PERTH, AUSTRALIA — CBH Group, Australia’s largest grain cooperative, has completed a 650-meter rail siding extension project at Brookton, Western Australia, which is the first rail siding project finished under the Agricultural Supply Chain Improvements (ASCI) program.

Construction of the siding started in February and was completed less than six months later. Funded in partnership with the Western Australian and Commonwealth Governments under Package 1 of the A$200 million ASCI Program, Brookton is one of 11 rail siding projects being undertaken by CBH.

Ben Macnamara, chief executive officer of CBH, noted Brookton is now loading longer trains, further improving the efficiency and reliability of the company’s rail operations.

“The newly extended rail siding is already delivering benefits through reduced train turnaround times, simpler shunting plans, less manual handling, and improved safety,” Macnamara said. “The time it takes to load a standard 50-wagon train has been reduced by over an hour, which is having an immediate effect on our outloading capacity, ensuring our supply chain can export more grain to customers when needed.”

A pre-feasibility study is underway to upgrade the rapid rail loading facility at Brookton, which will further increase the outloading performance of the site, which is located 134 kilometers (83 miles) east of Perth.

Of the remaining ASCI-funded projects, construction has begun at the Broomehill rail siding extension, and construction is scheduled to start at the Cranbrook and Moora projects in the March quarter of 2024. CBH is progressing the remaining seven rail siding extension projects with an aim to have them ready for execution by the end of 2024.

CBH’s storage and handling system currently receives and ships about 90% of the Western Australian grain harvest from more than 100 receival sites and four export terminals. The rail projects are part of CBH’s Path to 2033 strategy to build export capacity to 3 million tonnes per month.