P&O Trans Australia – the Kaplan/DP World joint venture – and QR today announced a logistics partnership resulting in the creation of a combined domestic and international rail hub at Yennora in western Sydney.

The agreement will see the partners establish a joint operation of rail and terminal services at the existing Yennora Rail Site to enhance their current operations.

This includes an intermodal terminal operated by P&O on behalf of both partners, which will cater for QR’s national intermodal business and also a new Port Shuttle Service carrying international cargo to and from Port Botany.

P&O proposes to commence this new port shuttle service during the second quarter of 2008, with capability for 10 train services per day to and from Port Botany and domestic capital cities.

“From the Yennora Hub we have a unique opportunity to provide industry with an all-rail service that links Port Botany to western Sydney using our Port Shuttle and throughout Australia using a domestic rail service that has national coverage,” said Paul Digney,Managing Director for P&O Trans Australia.

“The Port Shuttle can handle container traffic to and from Port Botany by rail in larger volumes and more reliably than is currently possible by road, given congestion levels.”

QR's Group Executive General Manager Freight Stephen Cantwell said the Yennora development would help both partners to jointly attain market leadership in the provision of fully integrated rail transport solutions, and also deliver the unprecedented ability to connect from vessel to rail to terminal to customer to national distribution.

“The Yennora development is an important interim step towards the building of the major Metropolitan Hub at Moorebank in Sydney’s west announced late last year in conjunction with Stockland and Kaplan,” Mr Cantwell said.

“We have always said that key pieces of infrastructure and complementary partnerships would be important component parts to QR’s success. 

“Following the recent launch of our Cairns to Perth service, this announcement provides further evidence of our determination to establish an alternative national rail option.”

Mr Digney said the Yennora partnership would provide for rail-based warehousing at the site, allowing for the distribution of domestic and international product throughout Australia from a single facility.

“There will also be empty container storage, repairs and handling facilities to remove unnecessary road legs from the transport chain and make international containers readily available to exporters,” Mr Digney said.

“Other benefits include a central receival terminal for container packing of domestic and international loads and the provision of a full range of Customs and AQIS handling services, removing the need to deliver boxes to third party facilities for inspection and treatment.

“There will also be a transport fleet on site to provide on time pick up and delivery for customers in the area.” 

About P&O Trans Australia

P&O Trans Australia the business of POTA Holdings Pty Ltd is the joint venture company of Kaplan (KIL: Kaplan Infrastructure & Logistics Fund & KEL: Kaplan Equity Limited) and DP World (Government Owned Corporation in Dubai). P&O operates a Port precinct based Full and Empty container logistics business working from a total of 8 sites located in the State capital Cities of mainland Australia, a Multi-User Intermodal terminals business with 3 sites in capital city locations along the Eastern Seaboard of Australia and a Global Freight Forwarding company with a network of offices in Australia and around the World.

About QR

QR is a $3.25 billion national transport and logistics business that operates in all mainland states of Australia. Each day, it operates more than 1,000 services, carries almost 160,000 people and hauls more than 650,000 tonnes of freight. In 2006/07, it carried a record 238 million tones of freight, making it Australia’s largest freight company by volume. With assets of $10 billion and the largest rail fleet in Australia, QR offers a range of services including: urban transport; long-distance passenger and tourist travel; and freight services for coal and bulk products, the intermodal market and retail freight. It maintains and manages a network of almost 10,000 kilometres in Queensland and offers a full range of rail construction, maintenance and manufacturing services.

Further information:
For POTA/Kaplan: Paul White 0417 224 920
For QR: Chau Nguyen 07 3235 3119 or 0409 998 822