A MEETING of Wodonga Council to receive submissions on the city’s proposed new freight rail hub at the Logic estate has been asked when “enough is enough” on behalf of ratepayers concerned about the cost.
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The council received 19 submissions ahead of its January 16 deadline, and three people asked to speak about their concerns.
The council is proposing to sell 30 hectares of land at Logic at Barnawartha North to Blanalko Pty Ltd, the property arm of SCT Logistics, with plans to establish a rail freight centre.
Representatives of the Ettamogah Rail Hub, the Border Rail Action Group and Richard Hughes, on behalf of ratepayers, all argued against the proposal.
Mr Hughes, who told the meeting he had experience in building rail hubs, said the council should not underestimate how much they cost.
“This is a turning point for ratepayers, it’s the part where they say enough is enough,” Mr Hughes said.
“To know the full cost of these things you only find out at the end of the day.
“Just to cut into the signalling system of the Sydney-to-Melbourne rail line is a multi-million dollar venture on its own.”
In his submission, Mr Hughes said he was concerned a second rail hub would not be viable for the region.
“Since the 2004 concept of Logic was established there was a rail hub in the plans, but now there has been an intermodal hub established on the other side of the border,” he said.
“I am requesting council to look at where we are now, don’t look at a blueprint you designed 10 years ago, things have changed.
“It takes 20,000 TEU shipping containers to make a single hub viable and at the moment the hub at Ettamogah only runs 15,000 — it has taken many years to build up to that.
“If you add another hub, neither of them would even have half the freight they would need to be viable.”
Border Rail Action Group representative Geoff Burton also weighed in on the debate.
He said the council should prioritise the Albury to Melbourne rail line before it forked out money for the proposed venture.
“We would have thought it would have made sense for the government to get a rail system working before we had anything to do with a rail hub,” Mr Burton said.
No councillors asked questions during the meeting and mayor Rodney Wangman declined to make a comment on the matter until a decision was made at the council’s next meeting on January 28.