John Anderson, the chairman of Residents Against Intermodal Developments (RAID) has dismissed today’s media reports suggesting final approval as early as next week for the Sydney Intermodal Terminal Alliance (SIMTA) proposal.
Mr Anderson said that while the RAID committee will meet tonight to discuss the media reports and other related issues, he was confident that the final decision on the Moorebank intermodals was still a long way away.
“We still have a way to go before this is all decided,’’ he told the South West Voice a few minutes ago.’’
The media reports included the SIMTA claims, which appear on its website, that on approval “this would remove freight trucks from the M5 between Port Botany and Moorebank, easing congestion on this arterial road and increase capacity at Port Botany. As a result, the number of trucks on Sydney’s roads related to Port Botany would be reduced by more than 2,700 vehicles per day.’’
These are numbers local residents like Mr Anderson hotly dispute.
They have been arguing that if the intermodals go ahead there will be more trucks and cars on local roads, resulting in not just more traffic congestion but higher levels of pollution.
“I have been involved in discussions regarding this project along with other concerned residents and Liverpool council and both state and federal parliamentary members of the area,’’ Mr Anderson said in email this morning in response to the media reports.
“I have raised many serious concerns regarding health, traffic congestion, impact on many threatened and endangered species of plants and fauna, noise and many other environmental concerns.
“With the area subject to massive traffic gridlock on a 24/7 basis there will be no way the reported 10,000 container trucks and 5723 cars would fit on our seriously overloaded road system.
“Recent floods in the area placed our road system under enormous pressure and many roads were impassable, confirming our massive concerns.
“With most of the cargo destined for the Eastern Creek area there is no way the project would be able to operate in such conditions.
“Concerned residents have attended many meetings with members of parliament and public servants to convey our immense concerns about the impact on local residents and the local environment, but they have been ignored.
“Liverpool council have completed peer reviews of these projects by consultants and their final analysis was that the projects were not sustainable, but this has also been completely ignored.
“The proponents have overlooked many important issues raised by residents, Liverpool City Council and local MPs.
“We are angry and dismayed by the way our very serious concerns are being completely ignored and believe it is against the Australian way of everybody being given a fair go,’’ Mr Anderson said.
It has been previously reported that SIMTA is also examining the opportunity to create an integrated precinct at Moorebank, following the Moorebank Intermodal Company (MIC) decision to negotiate with SIMTA about development and operation of the Commonwealth Government’s Moorebank Intermodal Terminal.
Should these talks be successful, the project would be integrated into a logistics precinct with only one port related intermodal terminal, servicing the need to shift approximately one million containers per year in South Western Sydney.
“An integrated precinct does not mean more traffic from the intermodal terminal compared to SIMTA’s currently proposed intermodal terminal operating at Moorebank, as the size of the South West Sydney market and the total number of truck movements would remain the same,’’ SIMTA says on its website.
