Freight The Eastern Goldfields line between Perth and Kalgoorlie is WA’s busiest and most constrained. With the development of Westport, there is an opportunity to make better use of underutilised west to east rail capacity to improve economic resilience, establish Kalgoorlie as an inland intermodal freight hub facilitating freight movements to and from the Eastern States by the most cost-effective freight-mode and to better incorporate the Cape Class capacity of the Port of Esperance into Western Australia’s freight network. The Kalgoorlie to Esperance rail line is WA’s third busiest and second most constrained. The Port of Esperance is already a significant bulk export port for iron ore and other minerals, due to its Cape Class shipping channel. There are resilience and productivity returns available through making increased use of this capacity. Full duplication of the rail line is already recommended to improve market access and freight productivity along this route. Adding to this is the value-added processing capacity for energy metals in Kalgoorlie and surrounding districts to take advantage of inexpensive land and plentiful renewable energy. These refined minerals are containerised for export. Shipping them out of Esperance requires upgraded ‘last-mile’ intermodal and container loading facilities. This capacity is likely to have additional value as future disruptions like the pandemic and floods long the east-west rail line inevitably risks the flow of imports to Western Australia. Industry has expressed demand for extension of the rail line from Mullewa to Wiluna to improve the productivity of inland mineral districts. This would also support the potential for value added processing in the region, while reducing the maintenance cost and improving the safety of regional roads.
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Resources Arc Infrastructure – www.arcinfra.com Department of Transport, Regional Freight Plan – www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/about-us/ ABOUT_P_RegionalFreightPlan_FullA3.pdf City of Kalgoorlie Boulder – www.ckb.wa.gov.au New Energy Resources GVROC Regional Climate Alliance – www.gvroc.com/support-and-implement-climate-change-mitigation-and-adaptation-projects
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42 | WA Investment Prospectus
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