Article: Bay dredging makes rail link 'vital'

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Bay dredging makes rail link 'vital'

Bay dredging makes rail link 'vital'

January 31, 2008 - 12:42PM

Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer forecasts suburban truck gridlock if Port Phillip Bay is dredged without reconnecting a dockside rail link.

Webb Dock is located at the mouth of the Yarra River and a prime location for container ships, critical for Victorian trade.

"Dredging should only proceed if the railway is reconnected to Webb Dock otherwise trucks bearing containers will create absolute gridlock," Mr Fischer told AAP.

"What we need is some of the famous holistic and lateral thinking of John Monash who built the Princess Bridge in Swanston Street and the outer circle of Melbourne, which has been sadly ripped up.

"It's for the experts to determine the extent of dredging ... unless you fix a rail connection land site to wharf, many suburbs in Melbourne face truck gridlock."

Mr Fischer's comments follow heightened debate over the bay dredging, which has angered environmental groups, with its management causing a storm.

A former trade minister in the Howard government, Mr Fischer has backed truck magnate Lindsay Fox's call to transfer shipping containers to Hastings, and then build the rail line from Hastings to Cranbourne.

Mr Fischer, who recently chaired the Victorian government's Rail Freight Network Review Committee, said recommendations included improving rail links to ports and defining a new rail corridor from Cranbourne to Hastings, built in broad gauge and standard gauge.

"Even if you went flat out, building a new container point (at Hastings) is going to take some time," Mr Fischer said.

"Dredging is still needed - there is a question mark as to whether the dredging at the mouth of the Yarra River is needed, I leave that to the experts.

"What I do know is that if you are going to put more containers through Webb Dock, you must reconnect the rail."

Victorian Premier John Brumby again rejected the call to speed up the development of Webb Dock, saying the task was too complicated.

"Webb Dock - don't think that it's a simple project, it's a complex project with a lot of issues," he said.

Those include building a bridge over the Yarra River which would need to be high enough to allow watercraft through in the future, and therefore be too expensive at this stage, he said.

Webb Dock remained part of the government's port expansion plan, but not until 2015-2017, he said.

? 2008 AAP