VICTORIAN Minister for Ports and Freight Melissa Horne says upgraded infrastructure on the Sea Lake rail line will benefit freight operators and the region’s farmers, while improving the movement of grain to port.
Ms Horne said more than $100 million was invested into the region over the last two years, with upgrades to the Sea Lake, Manangatang and Mildura lines.
The works on the Sea Lake line saw more than 60,000 sleepers replaced, with upgrades to four level crossings and more than 3000 rail joints.
“We’re continuing to support our freight operators and farmers by completing these works on the Sea Lake line, ahead of what is expected to be another bumper harvest,” Ms Horne said, noting the last significant works to the line took place 14 years ago.
“The works are all about making it safer, faster and easier for freight operators and farmers to keep transporting thousands of tonnes of grain to port.”
Ms Horne said the works aimed to improve aging infrastructure, while reducing the risk of infrastructure faults.
Speed restrictions were also removed from the GrainCorp terminal at Berriwillock, and grain terminals in Sea Lake and Nullawil.
GrainCorp Southern Supply Chain senior manager Craig Cochrane welcomed the improvements.
He said Berriwillock played a crucial role in grain exports, and while there’s a push to increase rail freight, plans were also in place to increase capacity on trains.
With rail freight accounting for 30 per cent of movement, Mr Cochrane said they hoped to double that figure, resulting in both economic and environmental benefits.
An average 650m grain train carried approximately $880,000 worth of grain, and was equivalent to 50 loaded trucks.
Between July 2021 and April 2022, one million tonnes of grain, valued at $400 million was moved to port on the V/Line freight rail network, from 29 active grain sites, including Berriwillock.
Ms Horne said the State Government remained committed to improving the regional rail freight network with a further $181 million earmarked in the 2022/23 state budget.
However, Leader of the Nationals and Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh has slammed Ms Horne’s visit to the region, saying the the government wasn’t “fooling anyone” with their “outrageous claims it has made Victoria’s freight rail safer, faster and easier to get Victorian food and fibre to port”.
Mr Walsh said Ms Horne had been misguided and he “condemned Labor’s mismanagement of the botched Murray Basin Rail Project”, which was crucial for transporting fruit and vegetables, wine, grain and mineral sands from the Mallee and Sunraysia region.
“Labor’s decision to install a century-old track on the Basin Rail network and to leave it a mess of standard and broad-gauge lines means it’s now harder – not easier – to get Victorian food and fibre from north-west Victoria to the port at Melbourne,” Mr Walsh said.
“Stakeholders tell us freight trains are taking five hours longer to make a trip because of the problems with Labor’s mismanagement of the Murray Basin Rail Project.”
“Finishing it – in full – is the only way to deliver safer, faster and easier access to the port and also take thousands of truck movements off our crumbling country roads.”
