A recent derailment at Newport of an SCT freighter on the 20th December 2025 has blocked the Werribee line for 2 days and caused considerable damage to infrastructure for both ARTC and Melbourne Metro Trains.
Under a plan by Minister Gabriel Williams to remove freight access to the vital rail line between Sunshine and Ballarat as a component of the very expensive and wasteful $4B rebuild of Sunshine Railway Station, the only way trains from the western of the state could enter and leave Melbourne would be via Newport the exact set of lines made unavailable for 3 days this week.
If the plan by Minister Gabriel Williams proceeds it will cut off freight access and effectively shutdown rail freight access into and out of Melbourne from the West. How could any operator run a freight business for their customers will a single access path and chokepoint into a city of 5.5m with Australia’s largest container port?
If the plan had gone ahead and we were faced with the newport line being unavailable for a minimum of 3 days freight traffic to and from the Port of Melbourne covering the entire north west of the state and interstate rail traffic would have been stopped.
Is it any wonder the state of Victoria is becoming uninvestable under this government?
