Push for rail-scheme extension

Horsham municipal leaders desperate to see Wimmera Intermodal Freight Terminal realise its potential are urging the State Government to continue a road-torail freight subsidisation scheme.

Horsham Rural City Council believes a Mode Shift Incentive Scheme, MSIS, which subsidises transport operators to use rail, is critically important for the terminal’s survival and success.

State funding for the program expires on June 30.

Horsham Rural City Council has been a long-time advocate of the MSIS and leaders believe the scheme should continue until at least June 30, 2022.

Horsham mayor Mark Radford wrote to Ports and Freight Minister Melissa Horne this week to stress the scheme’s importance to the Dooen terminal.

“It is vitally important to several regional intermodal operators including Wimmera Container Line,” he said.

“Now that the release date for the

Victorian Budget is after June 30, our council stresses the importance of the continuation of the MSIS.”

Cr Radford said Horsham grain and hay exporter Johnson Asahi, which delivered about 70 containers a week

“A single 1800-metre, doublestacked train carries the equivalent load of 108 B-double semi-trailers on a single journey” – Mark Radford

to Melbourne from the terminal, had shifted its transport program for the next three years from rail to road.

He said this had occurred because of uncertainty surrounding the subsidy scheme.

“This example underlines the need to make rail transport affordable for our exporters,” Cr Radford said.

He said the transport of containerised exports by rail, instead of by road where practical, benefited society in many ways.

“The scheme has been very successful over many years to encourage the transfer of freight from road to rail, reducing congestion and improving safety for all road users,” he said.

“Over long distances, trains burn less fuel and carry far higher volumes than road transport.

“A single 1800-metre, doublestacked train carries the equivalent load of 108 B-double semi-trailers on a single journey.

“The beneficiaries of this scheme go far beyond the intermodal terminal operators.”