodal Way‘ – a new public road connecting Dock Link Road and Mullaly Close, replacing Coode Road between Dock Link Road and Phillipps Road.

And the railway track crossing Intermodal Way leads into the new Coode Road Rail Terminal.

The new terminal is part of the ‘Port Rail Transformation Project‘ which will enable port shuttle trains to run to Altona, Somerton and Lyndhurst.

With new rail infrastructure including:

• A new Coode Road rail terminal interfacing with the Swanson Dock East International Container Terminal. The rail terminal will include two new rail sidings each that can handle 600 metre long trains.
• A new road to facilitate the uninterrupted movement of containers. The new road will provide a continued East/West connection within the Swanson Dock Precinct without trucks needing to exit to Footscray Road replacing the section of Coode Road which will be closed for the construction of the above rail terminal.
• Modifications to the Swanson precinct common user sidings to accommodate 600 metre long trains.
• A new track linking the Swanson and Appleton lead tracks to allow additional flexibility for trains to move within the port precinct.

Funding for the project was made available way back in the 2014-15 State Budget as the ‘Metropolitan Intermodal System’, but work on the two track dual gauge intermodal terminal didn’t start until 2021.

Works on the new rail terminal are still ongoing, with flashing lights and boom barriers yet to be installed at the new level crossing.

So will port shuttle trains be running soon? The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office has been tracking the delays.

The shuttle network is not proceeding according to its original timetable. Service start dates across the 3 sites are delayed by 17.6 months on average, although construction at Altona is nearly complete.

The shuttle network program has not achieved the original contract milestones and the department has amended and extended contract dates for Altona 6 times and Somerton 14 times.

The department’s recent advice to government confirms that the shuttle network is unlikely to deliver the expected volume of metropolitan container freight by rail unless the government approves further interventions and investments.

And is worried about the viability of services.

• Pricing, access and operating arrangements at the new on-dock rail terminal at the port are uncertain because the future operator has not yet published its rates.
• Trucks are estimated to have a significant competitive advantage over rail per metropolitan container, based on current pricing and port-precinct operating models.
• The new on-dock terminal, in its initial operating phase, will not operate on weekends and only during the daylight hours of 6 am to 6 pm. This is unlikely to align with available rail paths to the port, especially from Dandenong South, as well as the shuttle network operators’ operational needs.
• No freight train paths for Somerton or Dandenong South can be allocated until a rail operator is appointed for these sites. This will need to happen closer to when they are ready to start services.

Fingers crossed the new services are more successful than previous port shuttle train attempts.

Footnote: Melbourne’s previous newest level crossing?

Back in 2017 I looked at when did Melbourne stop building new level crossings – and the previous newest crossing was around the corner at Dock Link Road, opened in the 1990s as part of an upgrade to the Melbourne Freight Terminal.

But in April 2023 the Level Crossing Removal Authority added an even newer pedestrian level crossing – outside Diamond Creek College on the Hurstbridge line, as part of the Hurstbridge Line Duplication project.

Footnote: dual gauge track and common rail transfers

Sidings at the Port of Melbourne are laid with three-rail ‘dual gauge’ track so that both broad and standard gauge trains can access the freight terminals.

But the new triangle connection between the Appleton Dock and Swanston Dock sidings introduces a new problem – the ‘common’ rail shared between the broad and standard trains needs to switch sides.

So the solution is a complicated device called a ‘common rail transfer’ switch, which moves the wheels of standard gauge trains from one side of the track to the other.

Australia’s mess of rail gauges is the gift that keeps on giving!

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Headed down the line

Six days a week, a train leaves the paper mill at Maryvale.

It heads along a single track siding to the mainline.

Where it meets the main Gippsland railway.

Having to share the track with V/Line services.

It then heads for Melbourne, passing under some former level crossings.

And over others.

It heads through Flinders Street Station.

Following the banks of the Yarra River.

Until it reaches the Qube Logistics terminal at the Port of Melbourne.

The containers are stripped from the wagons, and another batch loaded.

Then the train heads back east, ready to do the same thing again tomorrow.

Some history

The Maryvale paper mill was established by Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) in 1937, following a government agreement that gave the company favourable access to forests, exploiting lower-quality timber left after sawlogs had been felled.

The site was chosen due to easy access to water from the Latrobe River and electricity from the Yallourn power station, with full production commencing in 1940.

The railway siding to the paper mill opened in 1937, but the operation was antiquated – APM used their own shunting tractor to deliver wagons in small groups to an exchange siding at Morwell, where it would be picked up by mainline freight trains for the journey to Melbourne.

All of this changed in 1996, when through trains between Melbourne and the paper mill commenced. Brian Carroll explains, in Toll: an illustrated history.

For some time before Toll acquired specialist paper transport company Sibcot, Mery Hunter had been talking to Australian Paper about the benefits of moving paper by train from its Maryvale Mill, in eastern Victoria, to Melbourne and beyond. Work on the idea continued and, on 12 March 1996, a complete train load of paper rolled away from Maryvale, bound for Australian and export markets. From then on, the dedicated seventeen-wagon train was scheduled to run from Maryvale to Melbourne and back on more than 300 days of the year under Toll Metro management.

For the previous fifty years, the company had used a mixture of rolling stock: prairie wagons, box cars, and open wagons. Road transport supplemented rail when required. In Melbourne, the wagons were either unloaded for local distribution, or sent on to interstate destinations. For most of them, that meant a stopover at the bogie exchange for conversion to standard gauge. The system was labour intensive and expensive.

When the Federal Government announced its rail standardisation program, there seemed to be possibilities to improve the system. Now, with a Melbourne—Adelaide standard gauge connection, wagons could go by standard gauge over the shortest practicable route from Melbourne to all mainland state capitals. The problem was that Maryvale was still on the Victorian broad gauge system.

