Gary Roberts and his wife have had to race over the railway line to hospital more than once since they moved to their South Wagga Wagga home five years ago, including one trip in the back of an ambulance.
The emergency dash usually takes about four minutes, but Roberts fears federal plans to put bigger freight trains on regional tracks could double the length of his hospital run and cost him vital time, should he have to sit and wait for a 3.6-kilometre train to rumble through the level crossing that stands between his home and hospital.
Gary Roberts at his home in South Wagga Wagga.
“The increased rail traffic through town will cut the city in half,” Roberts said of the federal Inland Rail project, which is seeking state government approval to upgrade the track through Wagga Wagga. “It will make the city much less liveable than it is now.”
Once completed, Inland Rail will see millions of tonnes of freight taken off the nation’s roads each year and transported between Melbourne and Brisbane on longer freight trains that will be double-stacked with shipping containers.
The trains will travel along new and upgraded track across much of regional NSW, cutting through country towns and centres, including over level crossings.
In South Australia on Sunday, two train drivers were killed at a level crossing near the NSW border when a truck and a double-stacked freight train collided. The crash caused $50 million worth of damage and required cranes from Adelaide to clear the containers from the site.
The Australian Rail Track Corporation, which is delivering Inland Rail, says the project will improve road safety and create economic and environmental benefits, but Wagga Wagga residents and the local council fear the project will bring more harm than good to the state’s biggest inland city, built on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.
They are especially worried about extended wait times at level crossings and are calling for a rail bypass to be built around the city, which would allow Wagga Wagga to benefit economically from the project without suffering the social consequences of dividing the city up to 18 times a day.
“Severing the city from north to south will cause not only inconvenience but a very real threat to life, in that emergency services will be cut off from their destination,” the council told the NSW Department of Planning, which is assessing the proposal to upgrade the rail corridor between Albury and Illabo.
“Residents and emergency services [including the ambulance station] will be stranded in the southern portion of the city, cut off from hospitals and medical facilities in the north.”
NSW Ambulance said it would monitor impact on service delivery and would work with Inland Rail on any required mitigation.
In its development application, Inland Rail said trains double-stacked with shipping containers would travel through Wagga Wagga up to 18 times a day by 2040, and through nearby Junee 20 times a day, including through the night.
Key bridges connecting north and south Wagga Wagga would have to be rebuilt to accommodate the taller trains, which would measure 6.5 metres high and up to 1800 metres long, although they could eventually be 3600 metres long – the distance between Circular Quay and Redfern – subject to further approval. In other places, the track will be lowered so the trains can pass through.
Inland Rail noted 1800-metre trains could already travel through Wagga Wagga, but local independent state member Joe McGirr said most trains were less than that.
Independent member for Wagga Wagga Joe McGirr. Credit: Nick Moir
“We’re used to twelve 900-metre trains [a day]. We’re not used to 20 1.8-kilometre or longer, double-stacked trains,” McGirr said. “It will have a big impact on the city.”
He said he had been talking to Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison and Planning Minister Paul Scully about the need to reserve land around Wagga Wagga for a bypass, a proposal that Aitchison said was a possibility.
She said she had been discussing how the separation of Wagga Wagga could be addressed with her federal counterparts and that reserving land for a bypass was “on the table”.
Inland Rail said 1200 homes and eight schools along the route would be affected by excessive noise from the 24-hour trains.
An artist’s impression of a new pedestrian bridge to be built over the railway line at Wagga Wagga to accommodate taller trains.Credit: Inland Rail
The Scots School at Albury said the trains would travel just 23 metres away from the hall it uses for HSC exams, and close to the boarding house where students slept.
The Department of Education did not make a submission on the project, but a planning spokesperson said the two departments would liaise over the expected impact on public primary schools.
Inland Rail said it had consulted widely with the Wagga Wagga community over the past five years and it intended to put in place a “suite of mitigation measures” to address adverse impacts.
The National Party championed inland rail as a way to grow regional Australia and the project received its first major funding from the Turnbull government in 2017.
However, a scathing independent audit handed down in April found the cost of delivering the project had blown out to $31 billion and its start and end points were still uncertain.
As a result, the focus has shifted to delivering the southern section up to Parkes, in the NSW Central West, where trains could then link into existing rail routes. The audit also recommended land be reserved to bypass towns like Wagga Wagga in the future.
Federal Nationals member for Riverina Michael McCormack said building the Albury to Illabo section would create 770 jobs, take thousands of trucks off the road and lead to better bridges in Wagga Wagga.
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