Melbourne

New service to begin in March 2020

Trade growth, demography and land use changes in the city of Melbourne, Australia, have made necessary a shift of freight from truck to rail, according to an analysis by Melissa Horne, Victorian Minister for Ports and Freight.

Australia’s busiest box port, the Port of Melbourne, broke the three million mark in handling twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers in the last calendar year. It is likely the first time that any port anywhere in Australia has handled three million TEU in any twelve month period whether that’s on a running month, financial year, or calendar year basis.

Redstar Transport, a large long-distance and heavy-freight trucking business, collapsed in Australia after running out of cash just days before Christmas. Hundreds of people have been thrown out of work. Cargo has been returned to the depot. And the liquidation of Redstar may have wider consequences than is first apparent.