by David Killick
Convenience, capacity, speed, costs savings, and efficiency are prized elements in the freight sector. Gains in all these areas explain why intermodal freight hubs – also sometimes known as “inland ports” – are providing real gains for businesses and are taking off around the country.
The latest is the Fairfield Freight Hub, located in the Ashburton Business Estate.
It’s sited next to both State Highway 1 and the main railway line, with its own railway siding, built as part of a long-term agreement with KiwiRail. Christchurch and Lyttelton port are about an hour’s drive north and Timaru is about an hour’s drive south.
The multimillion dollar facility is wholly owned by Transporting New Zealand member Wareing Group Ltd, a Mid-Canterbury-based enterprise that incorporates various transport companies throughout the South Island. It was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.
The 4ha site includes 2,000 sq m of dry storage warehousing facilities for import/export product. (See sidebar.)
The hub combines rail operations with container transfer services, warehouse storage, and grain handling facilities. Other service comprise pre-trip inspections, empty container supply, general purpose container survey checks, container cleaning and fumigation, de-vanning, and potato and produce handling facilities.
A big plus is direct access to Lyttelton Port as the hub is an MPI Approved Transitional Facility with Secure Export Scheme approval. That means all the necessary biosecurity checks, as well as fumigation – which eliminate or minimize the risk of unwanted pests hitching a free ride with your freight – are done onsite. The site is fully fenced and secure, with CCTV and access control.
The building has also been future-proofed with a 200kW solar installation to offset power consumption and improve energy efficiency.
At the official opening on April 19, Transport Minister Simeon Brown said the freight hub demonstrated the effectiveness of a real partnership, “when private and public enterprise and local and central government work together, so we can move our goods around our country more efficiently…
“We need to be growing our economy and being productive…It’s great to see this place humming.”
Wareing Group director Mark Wareing said the Fairfield Freight Hub would streamline freight volumes in and out of Mid-Canterbury and at the same time reduce the impact of trucks on road.
“It’s setting the region up for a lower carbon future and the location near the Northpark Industrial Park is ideally located to take advantage of this new hub.
“Helping exporters and freight partners move more freight by rail makes sense both from a business and sustainability perspective and will help stabilise the supply chain issues our clients and their customers are facing.”
Reducing congestion will not only help cut emissions but is also likely to reduce the number of fatalities and serious accidents on the road.
Ashburton Mayor Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown welcomed growth for the area. “This is an exciting project.”
KiwiRail chief executive, Peter Reidy, said the hub will help grow economic activity. He said there were “a number of opportunities” around New Zealand.
Wareings group chairman Graham Kennedy called on the government to maintain investment in productive enterprises like the freight hub.
More information: https://fairfieldfreighthub.co.nz.
This story was originally published in the May 2024 issue of Transporting News.
