Victorian Transport: Delivering goods to the state and beyond

Hastings port will play a major part in relieving congestion at and around the Port of Melbourne as container movements are set to rise from 2 million to 8 million by 2035, according to Victorian Transport Minister Terry Mulder.

Addressing CEDA delegates on Victorian Transport: Delivering goods to the state and beyond, Mr Mulder said rail would play a bigger part of freight delivery in the future.

However, he said the reality was it could not replace a large part of road transport.

The amount of freight moved around Melbourne will double in the next two decades but only some of this can be transferred to rail, he said.

While he said deliveries such as frozen food to supermarkets or deliveries to Bunnings would never be replaced by rail, container movement to and from the ports was one area that rail could play a bigger role.

Highlighting that Melbourne is Australia's biggest container port, he said container movement at the Port of Melbourne was set to jump from 2 million annually last year to 8 million by 2035.

The issues at the Port of Melbourne were two fold he said, with truck queues costing transport companies time and money and heavy trucks in residential areas a concern for those living in the area.

The expansion of Hastings would help address these issues at the Port of Melbourne, he said.

At Hastings 500 hectares is currently in use but an area four times that - 2000 hectares - had been reserved.

"You can see how foresight has bequeathed a major asset," he said.

Other key issues raised at the conference included:

Fast rail - Mr Mulder said the State Government definitely believed it had a future in Victoria and the main thing at present was to ensure Victoria was not left out of the Federal debate.

Funding options for major projects-  Mr Mulder said that with reduced capital available for infrastructure projects, the State Government was doing some "creative" thinking around how projects might be funded and that all options, including tolls, were on the table for consideration.

Touching on public transport, he said for many decades demand has continually outstripped supply, diminishing our ability to cope.

"We see rail doing much of the heavy lifting in relation to commuter travel…we don't think driving ourselves out of congestion is going to be an option," he said.

Despite peak hour congestion, Mr Mulder said there was still significant opportunity for expansion of use of the rail network for commuter travel with private cars still the dominant mode of transport at present.

On plans for the future, Mr Mulder said the State Government had been working for several months on their new transport strategy Transport Solutions which had involved consulting with councils and industry about what they want and what can be delivered.

Key issues raised he said included better maintenance of the road and rail network, cross border anomalies being addressed and better freeway access to metropolitan Melbourne.

Mr Mulder said the aim with this strategy would be to free up freight movement and bottle necks and the hallmark of this strategy would be that it would be achievable.