A new agreement is expected to accelerate development of co-location logistics solutions to ensure efficiency in costs and service delivery.

FREIGHT and logistics leaders Pacific National and Linfox today announced they have entered into an option agreement for a strategic co-location at Adelaide Freight Terminal.

The agreement combines Pacific National’s industry leading intermodal rail services with Linfox’s world class end-to-end freight delivery.

Pacific National CEO Dean Dalla Valle said with intermodal rail services playing a critical role in major national supply chain links, the agreement helps to accelerate development of co-location logistics solutions to ensure efficiency in both costs and service delivery.

“With more than 230 million freight TEU-kilometres travelled annually through Adelaide Freight Terminal, the intermodal site is the ‘freight gateway to the west’,” Dalla Valle said.

Pacific National’s Adelaide Freight Terminal currently employs 125 staff (including train drivers, terminal operators and maintenance crew) who operate a total of 90 rail services in and out of the site each week, deploying interstate freight trains 1,800-metres in length.

Dalla Valle said securing more opportunities for close-to-client locations along Australia’s rail corridors and leveraging Pacific National’s network of intermodal facilities and services will drive greater safety, productivity and environmental gains within the national supply chain.

“The coronavirus crisis, and associated cross border travel restrictions, has highlighted the innate power of rail to haul large volumes of freight safely and efficiently across our vast continent while helping to reduce carbon emissions,” he said.

Linfox executive chair, Peter Fox, said this development complemented Linfox’s recent investments in the intermodal rail network.

“Linfox has a national footprint of strategically located railhead facilities and our new Adelaide investment further enhances our capabilities throughout Australia,” Fox said.

“We are extremely pleased to be making this new multi-million dollar investment of a world-class intermodal facility in South Australia.”

Linfox’s deep understanding of complex supply chain interactions and expertise in end-to-end freight delivery complements Pacific National’s extensive rollingstock (locomotives and wagons) fleet and national network of intermodal terminals and hubs.