Article: Light at the end of the tunnel for inland rail?

[ozbob]

From ABC Southern Queensland click here!

Light at the end of the tunnel for inland rail?

13 February, 2014 4:47PM AEST
Light at the end of the tunnel for inland rail?

The long-awaited inland rail project could see the light of day sooner than later.

The Inland Rail Implementation Group met with business leaders in Toowoomba to discuss the project, which would see a dedicated rail freight line from Melbourne to Toowoomba and the Port of Brisbane.

Chairman John Anderson says "it's the first field visit I've taken as the Chairman of the Group. The first thing is to select the route. The second thing is to organise priorities."

"Australia has the sixth largest rail task in the world. But our rail tracks vary from the world's best to some that still need to be brought into the modern age.

"From the range crossing to port connectors to missing pieces in the middle of NSW, we need to work out where the logical places to start are," Anderson says.

Port of Brisbane CEO Russell Smith believes the logical place to start is with the line from Brisbane to Toowoomba.

"Southern Queensland has a major freight logistics problem that is growing worse every year. We have a current truck-focused logistics task which I would call archaic, expensive, dangerous to the public, and environmentally damaging."

Smith says a $3 million pre-feasibility study into a freight rail corridor connecting the Brisbane Port to Toowoomba has finished.

"Our agricultural product was around 85 per cent on rail 10 to 15 years ago. It's now 85 per cent on road. It means we need an efficient freight rail system for Southern Queensland and northern NSW."

Smith says the feasibility study shows the line from Brisbane to Toowoomba is the "key that unlocks the rest of inland rail." He believes it is logical for the rail line to be built north of the existing rail crossing, and link to the future Charlton/Wellcamp terminal.

"I would be hoping for an announcement very soon," Smith says. "And construction starting preferably by the end of the year."

John Anderson says "I'm keen to get moving."

"Trains are more efficient. There's a place for both rail and road, but the efficiencies of rail for heavy freight over longer distances are second to none.

"High quality infrastructure of this sort will remove something like 100,000 truck movements between Brisbane and Melbourne, including shorter movements in between. It's a wise form of investment, provided that they're high quality pieces of infrastructure the taxpayer is putting money to."

[ozbob]

Wellcamp --> http://www.wellcamp.com.au/