AUSTRALIA’s largest private rail freight operator Pacific National (PN) has agreed a $A 110m ($US 79.6m) contract with Wagner Corporation to construct a major intermodal terminal at Wellcamp Business Park, Toowoomba.
Once operational, the 23-hectare Wellcamp Logistics Hub site will include:
- approximately 2.7km of railway, allowing double-stack 1800m-long trains to serve the site
- warehousing
- potential access to 350,000 shipping containers by 2030, and 500,000 containers by 2040, and
- daily international freight flights via the collocated Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport.
Construction is expected to generate up to 245 jobs and once in operation there will be up to 400 jobs at the facility including train drivers, terminal staff and associated warehousing staff.
Mr John Wagner, chairman of the Wagner Corporation, says the government’s plans for the Inland Rail project has given private companies added confidence to invest in major freight hubs along the future rail corridor between Melbourne and Brisbane.
“Picture this – at a minimum, an 1800-metre-long freight train hauling shipping containers is equivalent to removing 140 B-double return truck trips from our roads,” he said.
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