Article:Queensland Government announces new rail line to be built west Moranbah

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Article: Queensland Government announces new rail line to be built west of Moranbah
by: Robyn Ironside
From:The Courier-Mail
June 06, 2012 5:06 PM

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland-government-announces-new-rail-line-to-be-built-west-of-moranbah/story-e6freon6-1226386546256

A NEW railway line will be built west of Moranbah to transport coal from the Galilee basin to the Queensland coast.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney detailed the plan in State Parliament today, saying the new line would feed into existing QR National infrastructure.

A north-south corridor would also be defined to allow a 500km line from the proposed GVK Hancock Alpha Coal mine to Abbott Point, Mr Seeney said.

"The previous government had allowed work to progress on eight different railway proposals with no coordination from the government at all," Mr Seeney told parliament.

"The result has been a twisted mess of lines on a map, a lot of money wasted and no real progress towards an acceptable outcome for the proponents, for the local community, for landholders or for the environment."

He said the construction of the east-west line would result in a significant extension to the existing QRN network and a "major increase in tonnage carried on that existing network".

"The government will also support the development to coal line standard of the existing rail line from Emerald to Alpha," Mr Seeney said.

"This line upgrade can potentially provide access to the existing coal network and the Port of Gladstone for the southern Galilee Basin proponents so that mines can develop in stages and tonnages build up over time."

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Article: QRN to build $2b rail corridor to next coal frontier
by Tony Grant-Taylor
From: The Courier-Mail
June 07, 2012 12:00AM

http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/qrn-to-build-2b-rail-corridor-to-next-coal-frontier/story-fn7kjcme-1226386774880

QR National is set to benefit from the Queensland Government's decision to make it a major coal transporter from the Galilee Basin.
There will be a number of trenchant critics of the Government's Galilee plan, however, which also envisages a new multi-user standard gauge rail line from billionaire Gina Rinehart's Alpha coal project in the southern Galilee Basin to link to the Abbot Point coal port near Bowen.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney yesterday announced the Newman Government had endorsed an east-west corridor, to be built by QR National at an estimated cost of $2 billion.

The new corridor will extend the existing QR National rail network from near Moranbah to the central Galilee Basin and provide links to the coal ports of Abbot Point, Dalrymple Bay and Dudgeon Point.

Such a development could significantly boost QR National's coal volumes over the next five to 10 years. The news failed to excite investors with QR National shares falling 10 cents to $3.37.

QR National chief executive Lance Hockridge said the proposed rail development ``will unlock the potential of the (Bowen and Galilee) basins and underpin their position as global centres for coalmining and export''.

``The first stage will be to expand the current capacity on the Goonyella/Newlands corridors by at least 25 million tonnes per annum to 75 million tonnes per annum by duplicating sections of Goonyella to Abbot Point,'' Mr Hockridge said.

The criticism of the QR National proposal will no doubt centre on the fact that its network is narrow gauge and runs comparatively light wagons, as opposed to far more efficient heavy duty wagons.

Mr Seeney also said the Government had endorsed a north-south rail corridor from the Alpha project, owned by India's GVK and Ms Rinehart's Hancock Coal, to facilitate ``the construction of new standard gauge rail lines to link the proposed large-scale mining operations in the southern Galilee Basin to Abbot Point''.

He said the Government would ensure third-party access to each of the proposed rail corridors.

``There will be the option for other large mining proposals to co-locate their own new railway lines within the north-south corridor should they consider that to be more commercially viable,'' he said.