Inland Rail fail: $14.5 billion mega project lacks Brisbane end point

Despite being decades in the planning, the 1700km, $14.5 billion Inland Rail mega project is still lacking a vital component.

The multibillion-dollar Inland Rail project has been poorly managed and perplexingly lacks an end point in Brisbane, a Senate inquiry has found.

The scathing report by the Labor-led Senate committee also called for the business case justifying the construction of Australia’s biggest rail freight project to be reviewed.

But a Queensland Coalition MP has warned any delay to the project could put the whole thing at risk.

Member for Groom Garth Hamilton said the existing route laid out by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) up to near his home base of Toowoomba.

“We have an opportunity to lay this egg now, if we delay we’re putting this whole project at risk,” he said.

“The conversation about getting it to Gladstone is a political question, the conversation about getting it to Toowoomba, is a real world situation. I’m just trying to get this damn thing built.”

The Senate inquiry into the $14.5 billion Inland Rail project, helmed by Labor’s Glenn Sterle, recommended an investigation into an extension of the line up to the Port of Gladstone.

The report also found the handling of the Queensland section had been “unacceptable” due to the lack of an end point in Brisbane, despite a decade of studies.

Senator Susan McDonald

Whether or not the rail freight route will be built to reach Acacia Ridge remains unknown, much less how much it would cost to extend it to the Port of Brisbane or the Port of Gladstone.

The 211-page report made 26 recommendations to fix failures in consultation, technical modelling and route planning of the 1700km rail line connecting Brisbane to Melbourne.

But opinion is split, with Coalition committee members senators Susan McDonald and Gerard Rennick and One Nation’s Pauline Hanson disagreeing with some of the recommendations.

Senator McDonald said the report had focused to closely on a potential link to the Port of Gladstone and the management of the project by ARTC, but didn’t speak to solving Brisbane’s need for an improved rail freight route.

“It potentially will make the Port of Brisbane a stranded asset,” she said.

Where politicians across the divide agree is that ARTC has poorly managed the project and had failed to “meaningfully engage with communities and landholders”, which in turn “significantly undermined” public trust in the ARTC and its management of the project.

ARTC interim chief executive Rebecca Pickering said they had “heard the call from stakeholders” who expected more of the organisation and had “continued to improve as the project progressed”.

The Federal Government is considering the recommendations and will address them at a later date.

Originally published as Inland Rail fail: $14.5 billion mega project lacks Brisbane end point