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Queensland to spend $3.5bn on coal rail system

<p>The Queensland Government has promised $3.5bn worth of rail infrastructure investments for the state’s booming coal industry.</p> <p>QR’s five-year coal rail program will include track and fleet upgrade projects, some of which are already under way.</p> <p>The program includes the Bauhinia Regional Rail Project that will provide a 110 km spur line and rail infrastructure from Kinrola to Xstrata’s new Rolleston coal mine.</p> <p>The $240m project was on schedule for completion in November this year, state transport minister Paul Lucas said.</p> <p>"This rail line is the longest to be built in Queensland for the past two decades and will provide the vital infrastructure needed to haul export coal from Xstrata’s new mine to the port of Gladstone," Mr Lucas said.</p> <p>Other projects planned or already in progress include:</p> <p>&#8226 The $18m Minerva coal development project, which involves building a 3.6km loop and a line upgrade to 20 tonne axle load standard</p> <p>&#8226 A third rail balloon loop at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal</p> <p>&#8226 Eleven new 4000 class diesel locomotives</p> <p>&#8226 An upgrade of 29 electric locomotives to meet the power requirements for coal haulage</p> <p>&#8226 A rebuild of a further 100 electric locomotives that will enable three locos to do the job of five and</p> <p>&#8226 Five hundred new 106-tonne capacity narrow gauge coal wagons.</p> <p>The government said $1.7 bn had also been earmarked for "longer term planning projects", including a potential rail loop for Wiggins Island.</p> <p>QR was Australia’s largest coal hauler, moving 143m tonnes in 2003&#4704, the government said.</p> <br />