<p>The Federal Government has called on Western Australia to invest more of its GST funds in rail infrastructure.</p> <p>Federal transport minister John Anderson hit back at criticism from his WA counterpart, Alannah MacTiernan, that Commonwealth was giving the state less than 1% of the $1.8bn it will pump into rail projects in the next five years.</p> <p>Mr Anderson said the state had "more than enough money" from the GST to invest in rail funding and accused the minister of having "run completely off the rails".</p> <p>"It’s also clear she has no idea how much the Australian Government has already spent upgrading the east-west rail corridor from Melbourne to Perth," Mr Anderson said.</p> <p>"In conjunction with the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) we have invested more than $100m in the corridor since 1996."</p> <p>This had taken rail’s share of freight from 69% to 80%, he said.</p> <p>Canberra also continued to invest in the WA rail system, such as funding for improved rail access at port of Fremantle, Mr Anderson said.</p> <p>Ms MacTiernan has called for more funding for the east-west rail route – in particular, another $30m for re-sleepering the line to improve capacity.</p> <p>WA is due to receive just $14m of the $1.8bn AusLink funding for rail projects over the next five years, she said.</p> <p>More than $1.6bn will be spent in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. </p> <br />
