Although it’s been operational in the wake of the Rangitata rail bridge outage, Minister of Transport Simeon Brown declares the Farfield Freight Hub open 

The Fairfield Freight Hub (FFH) just north of Ashburton was opened by Minister of Transport Simeon Brown last Friday 19 April, and regardless of how you look at it, the facility is a hands-down winner for both the town, the region, and the local companies behind it.

Wholly owned by Wareing Group, the hub shines a light on what can be done when public and private collaborations remain focused on an end goal.

“In 2019, picture a freight train rolling past half empty, while myself, Murray Young [today NZ Express, then GM KiwiRail] are watching in dismay, knowing there was room for substantial improvement,” said Wareing Group CEO Mark Wareing to guests at the opening.

Wareing emphasised the team effort in getting the hub from great idea to reality, acknowledging the assistance of the Ashburton District Council, local MPs, Talley’s, KiwiRail, and MSC Line among others.

Centred in the mid-Canterbury food bowl, the FFH transforms the daily flow of inputs to the region, and the outputs. Key to that is the hub being an empty container release point for MSC Line currently, with discussions underway with other shippers as well.

“Our exporters don’t have a very long time to get their product to port, and by having empty containers here, we can take out one leg of that journey for them,” said Mark.

FFH also moves rail transfer operations from an old site in the middle of Ashburton out to the Fairfield industrial park.

The efficiency gains for road transport are significant. Congestion currently plagues container traffic moving to the Port at Lyttelton, and hubbing at Fairfield will reduce that by up to 40,000 truck movements per year. Add to that the facility also drawing on solar energy for a part of its operations, there’s also significant environmental gains.

Put to the real test early, the hub has been operational since the Rangitata rail bridge outage and both site manager Mat Bruce and operations manager Heath Little said it came through with flying colours.

Fairfield Freight Hub – Fast facts

• 40,000sq m facility
• Dry store 2,000sq m
• 800 TEU
• 120 reefer plugs
• Bulk commodity silos
• 60 containers railed a day from two rail placements
• 200kW power consumption offset