Federal Minister Announced Start of SSFL Project

The Federal Minister for Infrastructure, The Hon Anthony Albanese, today announced to Parliament that work had commenced on the Southern Sydney Freight Line Project for the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

Gartner Rose is an integral part of this project, contracted to upgrade 10 Stations affected by the new freight line.

Speaking about the Project, the Minister said:

“Today I advised Parliament that construction work has commenced on the 36 km Southern Sydney Freight Line, a project that will help clear the single largest bottleneck on the interstate rail network.

The $309 million project will create 500 direct jobs and 1,500 indirect jobs.

The project is being built and funded by the Commonwealth Government-owned Australian Rail Track Corporation. It is scheduled to be completed by early 2010.

Currently, freight trains face frustrating delays on the Sydney network because of the priority given to passenger trains and because of limited track capacity.

A dedicated freight line from Macarthur to Chullora will unclog this bottleneck by providing access to up to five freight trains per hour in the peak direction and 24-hour access to Port Botany through southern Sydney.

The construction project will also include:

• Improved passenger access at Leumeah, Minto, Cabramatta, Sefton, Warwick Farm and Casula train stations through facilities such as lifts, pedestrian overbridges and wheelchair ramps;
• $8.7 million towards additional car parking, improved lighting, and community amenity works along the train corridor; and
• $13.5 million for the construction of noise walls along the corridor.

Gartner Rose is delighted to be a part of delivering such an important infrastructure project for the people of Australia.

For the Ministers full press release please click here.

For more details about the project please click here.