Toll Metro worked out a system to minimise the handling of paper on its way to market. This would reduce costs and reduce transit damage. At Maryvale, this involved building a rail container loading pad near one of the existing spur lines. This enabled a 40-tonne top loading forklift to load and unload rail containers under cover from rain. The technology for the efficient movement of paper reels up to 2.5 metres high centred on sixty 12.2 metre road/rail containers. For these, Toll Metro chose curtain-sided Tautliners. Support equipment included prime movers with minimum height turntables coupled with low profile skeletal trailers.

With all that set out in a fully-developed plan, Australian Paper and Toll Metro convinced V/Line of the merits of providing a dedicated circuit train between Maryvale and Melbourne. This was readily agreed. The train comprised 24.4-metre VQDW wagons. In time, it grew to 19 wagons carrying over 800 tonnes of paper in 38 containers. Wagons headed interstate went to Dynon Road. Those for local delivery or export first went to Flinders Street Extension and later to North Dynon, where a 40-tonne forklift and ancillary equipment were installed to handle the containers. The improved rail arrangements reduced traffic on the highway between Maryvale and Melbourne. One locomotive on one train could move as much paper as fifty trucks.

The 2.5-metre-high reels of paper meant that the containers needed an external height of 3 metres. When placed on a skeletal trailer, this gave an overall height just over the 4.3-metre legal height. Toll Metro negotiated over-height permits on designated delivery routes within the Melbourne metropolitan area.

Volumes handled by the train grew steadily as Maryvale began to cater for Australian Paper’s New South Wales and New Zealand markets. Toll Metro began to send consignment documentation electronically, direct to the Dynon Rail terminal’s system.

Since then the rail service has gone from strength to strength, containerised paper products being transport both for export, and onward transit by rail to Brisbane and Perth.

Qube Logistics took over the contract from incumbent Victoria broad gauge freight operator Pacific National in June 2013, and today third party containers of sawn timber from a Latrobe Valley sawmill are also loaded at Maryvale, although this is small in volume.

Facts and figures

The Maryvale train usually runs with two 3300 HP diesel locomotives hauling 29 wagons, each loaded with two 40 foot ISO containers. This results in a train around 792 metres long, with an empty weight of 800-900 tonnes, and 2100-2300 tonnes fully loaded. Around 30,000 containers per year are transported by the train, with 20,000 to the Port for export and 10,000 for domestic consumption.

The rail service to Australian Paper is now a key part of their operation, which presents difficulties whenever it is severed – such as in 2012, and again in October 2014 – forty trucks needed to replace a single train.

What about the environment?

Moving freight by rail instead of road is a good thing, but what about the environment impacts of the product being moved?

The Maryvale pulp mills currently consume over 500 000 cubic metres of logs per year from state forests, which is secured under the legislated agreement and a timber sales agreement. They also consume about 130 000 cubic metres per year of offcuts from timber mills that use native forest sawlogs

Not to mention the energy used to produce it – baseload renewable energy sounds good – until you get into the detail.

Mr WELLER — What do you use for the renewable energy?
Mr McLEAN — It is a by-product of the trees primarily.
Mr WELLER — The bark?
Mr McLEAN — The liquor, as we call it, or the sap from the tree, becomes a fuel. That fuels the boilers, and the boilers generate steam to drive the paper machines. They also drive turbines for power, so we generate a lot of our own steam on-site and generate enough power for approximately 50 per cent of our requirements.
Mr KATOS — Otherwise that would have gone to landfill.
Mr McLEAN — Absolutely; that is right.

Not to mention the Energy from Waste proposal from Australian Paper.

To help manage our energy costs, Australian Paper is proposing to construct a thermal Energy from Waste (EfW) plant adjacent to our Maryvale Paper Mill site in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria.

This technology creates energy from the controlled combustion of non-hazardous waste materials that would otherwise go to landfill.

The proposed $600 million EfW plant would process up to 650,000 tonnes of residual Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as well as Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste.

It would allow Australian Paper to attain a sustainable, long-term and stable alternative baseload energy source to produce steam and electricity for the Maryvale Mill.

Australian Paper’s responses to concerns raised in submissions lists rail as one option to move the rubbish.

The logistics network includes three components, including: utilising the “Paper train” from Melbourne, line haul trucks from SE Melbourne transporting waste to the facility and ash to the landfills, and local Refuse Collection Vehicles collecting kerbside waste across Gippsland and transporting to the proposed EfW Facility.

But isn’t a given.

Currently there is no rail siding in SE Melbourne that could house a waste transfer station to compact waste into containers and then load onto the rail network. The existing ‘Paper train” is viewed by AP as a reliable and cost effective solution for transport to and from the Port of Melbourne. Leveraging rail is a natural opportunity for the proposed EfW facility and something Australian Paper is working towards

Sounds like a familiar story.

Footnote: more on the Maryvale mill

In 2014 Australian Paper supply chain development manager Ben McLean addressed the Inquiry into the opportunities for increasing exports of goods and services from regional Victoria, explaining the operation of the Maryvale mill:

Australian Paper is now owned by Nippon Paper, one of the Japanese paper manufacturers, a global leader in recycled papers. It is the world’s sixth largest paper manufacturing business and aims to be in the top five in the next few years.

You might be familiar with Reflex, the office paper. It is probably the most commonly known product; certainly it is a flagship product. Australian Paper also manufactures substantial quantities of packaging papers — the types of paper that would go into cardboard boxes — both recycled-based cardboard boxes and virgin fibre, which has a high humidity resistance for use in things like meat markets, removalists boxes et cetera.

