Strong grain harvest supports regional rail haulage operations in Australia

Southern Shorthaul Railroad (SSR) Owner Jason Ferguson said, “To help support the east coast grain industry, SSR has deployed approximately 270 train crew to operate 50 freight locomotives and 1,100 wagons to haul bulk grain for key customers like Arrow Commodities and Louis Dreyfus Commodities.

“A solid grain harvest in New South Wales and Victoria has resulted in SSR undertaking extensive bulk rail haulage services from grain receival sites in the regions to the ports of Newcastle, Melbourne and Kembla.”

“Bulk grain originating from the Riverina in southern New South Wales is hauled by rail by SSR to the ports of Melbourne and Kembla for export to global markets. Likewise, bulk grain originating from the ‘Golden Triangle’ of northwest New South Wales is hauled by SSR to the agri-terminal at Port of Newcastle for export,” he added.

To support its grain haulage task on the east coast, SSR has developed an extensive network of crewing depots in New South Wales and Victoria, including at Narrabri, Werris Creek, Cootamundra, Newcastle, Bathurst, Parkes, Dubbo, Goulburn, Chullora (Sydney), Bendigo, Maryborough, and Dynon (Melbourne).

In the domestic grain and flour market, SSR also conducts rail haulage operations for George Weston Foods, known for its famous Tip Top® brand, and Allied Pinnacle, known for its wide range of baking pre-mixes and finished baked goods.
Since November last year, SSR has been providing rail freight operating services to Manildra Group, including haulage of grain and flour to Manildra’s state-of-the-art processing facility at Bomaderry in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales.

In addition to the grain haulage task, SSR also deploys 70 train crew to operate approximately 25 freight locomotives and 450 skel wagons to haul containerised freight to Port Botany for Fletcher International Exports, DP World, Grainforce Logistics and SWIFT Freight.

 “SSR prides itself on offering an unrivalled service offering to customers, including a skilled and experienced workforce which possesses deep technical rail freight expertise. Our service offering to customers is based on attention to detail in the precise workings and rules of track networks, train operating conditions and access agreements, not to mention train crew training, accreditation and rostering,”

“With a laser-focus on the needs of customers and our ability to quickly problem solve and innovate in a highly complex and competitive sector, SSR has recently taken on new customers like Manildra Group, Toll Global Logistics and Sydney Trains. SSR is delighted to now be providing multiple services each week for Toll Global Logistics, located at Carrington, hauling containerised freight – including steel products – between Newcastle and Sydney,” he said.
In November, SSR was also awarded a contract to provide rail operating services to support the maintenance and upgrade activities of Transport for NSW on the Sydney Trains network.