Minister for Public Transport Terry Mulder is keeping export freight from Shepparton, Cobram and the NSW Riverina on the rails with a $550,000 Coalition Government grant to temporarily reopen the Toolamba (near Shepparton) to Kyabram and Echuca line.
Mr Mulder said that while Labor had allowed rail freight lines such as Dimboola to Yaapeet, Shepparton to Dookie and Ararat to Maryborough to either close or decay to a point where freight trains had to be suspended, the Coalition Government wanted to re-open country freight lines where demand existed.
“Until the Baillieu Government acted, the last revenue freight train on the Echuca to Toolamba line was on 11 July 2007,” Mr Mulder said.
“V/Line is undertaking essential major maintenance on the Seymour to Toolamba section of the Shepparton line, and 400 metres of track near Toolamba will be reconstructed during the next month because sinkholes had appeared in an embankment.
“While V/Line will provide passengers with replacement buses until at least 7 April 2011, freight from the Tocumwal (NSW) and Mooroopna container terminals would have been forced onto trucks at an extra cost of up to $400 a container.
“The first train to use the re-opened Echuca to Toolamba line should arrive at Mooroopna on Sunday night of 13 March and at its Tocumwal destination on Monday morning of 14 March.
“On Wednesday 16 March, the container freight train should depart Tocumwal and Mooroopna bound for Melbourne’s Appleton Dock via Kyabram, Echuca and Bendigo,” Mr Mulder said.
Mr Mulder said that Victorian and southern New South Wales exporters such as Murray Goulburn and Swift’s Meats (JBS Australia) at Cobram, and Wilson’s Stockfeeds, Campbells and HW Greenham at Shepparton will benefit because the cost of sending containers on rail is up to $400 a box cheaper than by road.
“There is 300,000 tonnes of wheat at Tocumwal this year, along with an annual 13,000 tonnes of potatoes and many containers of hay, cheese, fruit and meat exported each year worldwide that begin the trip by rail from Tocumwal or Mooroopna,” Mr Mulder said.
Gray’s Container Terminal operator Mr Barry Gray said that he was delighted at the Baillieu Government’s fast-tracked support to re-open the Echuca to Toolamba line.
“Our exporting clients and Grays believe it is incredibly important to keep the three days a week, up to 1200 metre long freight train running despite its usual route through Nagambie being unavailable for much of March and some of April,” Mr Gray said.
