Inland Rail fury as bills mount and environmental assessment ditched

Anger is mounting over a proposed freight train line linking Melbourne to Brisbane after the federal government was accused of not knowing where, when or how the project will be built.

Inland Rail: Senator Glenn Sterle chaired the Senate hearing; and Inland Rail Community Consultation Committee member Suz Corbett.

Anger is mounting over a proposed freight train line linking Melbourne to Brisbane after the federal government was accused of not knowing where, when or how the project will be built.

A senate inquiry hearing into the project heard the federal government was yet to determine where the track would start in Melbourne and was still reviewing the proposed end of the route in Acacia Ridge.

Representatives from the Australian Rail Track Corporation, which is building the line, told the inquiry in Melbourne, the corporation had been forced back to the drawing board to redesign overpasses in northern Victoria to allow for the height of double-stacked coal freight trains.

Senator Glenn Sterle told the Senate Transport References committee costs had blown out from $9.3 billion to $14.5 billion and there was no end in sight to the skyrocketing bills.

WA Senator Glenn Sterle told the Senate hearing costs had blown out and there was still confusion over the route.

“You have the Queensland Road Transport Association not even being consulted and the Victorian Transport Association is not even being consulted,” he said.

“We have money being spent in New South Wales. Now shovels have turned and the rail line is being laid, yet we still don’t know what the heck is going to happen at the Queensland end.”

Logan residents affected by the freight train line said the statements at the inquiry were infuriating and disheartening.

Forestdale resident Suz Corbett said anger grew when the state Co-ordinator-General said it would not step in and declare the link a co-ordinated project.

Logan resident and Inland Rail community consultant Suz Corbett.

The move ruled out an environmental impact assessment which would have allowed greater public input into the design and the route.

It is estimated that more than 50,000 southeast Queensland residents will be directly affected by the freight line.

“The mismanagement is appalling and now to be told an environmental impact assessment has been declined is incomprehensible,” Mrs Corbett said.

“It took the Co-ordinator-General two years to decline an environmental impact assessment so residents now don’t have any input and the community has lost its role in providing any terms of reference.

“We have also lost the possibility that the Co-ordinator-General could have stopped the project using the existing rail corridor if it failed to comply with strict environmental conditions.”

Last month, Logan residents, with the backing of Logan mayor Darren Power, canvassed the idea of the freight line going to Toowoomba with a link to Gladstone.

That has gained support from Gladstone mayor Matt Burnett.