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Why was Moorebank proposed for an Intermodal Site?
The Development Assessment Process
Introduction
The Department of Defence land between Anzac Rd, Wattle Grove, East Hills Railway line and the Georges River has been identified as a proposed Freight Intermodal Terminal site in the Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036, and in the NSW freight strategy.
Two Intermodal Terminals have been proposed for this area. The proposed Intermodal Terminal to the east of Moorebank Avenue is a privately proposed Intermodal Terminal by the SIMTA alliance. The Commonwealth Government is investigating the Ipotential for an additional ntermodal Terminal to the west of Moorebank Avenue. The SIMTA intermodal has a maximum capacity of 1 million
twenty foot equivalent" containers per year and the Moorebank Inter Modal Terminal proposal is expected to have a maximum capacity of 1.5million "twenty foot equivalent" containers per year.
The SIMTA proposal is more advanced in the planning stage than the Commonwealth proposal at this point in time.
The two potential Intermodal sites can be seen here.
Intermodal terminals currently operating in Sydney are:
- Minto
- Leightonfield
- Yennora
- Cooks River (Tempe)
- Chullora
The Government has determined that these sites are too small, and too constrained to be able to move a major proportion of the container demand forecast from Port Botany, which is why the Government has identified a number of proposed sites for the development of additional intermodal facilities.
The State Government through the Ports Strategy has mandated that 40% of all containers out of Port Botany will be railed out to Intermodal terminals where they are transhipped onto trucks. To meet this target multiple major Intermodal terminals have been proposed around Sydney, including Enfield, Moorebank and Eastern Creek.
Railing Port Botany's Containers (2005)
SIMTA Morebank Intermodal Proposal:
Sydney InterModal Terminal Alliance (SIMTA) has currently a proposal for an Intermodal terminal located on the Defence National Storage and Distribution Centre site, which will be able to move up to 1 million twenty foot equivalent containers per year.
This proposed development will include
• A railway spur line from the South Sydney Freight Line to the site
• 300,000sqm of offices and warehousing space
• 8,000sqm driver facilities
The Director General’s requirements on what SIMTA must provide as part of the assessment process are available here.
Further information can be found here at SIMTA’s website.
The preliminary environmental assessment is also available here. (pdf approximately 4mb).
The SIMTA Proposal at the State Government's Department of Planning here or at the SIMTA website here
The Approvals Process for the SIMTA Site
A summary of the assessment process for the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal Proposal.
The project is declared by the Minister for Planning as a State Significant Site.
- The Applicant submits an initial application and preliminary environmental assessment.
- The Director General of the Department of Planning releases the Environmental Assessment Requirements.
- The applicant prepares the Environmental Assessment Report. (present status)
- The Environmental Assessment and all other supporting documentation is placed on public exhibition.
- All submissions from the public exhibition is considered and assessed.
- The Director General provides a report to the Minister for Planning on the merits of the project
- The Minister determines whether the project will receive approval or not.
- The project commences construction, or is refused consent.
Morebank Inter Modal Terminal (Federal Government) Proposal:
The Federal Government is proposing a port shuttle and interstate intermodal terminal, with a capacity for 1.5 million twenty foot equivalent containers per year.
Further Information can be obtained from the Federal Government Department of Finance on the Commonwealth Intermodal proposal here; or at 1300 382 239
Why was Moorebank proposed as an Intermodal Site?
The South West and North West subregions of Sydney are experiencing high rates of growth in industrial lands, primarily centred along the M7 and M5 Motorways. The Central West subregion is already a significant industrial powerhouse. and is located adjacent to the main railway line to Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide and Port Botany.
The current level of containers into Port Botany in 2005 was approximately 1.3million Twenty foot Equivalent Units (TEU's). This is expected to grow to 2.9million TEU's by 2021. If the current proportion of container movements by road and rail is maintained by 2021 2.7million TEU's will need to be transported by road; a volume that far exceeds the road networks capacity. If 40% of all containers are moved by rail in 2021 (the Governments target) around 1.7 million TEU's will be moved by roads.
Given the congestion on the M5, and lack of a high quality road connection to the M4 from the Port, railing these 40% or more of the containers would lead to less congestion on arterial roads in these regions.
This image shows the forecast container levels out of Port Botany, showing rapid growth in these areas.
Sydney Urban Corridor Strategy (2005)
The proposed intermodal terminal at Leumeah, and the existing intermodal terminal at Minto would have a combined capacity of 254,000 "twenty foot equivalent units" of containers, which would not be sufficient to meet the needs of the South West region, therefore another site centrally located and within close proximity to the road and rail networks was needed. Given the urban area in the South West along the railway corridor is already highly urbanised, large sites are rare.
This means that the two proposed and one currently under construction major intermodal terminal sites will be able to move the majority of the container freight requirements:
- Enfield - maximum 300,000 TEU's/year (under construction)
- Moorebank - 1,000,000 TEU's/year
- Eastern Creek - unknown but would be expected to be around 1,000,000TEU's/year or greater.
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