Port of Melbourne chief executive Saul Cannon says he looks forward to contributing to the review of the Inland Rail project, announced by the federal government.
Transport Minister Catherine King has announced the appointment of Dr Kerry Schott AO to lead an independent review into the project.
"We are delivering on our election commitment to undertake an independent review to get this nationally important project making progress again without further delays and with improved community consultation," Ms King said.
"The review will give the government a clear-eyed view on what the problems are and the way forward."
Ms King said Dr Schott would conduct a thorough and independent review of Inland Rail and make recommendations to ensure the nationally significant project was successfully delivered.
The review will assess options for the new Inland Rail intermodal terminals to be built in Melbourne and Brisbane, and improving rail links to the ports in these cities.
Read more: New port rail infrastructure
Mr Cannon said the review was an opportunity to support the timely and efficient delivery of the project and support a fundamental intermodal shift to rail.
"The Port of Melbourne has already invested $125 million in the new Port Rail Transformation Project and we're keen to link up with public infrastructure to further improve rail access," Mr Cannon said.
He was pleased that the review will specifically consider Melbourne intermodal terminal issues and port connections.
"There is strong, coordinated support from local communities, freight operators, industry and the Victorian government for the Western Intermodal Freight Terminal at Truganina as a first priority," he said.
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Mr Cannon said that while the Inland Rail project would deliver more, better-connected freight as an urgent priority, the Port also understood that it must be done correctly.
Mildura stance
Meanwhile, the Victorian council, which has Australia's highest level of agricultural production, has called on the state government to urgently maximise the state's freight-to-port systems.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently confirmed Mildura Rural City Council as the country's highest-producing local government area in terms of agricultural output, contributing $1.13 billion in product in 2020- 2021.
Mayor Liam Wood has written to the state government, saying that the significant contribution to the national economy had focused on the critical importance of an effective rail freight system for the region.
"At present, there is an urgent need to address severe shortcomings in our rail freight system, which threaten to jeopardise the ability of our region and our nation to capitalise on the $1.13 billion of produce generated in our municipality," Cr Wood said.
Council wrote to the government to "formally ensure there is clear direction to, firstly, address these shortcomings and secondly, to develop a new vision for freight moving forward.
"We seek an improved and efficient transport system for freight in regional Victoria, coordinating both road and rail freight."
Mildura councillor Glenn Milne said due to high labour costs, transport reliability was "extremely important".
He said he had spoken to some of Australia's biggest almond producers, who had operations in the north-west, and they said had chosen to operate there because they could get their goods to port, "on time, every time".
"The products don't get stolen in the transport process, or the truck doesn't fall off the side of a mountain," Cr Milne said.
It made no sense to upgrade the line from the north-west, while still maintaining a detour of 128 kilometres, through Ararat, to port.
When it was first announced, the government said it would standardise the entire Murray Basin rail system, throughout the north-west.
But when the project ran out of money in 2019, plans to dual-gauge the line through Ballarat were scrapped. That means standard gauge freight trains must now detour from Maryborough, through Ararat, to reach the ports of Melbourne or Geelong.
"It's 2022, and we should have a railway line that is reliable, that can have train travel at 80 kilometers and hour, without having to slow down to 20 for any reason and it should be the most direct route possible to port," Cr Milne said.
"That's not modernising your transport system, that's taking it back to the pre-1800's.
"A steam train would have been more efficient and our forefathers would be embarrassed to see this is how it has ended up."
He said there was plenty of modern technology to overcome the Ararat detour.
A government spokesperson said the state was delivering upgrades to the Ararat to Maryborough freight line as part of the Murray Basin Rail Project, to increase load capacity and improve travel times for rail freight, to continue to support a more competitive freight industry in Victoria.
"Works include track upgrades to enable higher speeds and heavier loads, installing a modern signalling system at Ararat Junction, trackside drainage upgrades and vegetation removal and cutting back of embankments to improve train driver sight lines," the spokesperson said.
"Works will enable 49 weekly return train paths on the Murray Basin network, up from the current 28 paths - an increase that will remove around 20,000 truck trips off regional roads each year."