We have invested in the last decade or so in a new paper machine, the M5 paper machine, which makes the Reflex paper. We upgraded our pulp mill in 2007–2008, and we currently have under construction a $90 million recycling plant for office papers. You can see there is a fairly massive capital investment required to develop the business. This enables the employment in the region of about 6000 people directly and indirectly.

We are currently recycling around about 45 000 tonnes of brown waste recycling for packaging papers. The white paper offset recycling facility will produce around 80 000 tonnes of recycled paper.

[Our products include] kraft liner board, which is the paper that goes into the cardboard boxes. Copy paper I think everyone understands. Sack and bag papers are papers that are used for sacks, like a mineral sack or a cement sack, and also could be used for foods — dog food, those sorts of things, and milk powder. The UCWF is uncoated wood-free, which is typically printing paper, the non-coated, non-glossy paper.

And their transport needs:

For our exports in particular the challenge for us is to get around 300 000 tonnes of paper from that red dot to the port. The export markets in particular are worldwide. The volume on-site is essentially 56 per cent Australian and New Zealand volumes with about 44 per cent export. A fairly substantial part of our business is export.

Our store is at the end of the rail line in Melbourne. Because we have the rail spur on site at the Maryvale Mill we do not have to go on the public roads, which means our payloads can be maximised just for the rail, which means we maximise our container payloads to the Melbourne store, and then we can get fast access to the shipping line containers in Melbourne and we can optimise the payloads of the container to get our low-freight rates to the export market.

And the challenges of exports.

From Australian Paper’s perspective exporting is something we have to do rather than something we actually desire to do. The majority of our focus is on supplying the Australian market where the revenues and profitability are obviously better, but there is a limit to that given the capacity we have at the plant.

The export challenge is that there are 37 shipping lines, 125 ports, 68 countries and over 12 000 forty-foot containers annually. We are a reasonable component of the port of Melbourne volume. The export destinations: North America, predominantly, is where the copy paper is sent, and Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America et cetera.

The challenge for us with export markets is largely one of cost. Paper is essentially a commodity product in most of these markets. You can see there, to get a feel for the economics, that the cost to take a tonne of paper from Maryvale to the wharf is around $35 a tonne, if we can pack the paper directly into the container. So if we can obtain the container from the shipping yard, bring it down on the train, pack it directly and take it straight back without having to take the paper out of the container, then it is around $35 a tonne. If we have to double handle the paper via a store, for whatever reason, it instantly goes to $52 a tonne.

Their competitive advantage.

In terms of regional Victoria’s competitive advantages, the reason why Maryvale Mill is where it is and the reason why it was built there in the first place was for trees, water and power, and the output is relatively close to the consumption base. At the time when it was built it was reasonably close to Melbourne and not far from Sydney.

For a paper mill surviving generally on forested timber, as in logged fibre, there are about four trucks going in to one truck going out, so the tree has about 25 per cent fibre in it. That is a rule of thumb you can keep in mind. It is better to be close to the fibre than it is to be close to your market, so that is why it is located where it is.

And possible growth in other freight moved by rail from Gippsland.

But the volume on rail now through Australian Paper is giving our service provider baseload, and it will now try to leverage that to try to get other customers onto the rail network. If that is successful, then that rail service provision back to us will be sustainable.

So if Qube can turn it into a sustainable business for itself and attract other customers it will not be under as much pressure to increase its costs to us. We are doing everything we can to get our business set up and operate day-to-day, month-to-month, but we are trying to help Qube leverage that infrastructure so it can actually develop the business, and in turn it will help us at the next contract review.

Footnote: high cube containers

Turns out double deck trains aren’t the only rail vehicles to have trouble with low bridges in Melbourne.

Photo by Weston Langford

The same also applies to high cube containers.

9ft 10in (3 metre) high containers are banned on the Metro Trains Melbourne Network with the exception of the Maryvale Paper Train which may operate between Melbourne Yard and Pakenham only under the following conditions:

The hours of operation are restricted between the following times:
– Sunday 19:00 and Monday 05:00.
– Monday to Thursday 21:00 and 05:00 next day.
– Friday 21:00 and 07:00 Saturday.
– Saturday 19:00 and Sunday 07:00.

The vehicles are restricted to a maximum speed of 40 km/h when operating between Caulfield and South Yarra in both directions.
The maximum height of any vehicle/container combination must not exceed 4192 mm. GPS transceivers are placed in the locomotive cabs for the purpose of speed monitoring

The 10ft 6in (3200mm) high containers are only permitted on the following tracks at Flinders Street:

• Up and Down Sandringham lines
• Via Platforms 8 & 9 and the Up and Down Special lines
• Via Platforms 3 & 4 and the Up and Down Burnley Local lines

Is the ability to pass through platforms 3 & 4 linked to it being the former stomping ground of the double deck 4D suburban train?

More photos

• APM Whitcombe loco. No. 1
• APM trains on the branch line
• More APM trains on the Maryvale branch
• Freight Australia trains on the branch

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The containers arrive at the rail head by truck, then are loaded onto the train.

Electrical cables are plugged into the wagons.

And more electrical cables join the wagons together.

To supply electricity from the onboard diesel generator set.

The gensets used by some operators are pretty spartan looking.

Some just tie down commercial gensets to ‘flatrack’ containers.

In any case, the train eventually arrives at the port.

Trucks move the containers between the rail terminal and the wharf.

The containers sometimes needing to be stacked up until their ship arrives.

Plugged into ‘shore power’ to keep the chiller unit running.

Once the ship arrives.

It’s time to load the cargo.

Then bon voyage.

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First stop – the MIRRAT terminal at Webb Dock.

Where every car in Victoria is now unloaded.

