Australia Completes Southern Sydney Freight Line

Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has completed the A$1bn ($1.05bn) Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL), which is intended to speed up the movement of freight trains through Sydney.

The project involved the construction of a 31km dedicated freight line between Macarthur and Leightonfield in southern Sydney. The new line provides a third track in the rail corridor, which will be used for freight services, allowing passenger and freight services to operate independently.
ARTC funded the SSFL scheme, of which the final stage of the project was delivered in partnership with Leighton Contractors.
Australian Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said that for many years Sydney has been the single largest bottleneck on the Interstate Rail Network, with freight trains facing delays getting into and out of the city due to its limited track capacity and the priority given to passenger trains, particularly during peak periods.

The SSFL is part of the Australian Government’s capital investment programme on its freight network, which will take about a million trucks off the country’s highways every year.

The Australian Government is currently rebuilding a third of the 10,000km Interstate Rail Freight Network to improve reliability and transit times for freight transport.