Call for investment in Mount Isa to Townsville rail line

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Call for investment in Mount Isa to Townsville rail line

A north-west Queensland development group says the output of the Mount Isa to Townsville rail line will not improve without investment.

The State Government has called on industry to commit to funding maintenance and upgrades on regional rail networks in response to a rail freight inquiry.

Mount Isa to Townsville Economic Zone executive officer Glen Graham said the Government had been looking to the users of the rail line for funding for some time.

However, he said wherever the funding comes from, it was essential it was spent on maintaining the networks.

"The demand at the moment has been reduced in recent years," he said.

"There has been some products go off the line and the capacity would appear to be there, however, at the same time there are still some constraints as far as speed restrictions and train paths which would be improved by sorting out some of the bottlenecks."

Transport Minister Scott Emerson supported a recommendation to use the Mount Isa Line Rail Infrastructure Master Plan to identify upgrades.

Mr Graham said the plan was an important document for creating growth along the line.

"I'm pleased to say that the Mount Isa Rail System Master Plan that was developed in 2010/'11 has really been picked up by this group to use as a template to design future infrastructure and I suppose audit the infrastructure that is there, so to use the capacity that is required and it is our template that they are going to use statewide," he said.

[SteelPan]

A few years back, the ATEC organisation [remember them?] of the mythical "we're going to build a private enterprise inland rail"    looked at this line and it's one of those ones only govt can bite into, apparently, the story goes, the return just ain't there for private dollars! Like that surprises anyone