Up to the top of the Melbourne GPO, at the DesignInc architecture studio.

Emporium Melbourne, riding a 25 tonne truck hoist 12 metres down into the basement.

And then up to the fifth floor, to see the empty void behind the Myer Lonsdale Street store facade.

Watching passing trains from the ‘Signal’ youth arts centre.

And finally – Australia 108, where a room full of diesel powered fire water pumps occupy level 42.

More photos still to some – though I wonder how long it will take me to upload them!

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Remember Connex and Metcards? Here we see the ticket gates at Glenferrie station.

Down at North Melbourne station the new concourse at the city end was almost complete. This massive steel deck was required to protect the gas mains underneath from the heavy crane used to remove the last bits of formwork.

Down the line at Footscray station, rail replacement buses were running, thanks to a damaged section of overhead wiring on the track towards Newport – all thanks to a scrote who threw a chair over the edge of the station footbridge.

Note the lack of low floor buses – you can blame Sita Buslines for that.

The footbridge in question was still the rickety timber and tin structure dating back to the 1900s.

But the bridge’s days were numbered.

With construction on the $14.7 million dollar replacement about to start.

Another upgrade was the introduction of ‘Parkiteer‘ bike cages around the network.

Launched in February 2008, initially $1 million in funding was allocated for the installation of up to 20 bike cages.

But $1 million is a drop in the ocean in the money spent on railway station car parks.

In 2009 the massive car park at Laverton station was undergoing yet another expansion – stretching halfway to Aircraft station.

By 2014 the car park was rated the ‘worst in Melbourne for finding a space‘, with local residents getting sick and tired of motorists from elsewhere clogging their suburb, but the 2018 State Election saw the promise of still more parking spaces made by the Andrews Government.

July 2009 also saw me take a wander around the back blocks of Docklands.

There were plenty of abandoned railway tracks running around the wharves – this is now the corner of Collins and Bourke Street.

While the other end was shed 21 – since demolished, erasing the last trace of Victoria Dock.

Closer to North Melbourne station was the former ‘Hump’ at Melbourne Yard.

Opened in 1968, the yard was used to sort freight wagons. Each wagon would be pushed to the top of the ‘hump’ and then released, being allowed to roll into a destination track.

The entire yard was controlled by a primitive computer, with remote controlled brakes and points ensuring that each wagon ended up on the correct train.

But by the time of my visit the yard was long closed – the last train passed over the top in 1987.

The bulk of the yard was demolished in 1997 to make way for the Docklands Stadium, but the ‘hump’ crest lasted until 2010, when it was demolished to make room for the new Regional Rail Link tracks.

I also swung past the Melbourne Steel Terminal, used to tranship freight for the BlueScope Steel plant on the Stony Point line at Hastings.

Located in the middle of the ‘E’ Gate urban renewal precinct, the freight terminal was closed in 2015 and cleared of tracks soon after.

But all of those plans have come to naught – the land has been handed over to Transurban for city access ramps connecting to the West Gate ‘Tunnel’.

And finally, we end down on the outskirts of Geelong, where the railway towards Warrnambool passed through anonymous empty paddocks.

But in 2013 this spot was chosen as the site of the new ‘Grovedale’ station, which opened to passengers as ‘Waurn Ponds’ on October 2014.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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Chasing trains

I drove out to Moorabool, west of Geelong to photograph a freight train. As soon as I stepped out of the car and locked the door I realised I’d left my keys inside – but thankfully I still had my camera, so I didn’t miss the shot.

A blast from the past was this train operated by 707 Operations bound for Geelong.

Steam locomotive R707 and diesel T413 hauled the train to Marshall and back, with a spin on the turntable at Geelong putting the steam engine facing the right way before the return leg to Melbourne.

Another unusual train headed through Geelong was a Hitachi suburban set usually used in Melbourne, being hauled by Seymour Rail Heritage Centre’s freshly restored diesel locomotive T378 for refurbishment work at the Ballarat Workshops.

This Hitachi train was back in service by August 2009 but was put into storage a few years later, eventually being retired in 2015, and transferred to Bendigo for scrapping in May 2018.

Back in 2008 small rail freight operator El Zorro was running the container train to Warrnambool. If they left the Port of Melbourne too late they would lose their ‘slot’ on the single track beyond Geelong, and would get dumped in the siding at Lara station until a path was available.

I was commuting from Geelong to Melbourne multiple days a week, so I’d keep my eye out at Lara for it – jumping off the train for a photo, then catching the next service on to Melbourne.

At Flinders Street Station one morning I stumbled upon this odd looking train.

It is track evaluation vehicle ‘EM100’ and traverses the network on a regular basis, with an array of sensors looking for track faults. It is still in service today, just renumbered ‘IEV100’ and with a snazzy looking Metro Trains Melbourne livery on it.

But somewhere way off my usual beat was the Montague Street bridge in South Melbourne.

Unlike today the bridge was quite anonymous, the feature catching my eye being that only two of the four bridges had tracks across them. Originally built to serve the Montague shipping shed, by late 2009 the tram tracks at Southbank Depot had been extended west over the bridge to stable the newly arrived ‘Bumblebee’ trams.

Railway upgrades

Work was continuing on the new concourse at North Melbourne station, as seen in previous posts in this series.

While another structure being built over active railway lines was the ‘Media House’ development for The Age, located on the southern side of Collins Street, opposite Southern Cross Station.

A massive crane was required to place the steel beams and concrete deck over the railway line.

Which permitted more conventional methods of construction to be used for the office building on top.

A short distance away the Dynon Port Rail Link was also well underway, removing a bottleneck that blocked road traffic every time a train entered the Port of Melbourne.

