Two 8km tunnels could link Inland Rail with Brisbane Port

Two tunnels stretching 16km are being proposed to fix a missing link between the Inland Rail and Brisbane’s port, with jobs and exports boosted, and millions of trucks taken off the road.

Cross River Rail’s borers could be used to dig two tunnels stretching 16km and end the missing link between Brisbane’s port and Inland Rail, generating a massive jobs, exports and congestion-busting boost to Queensland.

The mega tunnel is being investigated by government as a way to unlock billions in jobs and exports as well clear city roads of heavy trucks and backyards of coal trains.

The Sunday Mail can reveal the route from Acacia Ridge to Port of Brisbane is being investigated as well as a shorter 12km version as we launch our Queensland’s Missing Link campaign to get the freight route built.

Just 2.5 per cent of containerised freight moving through Port of Brisbane is moved by rail, hampered by having to share the commuter system, choking both and forcing containers on to trucks.

A 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.

Just 2.5 per cent of containers at Port of Brisbane move by train. The rest are on trucks. AAP Image/Dan Peled

It comes as the Team Queensland bloc of federal Coalition MPs have backed the push to put an end to trucks choking roads, turbocharge agriculture and mineral exports and turn Brisbane into the economic gateway to Australia.

Bonner MP Ross Vasta has pitched the plan in Canberra and the federal government has tipped $20m into evaluating the two tunnel plans.

Mr Vasta said one proposal included reusing Cross River Rail tunnel borers for the tunnel, taking coal, grain and container trains underground.

Options floated included using autonomous vehicle technology inside the tunnel as well as traditional rail.

“This is a nation-building project that will set up southeast Queensland as the transport hub of the nation,” he said.

“We will be able to get a container from Brisbane to Melbourne in one day using the Inland Rail.”

Mr Vasta said about 2000 jobs would be created with construction of the project.

“This is an incredible game-changing event for transport in Brisbane,” he said.

“We will be able to alleviate the heavy transport on roads in Brisbane. The degradation of the roads … these B-doubles that do enormous damage, will be eliminated.

“The coal trains … will be gone and so the air will be cleaner, there will less air and noise pollution. It will make Brisbane a far more liveable city that will have access to the port. It goes far beyond the benefits to Brisbane. The whole nation benefits from Inland Rail. It’s a much needed piece of infrastructure that has been mooted for over 100 years and now this government has the will and the determination. The opportunity is now, while Brisbane is not landlocked.”

Federal MP Ross Vasta wants to build a tunnel linking the massive Inland Rail scheme and the Port of Brisbane. Picture: Annette Dew

Mr Vasta said he wanted the state government and Brisbane City Council on board to deliver the project.

Port of Brisbane chief operating officer Peter Keyte said a dedicated freight route was desperately needed.

“We cannot delay. We must all work together to directly connect Inland Rail to the Port of Brisbane,” he said. “If we don’t, not only will Brisbane be flooded by trucks in the years and decades to come, but we will be applying the handbrake to our agricultural exports and costing our region billions of dollars in jobs and investment. This is the kind of nation-building project we need to help Queensland reach its full economic potential.”

Fairfax MP Ted O’Brien, who heads Team Queensland and represents Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the 2032 Olympics bid and SEQ City Deal, said he was in favour of a building dedicated freight link.

“When it comes to building infrastructure and creating jobs, Queensland has no better friend than ‘ScoMo’ and the LNP because we’re just getting stuff done, and that includes ploughing ahead with Inland Rail,” he said.

“A dedicated freight line connecting Inland Rail to the Port of Brisbane is a vital piece of the puzzle and it would make Queensland the envy of other states,as we unlock economic benefits for not only the southeast corner but all of Queensland.”

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said that, with an overground line requiring massive amounts of clearing, a tunnel was the only option.

“We understand the vital importance of having a dedicated freight line to the Port of Brisbane, but we don’t want to see large tracts of Brisbane bushland cleared to accommodate a new rail line,” he said.

“Council’s longstanding position is that a freigh trail tunnel is the only real option.”

PRIVATE PUSH TO BUILD TUNNEL

Tunnel crews from the Cross River Rail project could sink two tunnels from the Pine Mountain quarry – one to Acacia Ridge and the other to the Port of Brisbane – under a plan that would be paid for, built and operated by the private sector.

The project proposed by National Trunk Rail would connect the vital “final mile” with a dedicated route from the Inland Rail to the Port of Brisbane with a connection from Ebenezer on land owned by the state government, at the junction of the Inland Rail and Cunningham Highway.

But the project is being held up by the refusal by the state and federal governments to release a joint report into the need for the final connection, former Newman government director-general and National Trunk Rail board director Jon Grayson says.

“We think there is an opportunity to ensure that that critical last mile is done right,” Mr Grayson told a Senatecommittee last month.

“The Commonwealth and state governments … jointly funded a study on options for the connection. That was completed in 2019 but has not yet been released.

“Our proposal involves two 8km tunnels separated by Pine Mountain Quarry.

“We are envisaging a commercial model which delivers private financing and delivery, with construction and commercial risksalso borne by the consortium.

“In terms of what we can learn from Inland Rail to date to make sure that we get the right solution for that last mile, I think it is critically important that we see the immediate release of that joint Commonwealth-Queensland study on options. That would be an important signal to get private sector engagement in this project.”