Prime Minister backs Kalgoorlie-Boulder intermodal freight hub, return of WA rail network to public ownership

Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s long-mooted rail realignment and intermodal freight hub project has received the Prime Minister’s backing, with a re-elected Albanese Government promising to invest $2.5 million to help put the WA freight rail network back in public hands. WA Premier Roger Cook in January announced his Government would start negotiations with operator Arc Infrastructure to bring the network back into public ownership. Arc Infrastructure secured a 49-year lease after the network was privatised in 2000 by the Liberal-Nationals government of the time. In January, Mr Cook said the demands on the network had grown substantially in recent years, and public control would help unlock greater economic activity, and support industry, farmers and regional communities. The Kalgoorlie-Boulder project would see an intermodal facility built just west of the city, and the re-routing of east-west freight trains, which currently travel through the northern part of town, along a line which would loop to the west and south of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The Goldfields-Esperance Development Commission is undertaking a feasibility study into the concept. Speaking at CBH Group’s rail-linked grain storage and handling facility in Forrestfield on Thursday, Anthony Albanese admitted “I have come to accept that I get more excited about intermodal freight terminals than most people”. “But these are truly transformative projects,” he said. “They take us away from the model of last century, where everything produced in regional Australia had to be loaded on to a truck or a train and travel all the way to a capital city warehouse before it could go anywhere else. “Instead, these terminals are built at the intersection of crucial infrastructure.” Mr Albanese said such projects had economic, environmental, and community benefits which he wanted to see realised in WA. “Indeed, WA represents a whole new scale of opportunity because of the distance and the volumes involved,” he said. “For decades, people have talked about the idea of an inland port at Kalgoorlie-Boulder. “The fundamental starting point for this project is the WA freight rail network which includes the Eastern Goldfields railway, the Leonora-Esperance corridor, and the narrow gauge network used by grain producers across the Wheatbelt.” Mr Albanese said he was backing the Cook Government’s plan to put the WA freight rail network back in public hands. “At the moment, the Commonwealth, through the Australian Rail Track Corporation, owns and maintains the rail line from the South Australian border to Kalgoorlie,” he said. “And as part of our Labor Government’s commitment to WA, we are prepared to take direct control of those parts of the network that the Liberals privatised, including the Eastern Goldfields railway. “This will ensure this vital line is maintained to the proper standard. “And it will cut costs for producers and consumers and boost productivity in every link of the WA supply chain.” City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder Mayor Glenn Wilson welcomed the announcement, saying it was encouraging to see that both sides of government recognised the vital role that Kalgoorlie-Boulder could play as a national logistics hub. “We’ve welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement as a strong endorsement of our strategic importance in the national rail and freight network,” he said. “Having one rail operator or provider across the length from the eastern states to Fremantle provides more opportunities for Kalgoorlie-Boulder as a critical junction, connecting east, west and north, south of our area, and a hub for integration and alignment of any intermodal facility that could potentially play a role in reducing carbon emissions and building resistance into Australia’s transport networks. “The Federal Liberals, when they were in coalition government, supplied through (O’Connor MHR) Rick Wilson the funding for the business case. “So we’ve got two sides of government now who are providing support, in one shape or another, to rail around Kalgoorlie-Boulder, so that’s quite positive.”