RAIL operator Pacific National is launching two new weekly containerised freight services between Sydney and Perth.
The company said the new routes are in line with plans to boost containerised volumes in its intermodal business.
Pacific National said it is aligning its growth plans with the surge in demand for containerised freight.
The first of the new services will launch on 16 March, while the second will begin operating a month later on April 24.
Pacific National chief commercial officer Andrew Thomson said: “The increased capacity will allow us to continue to improve our service offering on these key freight lanes, to make Australian supply chains more efficient and give our customers more options to access rail capacity for their business.”
The two new services form a part of an announced 10% increase for the first half of 2022.
In September 2021, Mr Thomson said the company was committed to increasing its capacity for container movements on rail by more than a third, compared to pre-pandemic levels, in less than three years.
“We are also committed to a further increase of 10% by March 2022 in containerised freight capacity and a further 5% by September 2022,” Mr Thomson said.
“We are also committed to a further increase of 10% by March 2022 in containerised freight capacity and a further 5% by September 2022.”
The increase in east-west container capacity comes a month after the Trans-Australian Railway section between Adelaide and Tarcoola re-opened after floods wrecked the tracks.
When the track re-opened, Australian Rail Track Corporation group executive interstate network Simon Ormsby said: “We had more than 100 staff on the ground working around the clock to fix 18 locations along a 300-kilometre stretch of track in 24 days.”
The flood damage prevented rail freight services accessing Western Australia, impacting food supplies and causing shortages in major supermarkets.
