Article: Outback shires plead for better cattle train services

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Outback shires plead for better cattle train services

South-west Queensland councils are calling for cattle train services to be improved to the region, after a review of transport options found trains could take hundreds of trucks off the road.

The Paroo, Bulloo, Quilpie and Murweh shires have completed the research and will lobby government and transport industry officials for more trains.

Quilpie Mayor Stuart Mackenzie says it has been almost a year since a cattle train was seen in Quilpie but there is big potential to move livestock on rail.

"The sort of numbers we are talking about is 210,000 head [of cattle] move out of here every year," he said.

"Realistically a rail service could probably move a quarter of that.

"To give you an idea, we are talking nearly a thousand type two road trains - that is what is going out now, that's the triples [trailers] - and we could take nearly a quarter of them or up to a third of them off the road if we could get the rail service going again.

"So it is has a big impact not just on us locally on our roads and our freight services but also right through to Brisbane."

Councillor Mackenzie says they will lobby government and industry for improvements.

[Stillwater]

The government should not use the drought as an excuse to say that cattle for transport numbers are low and, therefore, cattle trains are not viable.