THE clock is ticking but communities impacted by the Queensland section of the inland rail project are still to see a start to the promised formalised, independent consultation process.
With a deadline of February already in place, there is now a growing sense that inland rail builder Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) will use the Christmas/New Year slow down to continue to deliberately frustrate the process.
ARTC was previously ordered by infrastructure minister Darren Chester to appoint an independent body to evaluate four possible routes for the Queensland section of the inland rail project.
That directive followed an emergency meeting in Warwick in early October where a leaked report revealed there were other potentially viable options the proposed route across the agriculturally important Condamine floodplain.
ARTC must now evaluate four routes linking North Star in northern NSW to Toowoomba. They are: Millmerran to Wellcamp, Millmerran to Gowie, Karara/Leyburn and one using the existing rail corridor incorporating a bypass near Warwick.
That evaluation will be overseen by the representative group which is currently being assembled by Mr Chester. It is understood the group including its chairperson will be named in the next week.
Southern Downs Regional Council mayor Tracy Dobie said although she had met with ARTC representatives, there was still no indication of when the promised independent consultation process would begin.
“We’re also met with staff from Queensland transport minister Stirling Hinchliffe’s office and they also indicated there had been a lack of consultation by ARTC,” Cr Dobie said.
“The ARTC has an obligation to be transparent, and yet we are still to see that process actually begin.
“The clock is ticking.”
Cr Dobie said she was confident that if ARTC considered all of the costs involved in constructing the Queensland section of the inland rail, the existing rail corridor to Warwick was a likely viable option.
“The corridor is already owned by the Queensland government and there is no need to acquire the vast amounts of land that are required with the other proposed routes,” Cr Dobie said.
“ARTC may argue that the elevations through Karara and Warwick will makes the trains slower but that has not been fully investigated.
“These are not big hills. I am sure the quality of modern locomotives, engineering and infrastructure would overcome any issue.”
The proposed route across the Condamine floodplain has already been met with a strong level of concern from impacted landholders, who have already largely seen off the coal seam gas industry.
Likewise, battle hardened landholders on the Karara/Leyburn route have already rejected outright that the inland rail be allowed to travel through the productive Felton Valley.
Member for Southern Downs, Lawrence Springborg, said it was more important to ensure the most appropriate route was selected rather than adhering to an arbitrary deadline for consultation.
“We need to get this project right rather than sticking to some deadline,” Mr Springborg said. “If they get it wrong they will be spend a lot more time trying to solve the problems this will have created, compared to getting it right in the first place.
“People need to be convinced that whichever route is chosen is the most appropriate route. Then we can move forward with some certainty.”
Following an analysis of the four potential routes, the selected route will be subject to an environmental impact statement process.
Comment is being sought from both ARTC and infrastructure minister Darren Chester.