The network of flyovers replaced a single track level crossing on Footscray Road, allowing more trains to access the port.

As well as eliminating a seven track wide crossing inside the port itself.

Another project aimed at improving rail freight was the Corio Independent Goods Line at the Port of Geelong.

Work started in 2008 with the first train running in October the same year, but in the decade since is better described as a white elephant, with no new rail traffic being attracted to the port.

And the other bits

Down in Geelong work on the Geelong Ring Road was progressing, with the Lewis Bandt Bridge over the Moorabool River pretty much complete.

While a short distance south work on the bridge over the Barwon River had started.

Another road project underway was the Monash-CityLink-West Gate Upgrade. No – not the current ‘upgrade’ adding a new lane to the M1 freeway, but the project a decade ago that added a new to the M1 freeway.

For Engineering Week I ended up atop the freeway viaduct through South Melbourne.

Seeing how the new bridge spans were being tied into the existing viaduct.

Allowing an extra road lane to be squeezed in.

Over in Docklands things looked quite different, with Southern Cross Station still clearly visible from the top level of what was then called Telstra Dome.

But plenty of construction was taking place, with heritage listed No. 2 Goods Shed being converted into offices.

Chopped in half in the early 2000s to make way for the extension of Collins Street into the new Docklands development, work was underway to plug up the gaps at either end, then restore the remaining structure.

But the best view of all was from up inside the roof of what was then called Telstra Dome.

My tour went for a walk through the roof trusses.

Looking down on the grow lights on the playing surface.

And the rows of seats down below.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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The article that piqued my attention appeared in The Age on September 17:

Labor puts brakes on port rail project that would take 3500 trucks off road
September 17, 2015
Adam Carey

A project that would replace 3500 container trucks a day with just 28 freight trains, potentially halving port-based truck traffic and slashing pollution levels from heavy vehicles, has been shelved by the Andrews government until it leases Melbourne’s port.

The port-rail shuttle project has been suspended despite having $58 million of state and federal money committed to it last year, dismaying businesses eager to see the huge transfer of container freight from trucks to trains.

Commercial property developer Salta is poised to invest $3 million on a one-kilometre rail spur to link its Altona freight terminal to the port, plus $30 million on freight facilities on its site, but said it was pointless spending the money while the port-rail shuttle is on ice.

“Salta has an obligation to build that [rail spur] once certain things have happened, but there is no point until trains can be received at the port,” the company’s managing director Sam Tarascio said.

The port-rail shuttle involves reviving a disused rail line to the Port of Melbourne docks that runs parallel to Footscray Road, and building three short rail spurs to freight terminals in Altona, Somerton and Dandenong South. It would enable trains to shift goods between the port and freight hubs in the suburbs.

Currently, 100 per cent of Melbourne’s imports and exports are transported by truck.

The port-rail shuttle could transfer more than half of this – some 3500 truck movements a day – onto freight rail, an analysis by consulting firm GHD has found.

The analysis found those truck movements could be replaced by 56 daily train trips between the port and the three suburban freight hubs. The $58 million rail shuttle would shift 1.4 million containers a year to and from the port, GHD predicts, and reduce heavy vehicle emissions by 23,000 tonnes.

Unfortunately for me, the article raised more questions than answers.

Disused tracks

The mention of a disused rail line running parallel to Footscray Road confused me – the track has been there since the 1960s, and while it did fall into disuse, it was reconnected in 2002-03 and later upgrades as part of the construction of the Footscray Road overbridge.

The siding heads all the way across to the Swanson Dock West, where a loading pad exists in the DP World container terminal.

In addition, a separate set of sidings lead to Appleton Dock and Swanson Dock East, serving the Patrick container terminal.

New rail sidings

Rail sidings at Altona, Somerton and Dandenong South are mentioned in the article – the first two already exist, and were even used by port shuttle trains a decade ago, until the services failed.

No metropolitan containers on rail

The article states that “100 per cent of Melbourne’s imports and exports are transported by truck” – a little hard to believe given that freight trains already service the Port of Melbourne, but it is true – at present these services only run to container terminals in country Victoria.

So what do they actually want to build?

Once you know the actual name of a project the details are easy to find, and in this case I had to find the Port-Rail Shuttle page on the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (what a name!) website.

I was then able to find Salta’s submission to the Port of Melbourne inquiry, as mentioned in the article, which details the proposed works:

The proposition outlined in this document, namely the creation of infrastructure including the Metropolitan Intermodal Rail Terminal (the ‘MIRT’) at the Port, and the establishment of a network of Metropolitan Inland Ports connected to the Port by rail is collectively referred to as the Metropolitan Intermodal System (the ‘MIS’)

They also attached a presentation detailing what form the Metropolitan Intermodal Rail Terminal will take:

Straddle carriers or inter terminal vehicles (ITVs) will transfer containers between the wharves and the MIRT ‘off road’.

• Loading on/off trains using reach stackers until volume justifies gantries
• Highly disciplined container transfer operation to match
• Highly disciplined train departure/arrivals

And how the trains will operate:

Shuttle Train Reliability

• Will operate in between other trains outside peak periods
• Good acceleration & braking characteristics
• Two locomotives (one each end) to clear a line section if a single loco fails

Shuttle Train Specification

• The trains will be a fixed length not exceeding 600m
• They will have a locomotive at each (push – pull)
• Trains will have a nominal container capacity will be 84 TEU
• Will be broad or standard gauge as required by choice of route on the Somerton & Altona corridors
• The locomotives will need to be around 3000hp

And finally, detail of the proposed MIRT location – the ‘disused’ track mentioned in the original article:

The MIRT is defined by a rail terminal parallel to Footscray Road that has direct access to both Swanson Dock container terminals to minimise handling costs. Ultimately the MIRT needs to be capable of servicing four metropolitan port rail shuttles (600m long) at once.

