00:02Inland Rail off the tracks, leaving behind a bumpy legacy.
00:07This proposal has divided a lot of communities. It's divided neighbours.
00:13The Federal Government has pulled funding for the 1600km project.
00:18This is beyond disappointing. This Inland Rail would have taken hundreds of thousands of trucks off the road.
00:24It would have backed our agriculture and horticultural sector.
00:27It was initially going to connect Melbourne to Brisbane.
00:30Now, construction will halt at parks in New South Wales.
00:35It would have been certainly far better to keep both arms of the body that is Inland Rail alive.
00:44A 2023 review found the project was significantly behind schedule and costs have now ballooned to $45 billion.
00:53This Toowoomba business was setting up a logistics hub because of the rail line.
00:58Certainly, it is a disaster for our project.
01:01Give us some respect and just say, you don't give a toss about us.
01:05You were never going to build it. You have no vision for regional Australia.
01:09Infrastructure Minister Catherine King says the Government will focus on upgrading existing freight lines across the country.
01:16Land that was to be used for Inland Rail, like here in Ipswich in South East Queensland, will now be
01:22saved in case the project is resurrected.
01:24We need to build an Inland Rail between Melbourne to Brisbane at some point in our future.
01:29It's only going to become more costly and harder if we don't do it now.
01:34Everald Compton took the project to former Prime Minister John Howard in 1996 and has continued to champion it for
01:41decades.
01:42Private enterprise is the only future for Inland Rail.
01:46I believe that governments can build railways if they do it seriously.
01:50This one has been grossly mismanaged.
01:52For now, it's the end of the line.
Comments