Kewdale Freight Terminal is a large intermodal

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

facility in the

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

suburb of

Kewdale, Western Australia Kewdale is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia within the City of Belmont. Kew Street was one of the first roads in this district, hence the naming of the suburb. Geography Kewdale is bounded by Cloverdale and Perth Airport to the north, Belm ...

. Branching off the

Kwinana freight railway The Kwinana freight railway lines are a network of railways predominantly servicing the heavy industrial areas at Kwinana Beach south of Perth and to provide for the transport of freight servicing Fremantle Harbour, Kewdale Intermodal Facility ...

, it was built in the 1960s to replace the

Perth marshalling yard Perth marshalling yard (also known as Perth Yard) was a railway marshalling yard to the immediate west of Perth railway station in Perth, Western Australia and east of West Perth railway station. The origins and development of the yard can be s ...

. It initially comprised ten

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

(1067mm) and seven

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

(1435mm) arrival roads. The first narrow gauge sidings opened in early 1967; the first standard gauge sidings in November 1968.

Users

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail Corporation, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the Government of Australia, Federal, Government of New ...

yard and depot *

UGL Rail UGL Rail is an Australian rail company specialising in building, maintaining and refurbishing diesel locomotives, diesel and electric multiple units and freight wagons. It is a subsidiary of UGL Limited and is based in Melbourne, with a staff of ...

to service the

carriages A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

used on the '' Indian Pacific'' * Transwa depot opened April 2005 to service WDA/WDB/WDC class railcars used on '' AvonLink'' and ''

Prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...

'' services * BP fuel siding *Sadliers Transport siding *Country Carriers siding * BlueScope yard, moved to new facility in Forrestfield late 2005

Redevelopment plans

All rail freight in and out of this terminal is moved on a single

track that crosses Daddow Road, and this level crossing has become a congestion headache for road users in the industrial area. In November 2005 the

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

announced it had allocated $11.5 million for the construction of an

overpass An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass'' together form ...

at the level crossing.State injects $22m in transport roads in Kewdale-Kwinana and SW
''Western Australian Business News'' 9 November 2005 Now it is completed. Rail operators Aurizon,

and Transwa share common sections of the yard which can also lead to congestion. Apart from the departure road, the yard is unsignalled. Track occupation of the common sections - north service road, eastern diagonal, and western diagonal - is manually managed by radio communications with

Arc Infrastructure Arc Infrastructure (previously known as Brookfield Rail and WestNet Rail) is a transport infrastructure owner and access provider in Western Australia with a long-term lease on the network from the Government of Western Australia. It operates a ...

Eastern Train Control.

References

{{Reflist Economy of Perth, Western Australia Rail infrastructure in Western Australia Rail yards in Australia Railway freight terminals in Australia Transport infrastructure completed in 1968 1967 establishments in Australia