'Inland port' not yet justified

Dunedin's ports and roads are still not congested enough to provide economic justification for an "inland port", according to Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket.

The idea of an inland port - where goods are moved between road and rail - will be back on the agenda when KiwiRail meets the Otago regional transport committee later this year.

In a submission to the committee, KiwiRail group manager Michael Van Drogenbroek lists 11 "potential projects" for the province.

He says the inland port concept would "relieve pressure" on port land and on State Highway 88 between Dunedin and Port Chalmers.

Speaking to the Otago Daily Times last week, he said Auckland and Tauranga already had such facilities and a new "port" was being built at Wiri, in South Auckland, about 20km from Auckland's port.

Last year, the Labour government agreed to contribute $6 million to the $9 million-plus facility, expected to save 100,000 truck trips through Auckland each year.

"The concept of inland ports works very well for us in other cities and there's no reason to think it wouldn't necessarily work down in Otago.

"There is an enormous amount of freight down there and it's an enormously important part of our business."

However, Mr Plunket said the problem in providing a similar facility in Otago was the cost of double-handling.

"To make an inland port work, you've got to have cost savings somewhere in the supply chain, to offset the extra handling costs for your inland port, and at the moment those characteristics don't exist in the Dunedin market."

Mr Plunket said exporters were better off delivering product by road straight to the port.

"At this stage, in Dunedin, we don't have congestion at the port and we don't have congestion on our roads."

Mr Plunket believed that the need for such a facility could arise.

"It's certainly a matter we keep under review and we do look for opportunities. Even if we could do it on a cost-neutral basis, then there is a community benefit we could get and we would be very interested in that."

Mr Plunket said rail transport to and from the port was increasing for such things as Fonterra product from Edendale.

"Now, that's not obvious to the community, because trade's grown generally, anyway. It just means the rate of growth of trucking is less than what it would have been if there hadn't been the growth in rail."

He believed an inland port would need to be able to function without subsidy but that "at some point in the future it will be viable".

Mr Van Drogenbroek said KiwiRail and exporters had a commercial mandate and it was for local authorities to develop strategies "to encourage the right behaviour by the various participants".

KiwiRail is promoting other rail ideas, such as the reintroduction of suburban passenger services.

The regional transport committee is required to produce a 30-year transport strategy and a meeting with KiwiRail is being planned.

mark.price@odt.co.nz

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