Pacific National, Wagner Corporation to develop Inland Rail freight terminal at Wellcamp Business Park

An investment of more than $100 million and the creation of 400+ jobs will go ahead after Australia’s largest private rail freight company and one of Queenslands biggest development companies reached an agreement.

Pacific National, the country’s largest private rail freight company has reached an agreement with Wagner Corporation to develop a major rail freight terminal at Wellcamp Business Park to take advantage of the Inland Rail route.

The $15 billion freight rail line to connect Melbourne to Brisbane is Australia’s largest infrastructure project.

The estimated investment by Wagner Corporation to build the intermodal terminal for Pacific National, construct initial associated connective services and associated warehousing, is $110m with up to 245 jobs generated during construction.

An artist's impression of how the Inland Rail multimodal freight hub at Wellcamp will look.

Once operational, the intermodal terminal (which will occupy an area of 23 hectares) will support up to 400 skilled jobs, including train drivers, terminal staff and associated warehousing staff – many recruited from the region.

Pacific National CEO Paul Scurrah said both companies were uniquely placed to realise the

benefits of the future Inland Rail.

In response to growing customer demand, Pacific National has plans to significantly increase containerised volumes in its intermodal business in the coming years, with the Darling Downs offering both an origin and destination for large quantities of goods and commodities.

An artist's impression of how the Inland Rail multimodal freight hub at Wellcamp will look.

Mr Scurrah said as one of Queensland’s most respected development companies, Wagner Corporation is the perfect partner to develop a major intermodal terminal in Toowoomba.

“Under the agreement, Wagner Corporation will construct the intermodal terminal while Pacific National will operate daily rail freight services under a long-term lease arrangement,” he said.

An artist's impression of how the Inland Rail multimodal freight hub at Wellcamp will look.

Chairman of Wagner Corporation John Wagner said the confirmation of the Inland Rail route gave private companies confidence to invest in major freight hubs along the rail corridor between Melbourne and Brisbane.

“When Wagner Corporation attended the October 2019 opening of Pacific National’s logistics terminal in Parkes – also located on the Inland Rail alignment – it gave us an exciting picture of what could be achieved with rail freight services at Wellcamp,” he said.

An artist's impression of how the Inland Rail multimodal freight hub at Wellcamp will look.

Mr Wagner said initial concept designs for the intermodal terminal within the logistics hub will have the capacity to service 1800 metre-long trains.

“The future Inland Rail will facilitate operation of double-stacked 1,800-metre-long interstate freight trains between major terminals across the country – these trains need to be broken down into smaller units to help efficiently transship containers between trains and trucks,” he said.