A taskforce headed by former chief of army, Lt General Ken Gillespie, was in Tamworth yesterday to brief stakeholders about how they could put their best foot forward for the development.

The hub would allow local exporters to get their products to ports and onto cargo ships in a faster and more efficient manner.

Tamworth Regional Council has been lobbying for funding for an intermodal rail terminal at Glen Artney in the Westdale industrial area for more than a year.

Mayor Col Murray said the council was in the process of securing a large parcel of land that fronts onto the old Barraba railway line.

“The proposition we’ve been discussing with Transport for NSW is they provide some support to upgrade and reactivate the line, and we’ll work with industry to get a new intermodal terminal there,” Cr Murray said.

“It would be very close to our exporters, have direct B-triple linkage to the New England Highway, and Glen Artney basically has unrestricted access to new land parcels.

“We do believe we have a good shot at this.”

Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson said he’d had “extensive discussions” with Roads Minister Duncan Gay to stress the importance of the project for the region.

“A freight rail centre has the potential to bring employment, increase our freight options, value-add to existing road and air networks, and lower costs for farmers and producers – which is why I listed this project as an important transport priority for our region,” Mr Anderson said.

“A site for the centre has already been identified, and now we need to look at what road and rail upgrades would need to take place in order to have the centre run efficiently and effectively.”

Lt Gen Gillespie said the taskforce would look for proposals that put forward a firm business case.

“Our job is to work out what areas are strategically important, commercially important and make recommendations to the government,” he said.

“It would be hard for us to recommend to the government investing hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars in areas where people are simply saying ‘trust us, if we build it the business will come’ – that’s not a good way of doing business.

“When we do invest funds, we want to make sure it’s got a good future.”