However it required government input:

Government has the ability to inexpensively and quickly enable the MIS by committing to the following.

Government Actions:

1. Proceeding with the mandated closure of Coode Road;
2. Completing the rail connections into the Metropolitan Inland Ports;
3. Make available the currently budgeted $58 million for construction of the Government defined ‘MIRT’ and the remaining rail connections at the Inland Ports.
4. Ensure the New Port Leaseholder is delivered the land and given the necessary powers to establish the MIRT and appointment of an operating entity.

So all that needs to be done is expansion of an existing rail terminal at the Port of Melbourne so it can serve more trains, the closure of a public road so that containers can be moved between ships and trains without delay, and a few minor track changes in the suburbs so that the existing terminals can be served by trains.

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It is known as the Mode Shift Incentive Scheme (MSIS) and administered by the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources:

The Mode Shift Incentive Scheme (MSIS) is an incentive program that encourages industry to shift more containerised freight from road to rail.

The aim of the scheme is to increase efficiency and cost effectiveness in the freight sector and reduce congestion on roads in and around freight and port precincts.

In the 2014-15 State Budget, the Victorian Government invested $20 million over four years to continue the scheme.

The successful companies for the latest scheme are:

• Tocumwal corridor – Patrick Container Ports
• Horsham corridor – Wimmera Container Line
• Warrnambool corridor – Westvic Container Export
• Mildura corridor – Ironhorse Intermodal
• Deniliquin – Sunrice
• Maryvale – QUBE Logistics

The program has roots dating back in 2007, when the Victorian Government released a review into the state’s rail freight network. Titled ‘Switchpoint‘, the report itself found:

The regional intermodal business is second in terms of significance (in tonnes). This business primarily comprises export containers railed to the Port of Melbourne. Although rail is exposed to considerable competitive pressure from road for this trade, it has grown in recent years partly due to increased containerisation of agricultural products and also because rail can deliver large volumes into port in a single movement compared with trucks.

It also described the freight task itself:

Container trains are operated from Horsham (grain and hay), Boort (grain and hay), Merbein (horticultural products, grain, mineral sands), Mooroopna (food products), Tocumwal (grain and dairy products), Maryvale (paper products), Warrnambool (dairy and agricultural products) and Griffith/south-west NSW (wine, grapes, agricultural products).

And the problems caused by cheap road transport:

Evidence to the Rail Freight Network Review made it very clear that growers, grain handlers, and other rail freight users are extremely responsive to minor variations in posted and actual transport prices and will readily switch from one mode to another in order to capture the margin benefit.

And recommended that government charges for access to the rail network should be lowered, in order to make rail freight cost competitive:

Consequently, RFNR recommends that the Government immediately set access fees at levels competitive with rail access fees elsewhere in Australia for a period of at least five years. There should also preferably be a slight discount or advantage over the pricing of trucks. RFNR acknowledges the reduced access revenue from the reduced rates, but does not see the merit of setting access charges at levels which will not generate any revenue because the business has shifted to road.

It also addresses any concerns about these lower prices being a ‘subsidy’ for rail freight.

If governments are concerned to reduce the subsidy inherent in this approach, the best way to solve that is for the very high subsidy in long range road transport to be progressively reduced so that rail access pricing with its triple bottom-line advantages over road can be given more pricing headroom.

The state government took the recommendations on board, and in the 2008/09 State Budget allocated $21.4 million over two years for the ‘Rail Freight Support Package’ – a program to provide rebates to container terminal operators in country Victoria, and reduce access charges for exporting grain.

The container rebate was payable for containers moved by rail from Warrnambool, Horsham, Mildura and Shepparton/Tocumwal, and was based on a benchmark rate of $100 per 20 foot equivalent container adjusted for volume and distance.

In 2011/12 the Rail Freight Support Package was extended for another year at a cost of $5 million, and again in 2012/13 – but this time, under a new name.

$10 million incentive to move regional truck trips to rail
3 July 2012

Minister for Public Transport Terry Mulder today (3 July, 2012) announced the successful recipients of funding for its new $10 million rail freight incentive scheme.

The Victorian Coalition Government’s new Mode Shift Incentive Scheme (MSIS) aims to encourage the use of rail freight and relieve congestion on Port of Melbourne and regional roads.

Mr Mulder said the six companies which received funding had committed to moving almost 50,000 containers or the equivalent of 65,000 truck trips into and out of the Port of Melbourne by rail instead of road.

“The Coalition Government is committed to increasing the amount of freight carried by rail in Victoria and this is a major boost to rail freight,” Mr Mulder said.

“This new initiative increases the mode shift commitment to six companies from four under a previous program, greatly increasing the number of containers being moved by rail and encouraging competition.

Mr Mulder said the MSIS encouraged industry to increase the amount of freight carried on rail by providing incentives to move containerised freight movement from road to rail.

In order to be successful, applicants had to compete for funding and demonstrate they could provide the greatest economic, environmental and social benefits from reducing truck movements and shifting to rail.

“Promoting competition and adopting a rigorous approach to calculating the benefits has enabled an increase in the number of companies receiving funding and the overall number of containers being moved by rail by around 16,000 per year,” Mr Mulder said.

“We have had a great response to the scheme, demonstrating there is a strong interest and commitment to moving more freight on rail.”

Minister for Ports Denis Napthine said the containers moved on rail are all destined for the Port of Melbourne and will include products such as containerised grain, meat, dairy, fruit and wine.

“We are committed to retaining the Port of Melbourne as Australia’s largest container port” Dr Napthine said.

“This scheme not only encourages greater efficiency and innovation in the freight sector, it also reduces road congestion in and around the port.”

