Rerouting the Inland Rail to Gladstone could see numerous benefits, inquiry hears

Issues with the Inland Rail’s crossing of the Condamine flood plain and coal trains head through suburban Brisbane could be fixed with this significant change, an inquiry has heard.

Rerouting the Inland Rail to end at the Port of Gladstone could avoid the project’s issues with the crossing of the Condamine flood plain, would eliminate coal trains passing through the suburbs of Brisbane, and see a major freight hub established in Toowoomba, an inquiry has heard.

Speaking at the Senate Inquiry into the Management of the Inland Rail project in Brisbane yesterday, in his dual roles of deputy chairman of Regional Development Australia – Central and Western Queensland and project manager for the Central Queensland Region Organisation of Councils, John Abbott outlined the idea of the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project terminating in Gladstone.

Mr Abbott said sending the rail line to Gladstone instead of Brisbane could save between $3-5 billion while still achieving the project’s freight task objectives.

When asked about the domestic freight task and whether he envisaged a substantial hub in Toowoomba to get product to Brisbane, Mr Abbott said: “Look, that’s a real possibility – in fact it’s one that’s actually occurring with the Wagners’ hub and SQ Interlink.”

“Freight forwarding companies I’ve spoken to, they’ve already indicated to me that from when the original routing study was done in 2010, things have changed with the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, Logan Motorway upgrades, and other things.

“It’ll actually be quicker to unload trains in Toowoomba and head to those (distribution) places by truck from Toowoomba, than it is waiting for the trains to come down the range and then unloading them somewhere else.”

Mr Abbott said the Gladstone link had other advantages.

“It could, for example, solve the Condamine flood plain issue, because if you were focused on Gladstone rather than Brisbane, you’d head up through Moonie rather than through Millmerran and avoid the Condamine flood plain altogether.”

He also said it would also eliminate the coal trains passing through the suburbs of Brisbane “entirely, which would solve on of the major issues in this area.”

Linking the rail line to Gladstone would use the Surat Basin rail corridor, which has already been designed as a single narrow-gauge track.

Mr Abbott said he hoped to be able to release an economic analysis of the proposed Gladstone link within two-three weeks.