More new money by June for north-south rail upgrade

<p>For the third year in a row, the federal budget has offered new spending on rail. </p> <p>An extra $270m is to be allocated before June 30 to install 1.3m concrete sleepers on the north-south track between Melbourne and Macarthur, on Sydney’s southern edge, and from Newcastle to Brisbane. </p> <p>The money is part of a 20%, $2.7bn increase in AusLink funding over the next five years from $12.7bn to $15bn. </p> <p>Brian Nye, chief executive of the Australasian Rail Association, said that the continuing fresh spending on rail infrastructure showed that "rail is starting to be taken seriously".</p> <p>The latest investment will mean that nearly all the track from Melbourne to Brisbane will have concrete sleepers, cutting transit times, increasing train payloads, improving ride quality and improving rail’s competitiveness with road transport. </p> <p>Next year’s AusLink budget allocation to rail could start to flow into major work on the planned Melbourne-Queensland inland link.</p> <br />