Port of Melbourne welcomes today’s release of the Victorian Commercial Ports Strategy, according to the company's release.
“The Strategy is a welcome recognition of the important role Victoria’s ports play in the economic wellbeing of Victoria and the surrounding regional areas of both mainland Australia and Tasmania,” Port of Melbourne CEO Saul Cannon said.
Mr Cannon welcomed the State Government’s commitment to continuing to work with Port of Melbourne to support planning for the next tranche of container capacity.
The State Government has a key role in ensuring that Victoria’s transport system is capable of meeting the rapidly growing freight task.
“Port of Melbourne has already invested more than $370 million inside the port gate and we anticipate further capital investment of an estimated $2 billion over the next 10-15 years.”
The Strategy also supports Port of Melbourne’s objectives for land use planning for new road and rail network capacity needed to support the growth of trade volumes at Webb Dock.
Increased use of rail to move containers that come into Webb Dock would reduce truck movements on the road network – where one truck hauls 1-4 containers, one train can move up to 84 containers. Port of Melbourne is already investing more than $125 million in the Port Rail Transformation Project in the Swanson Dock Precinct to increase port rail capacity.