Freight links still key for Freo port future

Fremantle’s port has room to grow container trade, possibly for three decades, according to a new report by the state government’s Westport taskforce, but freight infrastructure improvements are needed in the short term at Fremantle, Bunbury and Kwinana.

The Westport paper was released by the government today, illustrating the first phase of analysis of the future of Fremantle, Bunbury and Kwinana ports.

It shows the complexity of making long-term planning decisions, with a lot more work needed before any final outcome is arrived at.

Trade modelling by Deloitte Access Economics undertaken for Westport predicted container movement growth at Fremantle of 2.8 per cent annually, to be 2.1 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) by around 2050.

That compares with 770,000 TEU in the 2018 financial year, an increase of 7.5 per cent on the previous period.

Previous work by consultancy AECOM in 2014 suggested the Fremantle wharf has a capacity of 2.1 million TEU, although it said moderate transport upgrades would be required to reach that level.

The Westport taskforce concurred that reaching the 2.1 million TEU capacity would require improved connections into the harbour.

“(Fremantle) port could potentially handle more than double (the current) number of containers and more passenger ships,” the report said.

“This would require a range of operational and infrastructure improvements to accommodate larger vessels (13,000 TEU vessels as opposed to 9,000 TEU currently), and significant increases to road and rail freight capacity servicing the port.”

Westport chair Nicole Lockwood told Business News there would be a lot to consider, including social licence in the Fremantle community and how much the local freight network could be optimised.

“Fremantle has capacity to grow, the constraint for Fremantle won't be the wharf itself, it’ll be the road and rail access in,” Ms Lockwood said.

“The work we’re now doing is to understand the capacity of road and rail to grow over time to (find) the true total capacity of Fremantle port.

“It’s about optimising current infrastructure.

“The commitment to containers on rail is a big part of that story, and continuing to grow that task to take pressure off the road network.“

Linking up

The report floated a number of potential infrastructure upgrades that would be further analysed.

At Fremantle, these included an extension of Curtin Avenue across the Fremantle passenger rail line, increasing capacity at Stirling Bridge, and expansions of Stock Road or Leach Highway.

Further south, the report flagged infrastructure challenges at Kwinana that would be needed to support local development or an eventual port.

At the Kwinana rail triangle, a single access point meant there was a risk to exporters in the event of a derailment or operational issue, while the single track linking Kwinana and Cockburn was at maximum capacity and could not support increased demand.

Other problems included obstacles to double stacking freight on rail between the ports and Kewdale.

“To allow doublestacking of containers on trains, 25 power lines would need to be raised or placed underground; 10 overbridges would need to be raised; and one gantry would need to be raised,” the report said

Bunbury also had issues, particularly with the South West Main rail line.

“Operational reliability is currently poor with trains routinely unable to complete their timetabled round-trip cycles due to delays at passing loops, inefficient loading and unloading practices and other delays,” the report said.

“There are 11 passing loops between Mundijong and Bunbury.

“Most passing loops and loading/unloading sidings are less than 700 metres long, limiting most train lengths to around 600 metres, which allows 38-40 wagons for alumina and 52-54 wagons for bauxite.

“Any major increase in rail traffic, such as intermodal trains between Bunbury Port and Perth, would require passing loops to be extended to at least 1,000 metres, with the consideration of duplicated track or dynamic passing lanes to enable efficient overtaking.

“This and the potential double-stacking of cars and/or containers will be included in the investigations of the strategic options in stage two.”