Over 90 per cent of world trade in goods is conducted using containers. Only bulk commodities, such as coal, are shipped without containers.

All of NSW outside greater Sydney has no direct access to a container port. It is the single biggest obstacle to regional economic development and decentralisation.

Firms wanting to invest in regional NSW are prevented from doing so because they do not have direct access to Port Botany, which is the only container port in NSW.

A container port serviced by trucks is high cost. Port Botany, which relies on trucks, exists because it operates as a monopoly.

A container terminal at Newcastle port is able to be serviced by rail.

Container trucking can be eliminated with a Newcastle container terminal.

The NSW government opposes a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle, because it enables trucks to be replaced by trains.

So concerned is the ACCC about the adverse economic impact that it is investigating whether the government may have breached the national Competition Act by requiring the Port of Newcastle to pay the government when containers shipped through the Port of Newcastle exceed a small “cap”.

A container terminal at Newcastle would justify building a rail freight bypass of Sydney, from Newcastle to Badgery’s Creek and Port Kembla.

This bypass would be paid for with private funds by replacing Port Botany trucks with Newcastle trains.

Additionally, it would enable trains to replace trucks for transporting the bulk of Sydney’s regional and interstate freight.

More than one million container trucks travel through Port Botany each year. By 2040, there will be five million.

A rail freight bypass of Sydney will justify building the Maldon-Dombarton rail freight line to enable a container terminal at Port Kembla to operate interchangeably with Newcastle.

The South Coast of NSW will benefit from direct access to a container port.

By immediately building the section of the bypass line between Glenfield and Eastern Creek, containers can be railed between Port Botany and a new intermodal terminal in outer western Sydney.

The remainder of the line to Newcastle will take about 10 years to build.

There would be no intermodal terminal at Moorebank.

This allows ample time for an orderly transfer of operations from Port Botany to Newcastle and Port Kembla.

Upon line completion, containers would be railed between Newcastle and intermodal terminals in outer western Sydney, where they would be de-consolidated at the intermodal terminals and the goods transported to their end destinations in Sydney.

Export goods manufactured in Sydney would be consolidated into containers at the intermodal terminals and the containers then railed to Newcastle for export.

Empty containers would be railed from Sydney to all regional areas of NSW to be filled with export goods and the containers then railed to Newcastle for export.

All container trucks would be removed from Sydney’s roads.

Freight currently entering Greater Sydney by road can be railed.

There would be no need to build stages 2 and 3 of the $5 billion Northern Sydney Freight Corridor, to provide the equivalent of a dedicated rail freight line between Newcastle and Strathfield. 

There would be no need to build the $1 billion Western Sydney Freight Line, between Chullora and Eastern Creek, to enable containers to be railed between Port Botany and outer western Sydney.

There would be no need to spend $400 million on upgrading the Port Botany rail freight line.

Freight would be removed from the Wollongong-Sydney rail line.

All of Sydney’s current rail freight capacity would be used for passenger services to provide a higher economic return than freight.

The Southern Sydney Freight Line could be used for express passenger services from southwestern Sydney growth areas, including Badgery’s Creek Airport.

All of the current rail capacity between Newcastle and Sydney would be used for passengers.

A second rail bridge would be built over the Hawkesbury River as part of the rail freight bypass.

The short parallel runway at Sydney airport could even be extended from 2600 metres to 4000 metres by terminating container operations at Port Botany.

A rail freight bypass would enable Sydney firms to relocate to regional areas.

A rail freight bypass of Sydney is in the interests of the people of NSW.