There are no guarantees the line will even cross into Queensland, with the $14.6bn in confirmed funding now restricted to south of the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Environmental approvals, required before construction could begin in Queensland, are \u201cyears away\u201d, a Senate committee was told last month. The Albanese government is increasingly reluctant to commit to the project\u2019s end point or a timeline for when it could be finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When construction started in 2018, the train line was due to be completed by 2027 and was going to run 1600km, from Tottenham in Melbourne to Acacia Ridge in Brisbane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two disjointed sections, totalling about 300km, between Parkes, west of Sydney, and North Star, near the Queensland border, are effectively completed, but sit isolated from the rest of the upgraded line further south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further funding is locked in for a 650km stretch from Beveridge, 40km north of Melbourne, to Parkes, with an estimated completion date of 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rail advocates and industry sources in Queensland fear it will never make it into the state, casting doubt on the public-private partnerships<\/a> intended to fund a significant portion of the Queensland section and spooking the investors planning interacting infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Formally, following the 2023 review of the project by former government and business executive Kerry Schott<\/a>, the government said it would eventually build the line from Beveridge to Kagaru, 70km from the Port of Brisbane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But after the review, the signed public-private partnership contract to deliver the section from Gowrie, near Toowoomba, to Kagaru was terminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inland Rail chief executive Nick Miller last month told a Senate committee the government was \u201ccommitted\u201d to that route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But several people close to the project interviewed by The Australian doubted it would ever progress east of Toowoomba because of the high cost of tunnelling through the Great Dividing Range and fierce local opposition to trains passing through rural and residential areas closer to Brisbane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Corporate fundraiser and policy advocate Everald Compton<\/a>, often referred to as the \u201cfather\u201d of the Inland Rail concept, said he did not think the rail line would make it further east than Toowoomba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt will never, ever get there,\u201d Mr Compton told The Australian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the Inland Rail is built from Melbourne to Goondiwindi and then direct to Toowoomba, that\u2019s as far as it would go, and Toowoomba would become the major freight hub for southeast Queensland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Inland Rail representative said the organisation was still working with state and local governments to gain approvals to design the Queensland leg of the track, but could not estimate a start or completion date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese activities include the completion of all regulatory approvals and land acquisition for the project corridor, along with surveys and on-site site investigations to help provide more certainty that Inland Rail can be built to an agreed budget and time frame,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company said the cost of the project had blown out because of the prolonged approvals process, \u201crising inflation, increased cost of materials, continued supply-chain shortages and interruptions, a tight labour market that increased labour costs, as well as rising interest rates and borrowing costs\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of the work from Beveridge to Parkes is to upgrade existing rail lines to accommodate faster speeds and double-stacked trains carrying two intermodal containers, as well as replacing or modifying bridges and other infrastructure. But the Queensland section involves building new dual-gauge tracks through a new and ever-changing greenfield corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Inland](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/image-2.jpeg\")
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