After languishing in the political wilderness of disinterest for many years, the long-wished-for inland freight rail track from Melbourne to Brisbane has finally made it onto the political front page.
The rail industry has welcomed commitments from both parties to get the project moving.
Chief executive officer of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) Bryan Nye welcomed the announcement from Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Warren Truss on the Coalition's commitment to the project and said an inland rail will complete an economic missing link in our nation's freight network.
"This project will take seven hours off transit times from Melbourne to Brisbane, remove trucks from the Pacific, Newell and Hume Highways, and boost regional development along the entire 1,700km route," said Mr Nye.
"Both parties have committed $300 million in funds for the project, which is helped by Minister Truss' announcement today that, under a Coalition Government, the project will commence in 2016 with a completion date of 2026, and will also receive financial funding from the Queensland Government.
"The ARA has long been campaigning for this vital project, so to see further progress is certainly encouraging," added Mr Nye.
"Reports that the Coalition is committing to a construction timeline are also encouraging – the sooner this project is completed the sooner the benefits to the economy can be realised," said Mr Nye.
ARA has recently launched its 2013 election advocacy campaign, outlining the rail industry's key priorities for now and the future. The inland rail is a central pillar of this campaign, due to its potential to provide social, economic and environmental benefits all the way along the supply chain.
"The inland rail has the potential to unblock an infrastructure bottleneck that currently sees Brisbane to Melbourne freight unnecessarily travelling through Sydney, congesting road and rail networks alike," said Mr Nye.
"With a newly elected government's support, now more than ever we need to keep the momentum going and not lose sight of this nation building project," Mr Nye concluded.
Whilst around half of the inland rail route has been completed, additional funding commitments will see the construction of the remaining sections commence- including the construction of a tunnel capable of taking double stacked trains through the Toowoomba range.
Total estimates of the project cost of the remaining sections are around $5 billion. Of the route, 41 per cent has existing track, 25 per cent has track that needs to be upgraded and 34 per cent requires new track.
Other key priority platforms include rail manufacturing, high-speed rail, rail technology and carbon pricing. The '5 Platforms for Change' document is available on the home page of the ARA website www.ara.net.au.