The upgrade and reconfiguration of the rail yard at Port Botany has now been completed, part of an ambitious project which will transform the movement of freight across the Sydney Basin and take up to 300,000 trucks a year off the City’s road network.
Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has also announced that work on the next stage of the $172 million Port Botany Rail Upgrade project has commenced, with Downer Australia selected for the job of expanding the Enfield rail yard so it can accommodate more trains at any one time.
“This vital nation building project will eliminate dockside bottlenecks and speed up the movement of freight into and out of what is the nation’s second largest container port,” said Mr Albanese.
“It will also add additional capacity, increasing the number of containers which can be transported along the line from 700,000 to around 1,000,000 a year.”
Subject to a successful conclusion to negotiations with the NSW Government over transferring management of the line to the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), the Port Botany Rail Upgrade project will also install the latest signalling technology on the section between the Cooks River and Mascot.
ARTC CEO John Fullerton said the improvements being made to the Port Botany Rail Line would lift its capacity by more than 30 per cent.
