Inland Railway

The Inland Railway is a railway construction project extending from Melbourne to Brisbane along a route west of the mountainous Great Dividing Range. The railway will transport freight between Melbourne and Brisbane with an anticipated transit time of less than 24hrs. Construction of the railway commenced in 2018 and is scheduled to be completed by 2024-2025. The main proponent of the railway line in 2008 was Everald Compton, through the company Australian Transport and Energy Corridor Limited (ATEC).



Overview
The line will be standard gauge, except where it shares the alignment with the narrow gauge of Queensland, in which case the track will be dual gauge. Isolated sections of the line will be built with dual gauge sleepers to facilitate a conversion to dual gauge at a later date. 70% of Inland Rail will be made up of existing rail infrastructure.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) and ATEC are equal partners in a joint venture company called Australian Inland Railway Expressway Pty Ltd (AIRE), which was established to develop the railway line between Victoria and Queensland.

In May 2009 preliminary analysis by the ARTC showed that the cheapest version of the inland railway would cost $2.8 billion to build and would allow freight to be moved from Melbourne to Brisbane in just over 27 hours. Running from Melbourne via Albury to Cootamundra, Parkes, Narromine, Dubbo, Werris Creek and Moree to North Star near Goondiwindi in Queensland, new track would then have to be laid from North Star to Toowoomba and on to Brisbane. The analysis found that if operating by 2020 the economic costs would outweigh the benefits by $1.1 billion, or $860 million if environmental gains were taken into account.

In the 2017 Australian federal budget, the Federal Government earmarked $8.4 billion to build the line.

Sectors
The project is not intended to be constructed by one company or government. Instead, each sector is supposed to be planned and developed separately, with each one having to be economically feasible in its own right. However, some sectors are not viable without others already being in place.

Several connections to be provided across the Great Dividing Range between the inland route and coastal cities and ports, such as Sydney via Goulburn, Newcastle via Ulan or Werris Creek, Brisbane, Gladstone, Rockhampton and Cairns.

Melbourne to Moree
Between Melbourne and Moree, a number of existing railway lines of varying condition and load capacity could provide a connection. In May 2008, the federal government announced a detailed study into the line between Melbourne and Brisbane. That study was expected to select the most viable route. In particular, a decision had to be made between taking the inland railway line via Albury or via Shepparton. Some completely new sections of line were expected to be developed, while other existing lines would be upgraded or completely rebuilt.

Curves & Gradients

 * (existing narrow gauge line)
 * Curves : 200m
 * Gradients: 1 in 48 (2.1%) (either side of Heathcote Junction)

Moree to Toowoomba
Moree is the current terminus of passenger rail services on the Mungindi railway line. Beyond Moree, only wheat trains operate on a branch line to North Star, near the Queensland border. That line previously extended to Boggabilla, which is only a few kilometres from Goondiwindi in Queensland. While Goondiwindi is on a narrow gauge line that connects to Toowoomba via Warwick, these New South Wales and Queensland lines never met.

In April 2008, ATEC announced that it was seeking an unconditional exclusive mandate from the Queensland and New South Wales governments to build a new 350 km standard gauge rail line between Moree and Toowoomba. The proposed route of that line would pass through North Star, turn east on a completely new alignment to Yetman in New South Wales, then north to Yelarbon in Queensland. From there, it would go to Inglewood, then turn north to Millmerran, then through Pittsworth to Toowoomba. While there are existing narrow gauge lines between Yelarbon and Inglewood and between Millmerran and Toowoomba, it is unclear whether it is proposed to use these lines.

Under the proposal, this line was to be completed in 2014. It was estimated that its completion had the potential to reduce the number of trucks travelling along the Newell Highway by 1,000 per day. In 2015, construction was proposed.

Toowoomba to Brisbane
Toowoomba lies at an elevation of 700 metres, which is not particularly high in world terms, but the difficulty of climbing the range from Brisbane at an affordable cost was the reason for the choice of narrow gauge for railways in Queensland, leading to the subsequent break of gauge problems that this caused at the New South Wales border. Route planning for this section is part of the study funded by the federal government. The 2018 plan (to be reviewed) has the rail line halting at Acacia Ridge, 38km from the Port of Brisbane, due to the inability to double-stack containers on the rail line to the port so, initially, some cargo would have to be taken on the final leg to the port by road.

New Tunnel
The section of track from Gowrie to Helidon will include a 6.38 km tunnel through the Great Dividing Range.

