So a short haul shuttle from Canberra to Goulburn by rail would be possible.

Of course. But why offload in Canberra when you've already loaded the scrap onto a truck somewhere in SE NSW and Goulburn is just another hour up the road? Which is 110kph dual carriageway all the way, not some nineteenth century alignment.

So a short haul shuttle from Canberra to Goulburn by rail would be possible.

Of course. But why offload in Canberra when you've already loaded the scrap onto a truck somewhere in SE NSW and Goulburn is just another hour up the road? Which is 110kph dual carriageway all the way, not some nineteenth century alignment.

I would suggest it would be done because of the substantial investment that Access Metal Recycling has already made to their Fyshwick processing facility. And also due to the ease of access for a loading point adjacent to their site.
A reasonable amount of unprocessed scrap goes through the fyshwick site. And to reduce double-handling, it makes sense to load their processed scrap metals on a service direct to port, weather that be Truck (currently) or Rail (which will be made possible by their investment in the former Shell site.

and as for the rail alignment being 19th Century, well, it isn't much better north of Goulburn either!

And just to note, I am unsure where the scrap goes to after it leaves the Fyshwick site, weather it is trucked to Goulburn, or Trucked all the way to Port.

What I find surprising is that there isn't a port shuttle, like there is for Crawfords and Fletchers, from the Canberra region.  Given the ~400k population base, id think that there would be a bit of a demand.  Or is it because there is no suitable intermodal operator at the Canberra end?

What I find surprising is that there isn't a port shuttle, like there is for Crawfords and Fletchers, from the Canberra region.  Given the ~400k population base, id think that there would be a bit of a demand.  Or is it because there is no suitable intermodal operator at the Canberra end?

I'd say its partly because there isn't any proper intermodal facilities at Canberra, or a intermodal operator who can be bothered to chase up enough small contracts to make it viable. The thing is, with Canberra, everyone wants it yesterday, and its only 3.5 hrs from Sydney by road, but a good run on a freight train will take about 6 hours.

The other thing, is there really isn't too much 'Bulk Commodities' in or out of Canberra, so a single contrace to underpin a intermodal rail service is quite unlikely.

Is it viable? Possibly, but are the established players willing to make the substantial effort to make the Canberra market viable? I'd suggest not.
Is a small player willing to make the huge effort required, and wear the risk of attempting such a venture? I'd suggest not.

The most suitable place to load/unload freight trains would be under the crane at ARHS ACT, but, they have too much rollingstock to make the tracks available, or the site suitable (as a significant portion of the ground space is taken up by dry-open storage for parts)

The next most suitable place was where Access were loading the trains, but neither John Holland, ACT Government (secretly wants land for Kingston Foreshore development), nor NSW Government were willing to invest in the maintenance of that site, and, it didn't take long for it to become unfeasible to load due to the uneven ground.

And now we arrive at the point the rail-freight scene in ACT is at, with Access slowly developing a Private siding, with $1 Million dollars of NSW tax money, where as, there would be a better, multi user site if that $1 Million was spent where Access were previously loading.

Having said that, good luck to  Access Recycling, and I hope that they have a successful venture into the Canberra Intermodal market, as it means less trucks on roads, less truck accidents, less congestion on the roads, and a more efficient mode of transport is being used.