THE push is on to get the $10 billion inland rail project back on track.
Victoria based Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester will make a emergency visit to Warwick tomorrow (Wednesday) following growing concern at the handling of the national building project by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC).
That organisation is doggedly maintaining that the Queensland section of the inland rail be constructed across the agriculturally important Condamine floodplain. That route would leave the depart the rail corridor at Inglewood, heading via Millmerran to Charlton, west of Toowoomba.
However, the ARTC’s determination appears to be based on a 2010 report that ignores the construction of the Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba, which opened in 2014.
Since then a report compiled by consultancy firm SMEC Holdings in 2015 has been leaked, suggesting there are two better, cheaper and lower-impact routes. They include using the existing rail corridor from Inglewood to Karara or Thane to connect Wellcamp Airport before continuing to Brisbane.
In addition, Southern Downs Regional Council is maintaining the most logical and least disruptive route is one which uses the existing transport corridor but bypasses Warwick.
Federal member for Maranoa, David Littleproud, said it was vital that the entire community had confidence in the process of selecting the best route.
“The invitation was issued to Darren Chester to meet with both federal and state representatives to ensure that this once in a lifetime opportunity will deliver the best outcomes,” Mr Littleproud said.
“The process has to be open and transparent and we have to be able to select the best route based on what is the cheapest and fastest, and one that takes into consideration of the construction of Wellcamp airport.
“There is no preferred route, but it is absolutely essentially that everyone has confidence in the process. That has been clearly lacking to date.”
ARTC management is also expected to be grilled on the science used to select the Condamine floodplain route and data supporting the SMEC Holdings report.
The meeting will be attended by federal member John McVeigh (Groom), state members Lawrence Springborg (Southern Downs), Pat Weir (Condamine), David Janetski (Toowoomba South), Trevor Watts (Toowoomba North), and Ian Rickuss (Lockyer) as well as ARTC officials and officials from the federal department of infrastructure.
