A DIRECT line to the beach and Wollongong University could be on the cards for Campbelltown residents as the case for finishing the Maldon-Dombarton rail link
strengthens.
Macarthur would also become a massive ‘‘inland port’’, generating more industrial lands and employment opportunities.
Last week, the Advertiser revealed that the Rudd Federal
Government will call for tenders for a new $300,000 feasibility study into completion of the long unfinished rail link.
Construction was closed down by former Liberal Premier Nick Greiner in 1988 and the ALP later broke a vow to complete it.
After 25 years of inaction, a strong business case has finally developed.
Port Kembla Corporation chairman Nick Whitlam said a new $600 million expansion of the port would make completion of the line almost inevitable.
Werriwa’s federal MP, Chris Hayes, met the Advertiser at the Macarthur Intermodal Shipping Terminal in Ingleburn and said the future looked bright.
‘‘The rail link will give us a real opportunity to become an inland port and give us what I would hope to be a reasonable prospect to generate our local employment
opportunities around those ports,’’ Mr Hayes said.
‘‘We have intermodal terminals in Ingleburn and Minto and
there’s a strong prospect by the State Government to develop another in Moorebank.
‘‘This will be very good for the growth of industries who are developing their businesses along the road corridors of the F5, M5 and the M7.
‘‘We have a surplus of young families here in western Sydney and all of these kids will need a future.’’
It’s a tune that is finding very little opposition.
Last week, the boss of Macarthur Business Enterprise Centre, David Waudby, said many local small businesses have said they would favour the line being completed.
Campbelltown Chamber of Commerce president Geoff Ellis
said he would support any infrastructure that might boost local business.
Campbelltown Council general manager Paul Tosi said it would be a boom for the region.
‘‘If completed it would be a crucial piece of infrastructure that would link the new port facilities
at Port Kembla to south-west Sydney,’’ he said.
‘‘And in the long-term it will create more employment in this area which is a good thing.’’
Managing director for the Macarthur Intermodal Shipping
Terminal at Ingleburn, Steve Heraghty, said the link would provide dual port connectivity into Port Botany and Melbourne.
‘‘At the moment the majority of freight to and from Port and Kembla is moved on the major arterial roads [F3 and Appin Road] or on the existing congested commuter rail network,’’ he said.
‘‘From Port Kembla they are transported by semi-trailer and accumulated at the two enormous car-detailing yards located at Ingleburn and Minto before distribution throughout new-car showrooms all over the state.
‘‘Opening the rail link to Port Kembla creates the option of
transferring those cars directly onto rail at Port Kembla to the terminal at Minto, removing all the semi-trailer movements on those already busy arterial roads.’’
Mr Heraghty said the intermodal terminal at Minto was the closest terminal to Port Kembla by road and rail.
‘‘Recent studies reveal that the Macarthur Intermodal Rail Terminal has the capacity to grow its container volumes to 327,000 TEUPA [twenty-foot equivalent
units]. All other intermodal terminals in Sydney are choking with their capacity to grow already exhausted.’’
Earlier this month, the federal MP for Cunningham, Sharon
Bird (who grew up in Appin and attended Airds High School), told shipping bosses the terms of reference
for the feasibility study would focus on current and
future freight markets.
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