Toowoomba plan for Inland Rail gains traction after five-year battle
There is light at the end of the tunnel for a group of southside Brisbane residents who have been fighting for five years to stop the Inland Rail ploughing through their suburbs.
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A five-year fight to terminate the Inland Rail freight line at Toowoomba has gained traction, putting into doubt plans to run the track through residential suburbs south of Brisbane.
A group of southside residents, whose Toowoomba proposal has been ignored by the rail developer ARTC for five years, finally found support for their plan at last month’s Senate hearing.
The Inland Rail Action Group, based out of Logan, has been pushing for the rail link route to be terminated at Toowoomba so it would not plough through their suburbs and farms.
Inland Rail Action Group’s Stan and Suz Corbett said support from three senators, a university chancellor and long-time advocate Everald Compton, at last month’s hearing had brought into question the Acacia Ridge to Kagaru section of the 1700km rail line.
Under the action group’s proposal, the line would end at Toowoomba but export freight and coal would continue north on to Gladstone Port.
It would not have to be tunnelled through the Range from Gowrie to Kagaru nor through Logan suburbs of Forestdale, Hillcrest, Greenbank, Boronia Heights, Kagaru, Greater Flagstone and North Maclean.
Last month, the ARTC, which is developing the line, announced a $5.5 billion cost blowout along with the departure of its second chief executive Richard Wankmuller.
“Our proposal is a better solution and could save money but the ARTC has never taken it seriously,” Mr Corbett said.
“It has the potential to cut costs which would be good after it was announced there was a 50 per cent cost blowout of up to $5.5 billion which is on top of the allocated federal funding of $9 billion.
“Our section of the line is the only track which has not had an environmental impact study but the groundswell of support at the latest Senate hearing confirmed for us that sentiment is changing and people want a different route.”
Mr Corbett was speaking out after Senator Anthony Chisholm published his support for the Toowoomba plan today.
Long-time proponent Everald Compton also addressed the hearing calling for the sacking of the ARTC, showing signs he was losing favour with the rail project management.
He pushed the Logan action group’s plan to terminate the line at Toowoomba and ditch the plan to connect with Acacia Ridge through Logan suburbs.
Mr Compton said the ARTC should be replaced with an inland railway construction authority set up by federal parliament.
“I find it extraordinary that the Queensland government is supposed to have identified the track through Kagaru as the way to go,” he said.
“Well all I can say to whoever in the Queensland government decided that, should be given residence out in the Sturts Stony Desert somewhere because that is a ridiculous way to try and bring the railway in.
“The solution: ARTC must be immediately and permanently dismissed for incompetence, financial waste and the destruction of livelihoods as well as the attempt to waste several more billion dollars on absolute nonsense.
“The authority must totally abandon the railway from Toowoomba to Brisbane as it is pointless.
“They can adopt plans, costings and corridors that already exist for the Toowoomba to Gladstone railway.”
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The inquiry also heard from Gladstone University chancellor John Abbott who backed terminating the freight line at Toowoomba.
Mr Abbott said the Gladstone link would cut costs of up to $4 billion, reduce time frames with the project “virtually shovel-ready now”.
“The design is complete and estimated. We believe this would force the ARTC to bring the project back to the originally approved budget of $10 billion or thereabouts,” he said.
“To not seriously consider this option is, to me, negligent.
“It’s hard to understand, given this analysis, why this change was not being seriously considered previously, other than the usual capital-city-centric world that we in the regions are quite used to.”
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