And fast forward to the 2014-15 State Budget, and another $20 million over four years was allocated to the program, but since deprioritised for 2015/16 onwards.

Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay had this to say on the removal of funding, while also sinking his boot into the Labor government:

Andrews Government abandons rail freight subsidy
26 February 2015

Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay has raised concerns in State Parliament that the Andrews Labor Government has discontinued funding for the Mode Shift Incentive scheme.

Mr Ramsay said the Mode Shift Incentive scheme, a little-known program that is highly effective, was introduced as part of the Napthine Government’s policy of growing freight on rail.

“The Mode Shift Incentive scheme was a key initiative of the Coalition’s freight strategy, Victoria — the Freight State, and was introduced in 2012–13 to replace the former Brumby Government’s failed Freight Rate Subsidy scheme.

“The Freight Rate Subsidy scheme was a maladministered cash transfer to freight companies to carry containers.

“In the last Budget the Coalition provided an allocation of $5 million per year to the Mode Shift Incentive scheme and in 2013–14 over 49 000, 20-foot equivalent unit containers were moved by rail rather than road, up from 33 500 in previous years.

The Rail Freight Alliance, a group of 25 rural and regional Local Government Councils from Central and Western Victoria and Southern NSW, also had this to say about the merry-go-round of funding:

Because the Mode Shift Incentive Scheme (MSIS) is renewed annually in the Victorian Budget, it does not provide long term certainty for investment by intermodal operators.

The total amount of funds provided, though useful, is extremely limited especially when compared with subsidies and infrastructure provision afforded to road freight operators.

While the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee meeting on 15 May 2015 gives the last word on the topic:

Mr D. O’BRIEN — I also note that in Labor’s Financial Statement it was listed as an initiative to be reprioritised. I guess my question straight out is: has this program been cut, or will it be continuing into the forward estimates?

Ms ALLAN — Yes, and you are obviously familiar with the project and what that means in terms of assisting the industry to move from road to rail. That is something that is also important to this government, and it has been a program that was designed to encourage businesses to shift the transport of their export containers from road to rail. And we did intend initially to reprioritise funds. However, on coming to government we have since become aware that the previous government had signed a four-year funding agreement with four companies who were to receive the funding from that scheme. That obviously does not expire for another three years. We will be honouring these existing agreements, and indeed I have written very recently to those companies informing them of that intent.

Looks like both the Member for Western Victoria and the Rail Freight Alliance were right to criticise government screwups!

Update for 2023

In June 2023 the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office released their audit titled ‘Effectiveness of Rail Freight Support Programs‘.

The 2018 ‘Delivering the Goods – Victorian Freight Plan’ confirmed the government’s intention to increase the share of freight moved by rail rather than road.

Despite this, the share of rail freight going in and out of the Port of Melbourne (the port) by rail is now less than half its 2013–14 peak.

The volume of freight carried by train has stayed static over this time. This means that trucks have carried most of the 30 per cent growth in the port’s container freight trade.

Although the scheme has kept some containers on trains that would have likely gone to trucks, it has not increased rail’s share of container freight in regional areas.

Further reading

• Why short-haul intermodal rail services succeed: report by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics
• Intermodal terminals across Victoria

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Turns out the operation of port shuttle trains has been tried before in Melbourne, and failed. “Shaping Melbourne’s Freight Future“, a discussion paper published by the Department of Transport in April 2010, has more to say on the topic:

The Victorian Port Strategic Study (2000) provided a comprehensive assessment of the land use and infrastructure requirements of the major commercial ports in Victoria.

The Study identified strong container trade growth forecasts for the Port of Melbourne and emphasised the important role to be played by inland intermodal terminals in the future in handling this growth. The Study estimated the mode share of rail in the transfer of port related freight at that time to be approximately 10% and predicted a progressive modal shift to rail.

In relation to the State’s ports and rail systems, it announced an aspirational target that would see the proportion of freight transported to and from ports by rail increase from 10% to 30% by the end of the decade (i.e. 2010).

A number of private sector interests became involved in efforts to develop rail shuttle services to the Port of Melbourne. Some invested considerable time and resources in attempting to establish such services. Despite these efforts, the establishment of viable port shuttle services in Melbourne has not occurred to date and as a result, significant progress against the 30% port rail mode share target has not been possible.

The paper detailed the failed train service that operated between the Port of Melbourne and the CRT container terminal at Altona, to the west of Melbourne.

The only port shuttle trains to have operated for a reasonable length of time in Melbourne ran between 2003 and 2006, between the privately owned CRT terminal in Altona and the Port of Melbourne, a rail journey of about 22 km.

CRT had been attempting to operate port-rail shuttles since 2000 in a way which reflected successful Sydney operations.

In 2004/05, CRT’s Port Shuttle service transported 13,000 TEUs to and from the Port, which would otherwise have been transported using over 4,000 road truck movements via the West Gate Bridge.

However, during this period, import utilisation of the service was only 42 per cent of capacity and export utilisation was 58 per cent, compared with CRT’s goal of 85 percent utilisation. (Inquiry into Managing Transport Congestion, 2005).

The short distance between the Port of Melbourne and Altona was seen as an impediment against the success of the service.

Because the short shuttle trains occupied the same effective path space on the ARTC network as a long interstate freight train, CRT was charged access fees on the same basis as those paid by interstate operators. The Port Shuttle service also faced far higher port handling charges – reportedly up to $72 per forty foot container compared with $3 for containers delivered by road trucks.

