Qube paid $98.9 million to acquire Aurizon's 33 per cent stake in Moorebank Industrial Property Trust, which owns an 83-hectare site at Moorebank.

Aurizon said the decision to sell its stake in Moorebank came after it secured a 10-year lease at the nearby Enfield Intermodal Logistics Centre, which is owned by Port Botany owner NSW Ports.

Aurizon, which started operations at Enfield on May 9, plans to use the Moorebank hub in the longer run as a customer of Qube.

The sale included Aurizon’s interests in the development of rail terminals and associated warehousing under the 99-year lease arrangements with the Commonwealth government across the entire 243-hetcare Moorebank precinct.

The Commonwealth government regards the terminal as “one of the most important freight infrastructure projects” in Australia.

In June 2015, the government approved Moorebank Intermodal Company (MIC) entering into an agreement with the Sydney Intermodal Terminal Alliance (SIMTA) to develop and operate the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal.

SIMTA, a consortium of Qube Holdings and Aurizon Holdings, agreed to develop and operate the open access freight terminal on a joint precinct comprising Commonwealth land and adjoining the land owned by SIMTA.

The precinct will include an import-export freight terminal with eventual capacity for up to 1.05 million containers per year by rail to and from Port Botany.

Also included will be an interstate freight terminal with capacity for up to 500,000 containers a year.

Key benefits of the terminal include responding to the large increase in freight on the NSW transport network forecast for the coming years, create more than 7000 jobs, inject millions of investment dollars into South-West Sydney, reduce heavy truck movements on Sydney’s roads by transferring freight from road to rail, and simplify freight logistics to deliver savings to businesses and consumers