Murray Basin Rail Project: 70,000 sleepers to be replaced on Sea Lake line
Work has finally started on keeping the crumbling Sea Lake rail freight line open, but it falls short of what was promised. This is what is actually happening.
WORK has begun on replacing 70,000 red gum sleepers on the 141km Korong Vale-Sea Lake Sea rail freight line, which services two major grain terminals, as part of $48.8 million of works to keep the dilapidated line open.
Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan today announced work had commenced on replacing the sleepers, as well as renewing four level crossing and maintenance of more than 3000 track joints.
Further works will continue over the coming months to remove bottlenecks and improve network efficiency and reliability ahead of the next grain season, with 23,000 sleepers to be replaced between Inglewood and Korong Vale and nearly 28,000 new sleepers between Dunolly and Inglewood.
The work forms part of the troubled Murray Basin Rail Project, which the Victorian Auditor General found had been poorly managed and ran out of funds.
Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan has consequently abandoned her government’s promise to fully standardise the northwest network, and rely on $200.2m in federal funding just to finish stage two of what was meant to be a five-stage project.
But Ms Allan was still upbeat about the latest work, saying “we know how important the Murray Basin Rail Project is to Victorian primary producers – and we’re excited to get on and deliver work that will improve reliability for our freight operators ahead of the next grain season.
“Victorian farmers and freight operators are already benefiting from the Murray Basin project, and we’ve got a pipeline of shovel-ready works on the project ready to go this year.”
But Rail Freight Alliance chief executive Reid Mather said that while he welcomed the work, it was “simply maintenance” not the full standardisation of the rail freight network that was promised by Premier Daniel Andrews.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said he was pleased that work had now started on the track, which was part of the Government’s record $110 billion infrastructure investment.
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