The impediments faced by the CRT Port Shuttle service were particularly damaging on the Port-Altona corridor as the road distance on this corridor is far shorter than the rail distance (the standard gauge rail line takes a circuitous route via Newport, Brooklyn and Tottenham). Overall, the Port-Altona route is the shortest of the three main intermodal corridors in Melbourne, and conditions would need to be favourable for it to be viable.

The paper also describes the lack of success establishing a rail service to a similar facility at Somerton, to the north of Melbourne.

Austrack commenced development of the Somerton terminal in 1998, with the terminal itself occupying 21ha within a larger “freight village”.

The Somerton intermodal terminal includes four 750 metre dual gauge rail sidings, connected to the main standard gauge Sydney line and the broad gauge Victorian track to Seymour, Shepparton and Tocumwal. These terminal connections are to and from the north only, showing expectations of interstate rail movements.

While the terminal operation works well as a road-only shuttle terminal, several unsuccessful attempts have been made to initiate port rail shuttles.

Finally, the paper summarised the lessons learnt from the failed port shuttle services.

Despite considerable effort devoted by Government to establishing appropriate policy settings and by the private sector in attempting to operate metropolitan intermodal services in Melbourne, success has not been achieved to date.

Whilst there appears to have been a desire on the part of the private sector to operate port shuttles and on the part of customers to use the service when competitive, a range of factors have militated against the establishment of such services.

These have included:

• Prevailing access pricing and priorities which favoured large, long-distance interstate trains over port shuttle trains;
• Lack of certainty in securing train pathways;
• An inability to defray rail capital and operating costs across a metropolitan-wide port shuttle network, resulting in poor utilisation of available container slots on the trains and higher costs than road;
• Poorer service levels and higher charges for containers handled by rail at the port interface compared with road;
• Inefficient port interface arrangements due to inadequate rail track infrastructure and stevedoring practices; and
• Road trucks being able to avoid City Link tolls by using local roads

But despite the previous failures, the paper had one positive note regarding future services.

It is notable that the Dandenong corridor, despite being considered by Sd+D (Melbourne Intermodal System Study 2008) to be the most conducive to a viable rail shuttle operation and the existence of some private sector interest, has never been tested.

This has also meant that the prospective strength of the Dandenong corridor has never been leveraged to assist in achieving viability on the apparently weaker Altona and Somerton corridors.

Giving it another go

In the 2014-15 State Budget funding was made available for the establishment of Port-Rail Shuttle services as the ‘Metropolitan Intermodal System’.

Port-Rail Shuttle services (the Metropolitan Intermodal System) will improve the efficiency of containerised freight transport throughout Melbourne by connecting the port to major outer suburban freight hubs by the existing rail network.

The 2014-15 State Budget provided $20 million, along with $38 million from the Commonwealth Government, towards developing the project. It is anticipated that the private sector will also invest in the project.

The project will deliver:

• intermodal freight terminals located within dedicated freight and logistics precincts in the south west, north and south east
• a dedicated rail transfer facility for containers at the port dedicated shuttle trains using off-peak rail network capacity
• business systems necessary to manage information and operations across the network.

The Metropolitan Intermodal System will be operated by the private sector.

Development of an effective Metropolitan Intermodal System will result in efficient freight movements across the city. It is estimated that at least 2,400 trucks a day will be removed from the road network, which is around 10 per cent of all port-based truck movements.

A market engagement process will commence in 2014. Port-Rail Shuttle services are expected to be operational by 2017.

With planned inland ports at Somerton, Lyndhurst and Altona we can only hope that the second attempt at port shuttle trains succeeds, and removes trucks from Melbourne’s increasingly busy roads.

Further reading

The full “Shaping Melbourne’s Freight Future” discussion paper can be found here.

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Known as a ‘bunker barge‘ these vessels pump fuel oil from their own tanks into those of the ship requiring refuelling.

Shell Australia’s ‘MV Zemira’ is a regular sight around the Port of Melbourne. I’ve found her at work at Webb Dock.

I’ve found her refuelling tankers on the lower reaches of the Maribyrnong River.

And I have even found her down at Station Pier topping up the Spirit of Tasmania.

The MarineTraffic website gives her stats as follows:

IMO: 9397767
MMSI: 503542000
Gross Tonnage: 2532
Deadweight: 3876 t
Length × Breadth: 74.5m × 16.82m
Year Built: 2007

Some more detail on Zemira can be found in the 2007 media release from Shell:

Shell’s new barge, Zemira, sets sail in Melbourne
18/10/2007

Shell Australia’s new bunker vessel MV Zemira was launched today at Station Pier, Port Melbourne, by the Victorian Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Mr Martin Pakula MLC and Shell Australia Chairman, Mr Russell Caplan.

Zemira commenced bunkering operations in the Port of Melbourne on 22 September 2007 following certification and trials.

The specifications of the newly built vessel are certainly impressive:

• 3800 deadweight tonnes (dwt),
• double hull and double bottom,
• self propelled,
• capacity to carry 3200MT of Heavy Fuel Oil and 600MT of Gas Oil,
• capacity for 150MT of bulk lubricants, and
• first dedicated bunkering vessel in Australia to be fully compliant with MARPOL Annex I

The Zemira is 74.5 metres in length, 3876 dwt, has five pairs of cargo tanks and two slop (lube) tanks totalling 4668 cubic metres served by three 500m3/hr cargo pumps. Her twin Anqing Daihatsu main engines deliver 11 knots, and she has accommodation for a permanent crew of six. The vessel is manned and operated by ASP Ship Management Pty Ltd, one of the leading ship operators and managers in Australia.

Zemira is named for the Zemira australis – a relatively rare mollusc of the Family Pseudolividae, with origins in the Cretaceous period some 100 million years ago. It is endemic to Australia and occurs from Fraser Island in Queensland to Tasmania. It grows to around 31mm in length.

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