The 2020 report found residents in the Maribyrnong council area had a higher number of hospital admissions than the Australian average for diseases strongly linked to air pollution, including admissions for heart failure, stroke, asthma, respiratory system disease and lung cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That report found air pollution in the area was caused by a range of factors, including transport emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another more recent report by the Grattan Institute<\/a> found air pollution from truck exhausts were responsible for more than 400 deaths in Australia each year. But despite that, the Grattan Institute noted Australia’s reliance on trucks to transport freight was growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Residents, businesses and councils in Melbourne are all calling for that to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But their push to move freight off roads and onto railways faces some obstacles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To understand just how reliant Melbourne is on trucks, you only need to look at the Port of Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than one third of the country’s trade comes in and out of the port, which is the largest in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About 94 per cent of the containers going to and from ships are freighted by road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s a statistic Port of Melbourne chief executive Saul Cannon calls “pretty disappointing”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He wants to see governments and the private sector focus on how the city can shift freight from roads to rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It is better for the climate, it is better in terms of safety, taking trucks off local roads and removing congestion,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s an idea backed by the community group Mr Wurt is part of, the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group, which sees more freight on rail as one part of the solution to their truck concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Port of Melbourne has started investing in rail, spending $125 million to connect its docks to a suburban rail shuttle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With funding from both state and federal governments, the shuttle will connect the port with freight terminals in Melbourne’s west, south-east and north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the story for goods heading to or from locations further afield is far more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A major, and controversial, inland freight rail line from Brisbane to Melbourne<\/a> is due to be built by 2027. It is planned to connect more than 1,000 kilometres of existing rail to 600km of new rail lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With nearly $15 billion in federal funding, as well as private investment, it will also link to regional areas in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid the controversy, there’s another catch \u2014 Melbourne doesn’t yet have a dedicated freight hub to connect this interstate line with local road and rail transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reid Mather is the chief executive of the Rail Freight Alliance, which represents about half of Victoria’s councils. He wants to see greater investment in rail freight infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He says a new intermodal hub, as these large rail freight terminals are known, is necessary to accommodate the Brisbane-Melbourne rail line, partly because of the sheer size of the new trains that will be arriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “All reports are it is going to be a 1.8km train that will be double stacked with containers,” he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The federal government estimates each train will carry the equivalent volume of 110 B-double trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Mr Mather says the city needs a suitable location where these huge trains can be unloaded and returned north as well as connected to the port by rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And time is ticking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It needs to be carefully planned for noise, buffer zones and amenity into and around that activity as well, Mr Mather says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “So the longer we wait, the more difficult it is to plan and construct.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The federal government estimates such a terminal would take about 550 trucks a day off Melbourne roads, a figure rail advocates hope would grow over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its report, the Grattan Institute questioned the impact of more funding, noting rail is often used to transport different types of goods than trucks and can be more expensive over short distances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But proponents of more rail freight infrastructure have an unlikely ally \u2014 the Victorian Transport Association, which represents the trucking industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its chief executive Peter Anderson says with labour shortages in the trucking industry and a growing freight demand, the state needs greater investment in rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He still believes trucks are a vital asset to any city, and investment in “cleaner, newer trucks” can help alleviate the concerns of communities affected by truck congestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He says building links between road and rail freight is essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while a new major rail freight terminal is supported by many logistics companies, councils, the Port of Melbourne and residents groups, it is still not fully funded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Victorian Government has identified a site in Truganina, in Melbourne’s outer west, for a future intermodal hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the former federal Coalition government also had eyes on a location in Beveridge in the outer north of Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last federal budget it allocated allocated $740 million towards a hub at Truganina while nearly $1 billion dollars has been promised for road connecting to the proposed site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But $1.6 billion was also promised towards a rail terminal at Beveridge and more than $200 million towards upgrading roads surrounding that proposed location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That funding was conditional on contributions from the Victorian government, which are yet to be announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It set off a stoush between the two governments over a terminal location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Victoria’s Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan told the The Guardian<\/a> the funding had been “re-heated” and short-changed Victoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While most people involved with the project say both terminals will eventually be needed, key stakeholders like the Port of Melbourne believe it’s crucial Truganina should be the priority, because more freights heads to Melbourne’s west than north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others, like Reid Mather, blame the Victorian government for the project delays. He says the state has failed to do enough planning for the Truganina site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a new federal government and an upcoming November state election, the political landscape is shifting, but key stakeholders say little progress appears to have been made on building a new freight terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Victorian government is still clear that it wants to focus on Truganina as a terminal location, insisting it can be built by 2030 \u2014 three years after the Inland Rail is expected to be running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It allocated $6 million in its recent budget towards development of the terminal but hasn’t yet completed a detailed business case for the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Victorian Ports and Freight Minister Melissa Horne says her government is “getting on with planning” for the Truganina terminal and it is working with the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The opposition Coalition has promised to expand a scheme to encourage industry to shift more containerised freight off roads<\/a> and onto rail if elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Amateur hour” is how some landholders on the $14 billion Inland Rail line have described the consultation for the project, as reviews of flood modelling continue.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesperson for the federal transport department told the ABC in a statement “settling a terminal solution for Melbourne is a priority for the Australian government”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Australian government is working closely with the Victorian government to agree a way forward on the intermodal terminal solution for Melbourne, including timing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n More detail may be revealed in the upcoming federal budget, which will be the new government’s first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Mr Mather and the councils his organisation represents, there is a fear that investing in rail freight infrastructure, while worthy, is not a vote-winner for political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “But the do-nothing option is a real, real danger, we could potentially be gridlocked, [with] poor air quality, poor public amenity,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Wurt still has copies of Victorian government transport plans from more than a decade ago, which discussed the need for intermodal hubs back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It hasn’t even started,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Meanwhile here we know our health and our amenity is suffering as a result,” he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From his home in Melbourne’s inner west, Martin Wurt can’t see the passing trucks, but he can often hear them. “Trucks have a massive, massive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":54815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,999,65,1437,163],"tags":[8751],"class_list":["post-54814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-australia-politics","category-intermodal","category-intermodal-terminal","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","tag-victorian-government"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tPort boss joins residents in call for rail focus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Businesses wait, terminal locations sit empty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Federal and state battle over west and north<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Inland Rail flood concerns ‘being ignored’<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n