Maroona-Portland rail line described as "third world"

The port's chief executive Greg Burgoyne is one senior executive hoping the upcoming federal budget will set aside funding for the upgrade of the Portland-Maroona line.

Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers will bring down the budget on May 9.

Mr Burgoyne has been joined by the Committee for Portland and Southern Grampians Shire in calling for the upgrade.

"The previous federal government allocated budget funds for a business case, which was completed in December 2022," Mr Burgoyne said.

"That business case showed a positive return for the line, if it was upgraded."

He said the current state of the line made it "almost unserviceable.

"I would describe this section of the rail line as third world," Mr Burgoyne said.

"It's not just about the Port of Portland; it's about competition, it's about giving growers choice and opening up new markets

"I can't think of any downside in making this investment."

Continually deferring or delaying the upgrade simply meant more money had to be spent when it was finally done.

"We've been advocating for this for 10 years - the original assessment was $30 million, what we see now is a capital cost of more than $100m," he said.

READ MORE: GrainCorp backing for Maroona rail line upgrade

Recent estimates put the cost of the upgrade at $158m.

The 172km long line connects the western half of Victoria to the national rail grid and Port of Portland.

Proponents of the upgrade want the line increased to 19 TAL (tonne axle loading) and an increased speed limit of 80 kilometres an hour.

Currently, it had a 17 TAL rating, while a speed limit of 40km/hr has been imposed on the line by its owner the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

Mr Burgoyne said the line had been neglected for decades.

"The lack of critical freight infrastructure in central Victoria, and particularly the south-west, is beyond my comprehension," he said.

"One of the easiest ways to deliver the state and federal government's policy around decarbonisation and carbon neutral targets is to get trucks off the road and put freight on rail."

He said the infrastructure upgrade completed the rail freight network.

"Then we can have a standard, Australian Rail Track Corporation network across the north and west of Victoria that leads to the rest of the country."

READ MORE: Port set to spend, if rail line is upgraded

Committee for Portland chair Steve Garner said the upgrade of the line was long overdue.

"We are really are in desperate need of that funding to enhance the business of the port," Mr Garner said.

He said he'd driven some of the roads in the south-west recently "and it's horrible.

"The more we can get on rail through that Maroona line, the better it will be," he said.

"We would just get a heck of a lot more product coming down through rail - at the moment the cost of transporting it by rail is just exorbitant.

"The speeds are down, the weights are down - it would just enhance the business that could come from other parts of Australia."

Southern Grampians shire mayor David Robertson said Infrastructure Minister Catherine King would not release the business case.

The minister had told council she would let it know when a decision was made "alongside all the other projects.

The advantage to Southern Grampians was taking trucks off the road, with the Henty Highway particulalry badly affected.

"We have mineral sands coming down through here [Hamilton], every day, from Horsham - there are going to be a minimum of 58 B-doubles coming through every day, 24 hours a day," Cr Robertson said.

"I think there was 650,000 tonnes of barley going out of Portland alone, all that comes by road, through our shire.

"We'd certainly hope both state and federal governments would allocate some money to the project.

'We don't hold our breath, because we know both governments are stoney broke, especially the state one, I think their ability to borrow any money has gone."