Intermodality and Port-Hinterland Connectivity: Chancay Port and the Central Highway vs. Sydney’s Port Botany Rail Link

Abstract

Global trade in the Pacific basin increasingly depends on how efficiently ports connect with their hinterlands through rail and road-based logistics networks. This article compares the emerging Chancay–Central Highway system in Peru with the mature rail and intermodal network serving Sydney’s Port Botany. A mixed case study design combines recent literature on port governance, smart ports and risk management with official statistics, the Container Port Performance Index and operational indicators from port authorities and terminal operators. The analysis focuses on four dimensions: maritime capacity and performance, hinterland infrastructure and intermodality, governance and risk, and strategic positioning in global trade corridors. Results show a marked asymmetry between maritime capacity and inland connectivity in both cases. Chancay is being developed as an integrated deep-water logistics platform linked to trans-Pacific routes, but its performance will depend on overcoming bottlenecks along the Central Highway, Andean connections and Lima’s metropolitan freight network, and on managing geopolitical and governance risks associated with a single foreign-controlled operator. Port Botany already handles high container volumes and has substantial unused terminal capacity, yet remains constrained by limited rail share, urban congestion and fragmented institutional responsibilities. The article concludes that intermodality is shaped less by engineering decisions than by the alignment of governance, risk management frameworks such as ISO 31000, regulation and long-term public investment, and argues that Chancay offers Peru an opportunity to embed rail, dry ports, digital port community systems and risk governance from the outset.