Ettamogah Rail Hub
The Ettamogah Rail Hub is regarded as a leading edge transport facility for Eastern Australia. It is a modern, independant, common-user rail hub facility that offers container handling services between road and rail transport modes. The first stages of the proposed $22 million dollar development have been completed ahead of schedule, with the first freight containers coming through the Hub in June 2007.
Strategically located just 10 kilometres from Albury, adjacent to the Hume Freeway and the main Melbourne-Sydney rail line, the Hub offers exceptional access to the eastern seaboard, essentially linking freight from the Murray Region to almost any part of Eastern Australia.
The Griffith – Melbourne freight train currently services the Hub five days a week. There is the potential for other rail operators to use the hub as demand and container volumes increase. Among the businesses that are already utilizing the Ettamogah Rail Hub is Mars Petcare which receives containers of raw materials into the hub and sends out manufactured pet food products to the Port of Melbourne for export.
A plastics business, CRT, is also leasing premises at the hub and distributes container loads of polyethylene and polypropylene plastic resins to major manufacturers in the Albury/Wodonga and Wagga Wagga regions.
The hub features a large concrete platform, sealed access roads, quality lighting and shed facilities. There are also three areas of land totalling 7 hectares that have been prepared for an industrial park adjacent to the loading platform.
This land provides opportunities for businesses to set-up a warehouse facility to allow for a fully integrated operation with ready access to the container handling and rail transport facilities. Future Growth Developer of the Hub, Colin Rees has more than 30 years experience in the transport industry. His vision is to ultimately create a fully serviced inland port and Business Park at this site that showcases the potential for short haul rail and to work with road operators to service the growing freight task.
ERH’s aim is to reinvent regional rail as a sustainable supply chain by introducing new technology and supporting their people to provide a professional service to customers and tenants of the Hub.
This will be achieved by:
• Investing in technology and innovation to ensure regional rail is able to offer an efficient, viable and reliable service. (eg. locomotive development and light-weight wagon developments to improve payload capacity)
• Setting up a training facility for rail operations, logistics and general education for people already involved with rail or for those seeking a career in the rail and logistics industry.
• Working with Local, State and Federal governments to unlock regional rail’s full potential in the freight task.
• Having a commitment to build harmonization between rail and road.
• Provision of customs and quarantine services (subject to approval).
The establishment of the Ettamogah Rail Hub gives the Murray Region a transport and logistics set-up unrivalled in Regional Australia with tremendous scope for further growth and development.