Curves & Gradients

 * (existing narrow gauge line)
 * Curves : 100m (5 chains)
 * Gradients: 1 in 50 (2%)
 * Tunnels have limited clearances

Development projects
The railway construction is being undertaken as 13 individual projects.
 * Tottenham to Albury
 * 305km of existing interstate rail corridor will be upgraded to support double-stacked freight trains up to 1800m long


 * Albury to Illabo
 * Enhance 185km of existing rail corridor to increase height and weight of trains
 * Illabo to Stockinbingal
 * 37km of new route to bypass the Bethungra Spiral
 * Stockinbingal to Parkes
 * 173km of existing rail corridor to be upgraded for increased width and height
 * Parkes to Narromine
 * Upgrade 98.4km of track and 5.3km of new track near Parkes
 * Narromine to Narrabri
 * 300km of new track
 * Narrabri to North Star
 * 188km in an existing rail corridor
 * 1.6km in a new corridor to bypass a hairpin curve near Moree
 * North Star to the New South Wales/Queensland Border near Yelarbon
 * 39km of track in a new corridor
 * new bridge over the Macintyre River
 * NSW/Qld border to Gowrie Junction
 * 146km of new dual-gauge track
 * 78km upgraded track
 * Gowrie Junction to Helidon
 * 26km of new dual-gauge track
 * 6.8km tunnel in the Toowoomba Range
 * Helidon to Calvert
 * 47.7km of new dual-gauge track
 * 1.1km tunnel through the Little Liverpool Range
 * Calvert to Kagaru
 * 53km of new dual-gauge track
 * 11km tunnel through the Teviot Range
 * Kagaru to Acacia Ridge and Bromelton
 * 49km of existing track to be upgraded to dual gauge and double-stacked containers
 * This is a section of the existing Sydney–Brisbane rail corridor in Brisbane, between the older freight terminus at Acacia Ridge and the newer one at Bromelton. Kagaru is part-way along this link and will become the new junction.

Future Expansion
Possible future expansion may include sectors from Toowoomba to Darwin.

Toowoomba to Gladstone
Originally called the Dawson Valley railway line, the first sector will be the 210 km Surat Basin railway line between Wandoan and Banana, which is planned to have its detailed route planning and financing completed by the end of 2009 and to be operational in 2012. This line, in conjunction with upgrading of existing lines, will provide a direct link between Toowoomba and Gladstone. The company involved in building that line, Surat Basin Rail Joint Venture, is a joint venture involving ATEC, Industry Funds Management, Anglo Coal, Xstrata Coal and Queensland Rail. It has been granted an unconditional exclusive mandate to construct and operate that line as an open access private railway. This line will initially be built in narrow gauge and without overhead electrification but will be designed to provide for future conversion to dual gauge and electrification.

Banana to Bowen via Emerald
A line has been proposed to connect the Bowen Basin and Surat Basin coal mining regions, providing mines in those areas with access to four ports. The line would connect to the Surat Basin railway line at Banana, extend north-west to Emerald, then north to Bowen.

Mount Isa to Bowen
A line has been proposed to connect the North West Minerals Province around Mount Isa to Bowen.

Mount Isa to Darwin
This sector is proposed to be built between Mount Isa and Tennant Creek, where it would join the Adelaide-Darwin railway to Darwin.

In 2005, a study found that this line was not viable at that time. In July 2008, it was announced that ATEC is again carrying out a study to investigate the viability of constructing this line because two new iron ore mines are being developed north west of Mount Isa and the recently elected Mount Isa council have shown renewed interest in the project.

The Wonarah phosphate deposit, located 250 km east of Tennant Creek, was discovered in 1967 and has been the subject of numerous studies. Up to 2007, the project remained uneconomic due to the world price of phosphate. With rising prices during 2007, the mining lease holder, Minemakers Limited, believed that the project might have become economically viable. The proposed site of the mine is on the Barkly Highway and the route of the proposed Mount Isa to Tennant Creek railway line. The initial plan was to use trucks to transport phosphate to Tennant Creek, where it would be transferred to trains for transport to Darwin. In January 2009, a memorandum of understanding was announced between Minemakers and ATEC for a financial study into the construction of the railway line from the project site to Tennant Creek as an open access private railway.

2009
In October, 2009, Minemakers were considering construction of a rail branch from their minesite at Wonarah to a junction with the Adelaide-Darwin railway at Tennant Creek.

2015
In July 2015 the Federal and Northern Territory governments allocated $6m for a study of the Mount Isa - Tennant Creek link.

Freight Depots
A road-rail trans-shipment hub in Charlton, west of Toowoomba, was granted development approval in March 2008.