The mayor of one of NSW’s key central towns believes a growth in interest from local and national businesses in taking advantage of the Inland Rail project could trigger progress on the line.
The Inland Rail Implementation Group, led by former deputy prime minister John Anderson, handed in its recommendations for the proposed rail connection between Brisbane and Melbourne, via regional Queensland, NSW and Victoria, to the government earlier in August.
“It’s getting to a very exciting stage,” Parkes Shire mayor Ken Keith told ABC Rural this week.
“John Anderson’s implementation report has actually indicated a positive BCR [benefit-cost ratio] so there will be a return on the investment.”
Roughly $10 billion is expected to be needed to implement the Inland Rail plan, with $6 billion of that funding going towards the complicated section connecting Toowoomba to Brisbane.
“Let’s do another Snowy Mountains scheme in this country,” Keith said. “It’s probably one of the most significant infrastructure projects this country can undertake under the next 20 years … if we build this Inland Rail … we’ll get a huge return to the Australian economy.”
Keith said he wouldn’t put a figure on how many businesses had expressed an interest to the council regarding the development, but he said there had been “quite a bit of an inquiry” from companies looking to establish new facilities and industries based around the Inland Rail project.
He believes the groundswell of interested parties could push the project to being completed within 10 years.
“The industry is starting to realise the potential of the Inland Rail, and we’ve been saying to the implementation group, ‘Look, this is going to have a multiplying effect’,” he said.
“There’s inquiries right along the route now for intermodal hubs, and people setting up industries such as abattoirs, so we can value-add on meat products going overseas. We can value add to grain – rather than just exporting whole grain we can containerise grain … things like that.
“Overall I think there’s an enormous benefit to agriculture.”