Rail group says independent report ‘full of inaccuracies’

The Millmerran Rail Group has long held concerns about the government’s preferred route for the Inland Rail’s Border to Gowrie section. A new report doesn’t seem to have allayed those concerns.

The Millmerran Rail Group says it will review a new independent report that found an alternate Cecil Plains Inland Rail route would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the project.

The report, published without fanfare to the Department of Infrastructure’s Inland Rail website on Monday, reviewed two variations of an alternate “forestry route” via Cecil Plains.

MRG president Wes Judd said a preliminary reading of the report suggested it was “full of inaccuracies”.

“A glaring example of that – how can there be more businesses affected on a line that’s greenfield in a forest as against a line that’s disrupting farm business and commercial business from west of Inglewood all the way to the Wellcamp Airport,” he said.

“We’ll review it and we’ll then see what our options are.

“It’s quarter past 11 today and the phone has just about been melting with residents in this district gobsmacked with the inaccuracies.”

Mr Judd said for the review to suggest the alternate routes were more expensive than the government’s preferred route, the detailed costings and design of that route must be complete.

“They should be able to release the full itemised costings.” he said.