$20 million Brisbane rail study delayed

A $20 million government study to decide the fate of the missing Inland Rail link to the Port of Brisbane has been delayed by six months.

A $20 million government study to decide the fate of the missing Inland Rail link to the Port of Brisbane has been delayed by six months, as a Senate inquiry into the broader major infrastructure project revealed the Commonwealth hasn’t yet decided if Acacia Ridge will be the end of the line.

The Sunday Mail can reveal the jointly funded Port of Brisbane Strategic Rail Access Study, aimed at investigating “detailed options and timing for a potential dedicated freight corridor to the Port of Brisbane”, was meant to be up and running and complete by mid-2022.

The Sunday Mail’s Missing Link campaign aims to unlock the massive potential a dedicated freight link from the Inland Rail to the Port of Brisbane would bring, as well as taking millions of trucks off choked city roads.

But the state and federal governments have confirmed the study won’t be complete until at least the end of 2022, and neither have explained the reasons behind the delay.

The delay could cost Queensland the chance to set aside money in this year’s budget to facilitate the project.

A Deloitte study from 2019 conducted for the Port of Brisbane found the link would pump $5.4bn into the economy and create an average of 1200 jobs a year.

Jake Laing, Scott Schultz, Matthew Williams surveying for the Inland rail project.

The Deloitte study also revealed that just 2.5 per cent of container freight in Brisbane is currently moved by rail because the shared network gives priority to passenger services.

This compares to about 20 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne.

The dedicated freight route could take as many as 2.4 million trucks a year off the road, cut the cost of transport for farmers and exporters and tap the massive economic, jobs and road safety benefits of taking rail freight direct all the way to the sea.

A Queensland Transport and Main Roads spokeswoman said a “project manager” for the $20m study had been appointed to lead the “next stage of planning” but she did not answer questions about when they were hired, or the state of progress of the project.

The spokeswoman also said the project would be “subject to the findings of the Port of Brisbane Strategic Rail Access Study”, which was completed in 2019 and yet to be publicly released.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said the 2019 study would be released “in coming months”.

An answer to a question asked in the Senate inquiry revealed the $20m study would incorporate a “fresh demand analysis” and a “market sounding exercise” to explore private sector interest in designing, building and owning the corridor.

A spokesman for federal Transport Minister Michael McCormack reiterated that Inland Rail would be connected to the Port of Brisbane “from day one through existing rail”.