Ports and Freight minister visits Dooen to announce incentive scheme expansion

Minister for Ports and Freight Melissa Horne was in the Wimmera on Tuesday, July 12, to announce the expansion to the Mode Shift Incentive Scheme, visiting the SCT Logistics Intermodal Freight Terminal in Dooen.

The freight terminal - which is on the Melbourne to Adelaide standard gauge rail line - is one of four terminal operators to receive incentives to move containers by rail.

The new announcement will see $3.5 million from the Victorian Budget 2022-23 allocated to extend the Mode Shift Incentive Scheme until June 30, 2023.

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The scheme provides incentives to shift containerised freight from roads and onto rail.

Ms Horne said extending the scheme would take more trucks off of the region's roads and support Wimmera producers.

"We know that they can run trains up to 1.2km long and they have train pathways of up to six a week," she said.

"That takes hundreds of trucks off of the road. The other important thing that is does too is save local farmers money because it is more cost efficient to shift their product on rail."

An average 1km long intermodal service from Dooen to the Port of Melbourne will carry about $2.5 million worth of produce - the equivalent of 70 trucks.

Ms Horne said the expanded scheme was one of many investments made in freight rail by the state government, which also included a wider port shuttle rail network being developed across the state's west.

"We have a heap of money, $181 million for rail freight maintenance that came out of this budget, that is on top of $83 million that came out of the previous budget for COVID stimulus," she said.

"You will have this interconnected network of rail freight - both intermodal hubs but also rail lines that are the best they have been in a generation that will support primary producers in Victoria."

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Ms Horne however did note limitations with the Maroona to Portland railway line, which was leased to the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

She said the state government would look to work further with the federal government to get the rail line up to scratch.

"It is certainly not up to standard, in fact there was a derailment down there a few years ago right at the port of Portland," she said.

"We are working with the federal government to say, under the terms and conditions of that lease it needs to be maintained to a certain standard. It needs to be able to run 19 ton axel-loaded trains, and it needs to be able to run 80km/h.

"There is no way it can do that now, and we are continuing to work with the federal government to get it up to those speeds."

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