The Northern Territory Government will invest $1 million to investigate the feasibility of a 600km rail line connecting Mount Isa, in Central Queensland, to the Adelaide-Darwin line at Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory.
Chief minister Adam Giles late last week announced the NT’s 2015 Budget includes a $1 million fund to spend over two years into feasibility studies for the potential new rail project.
“Budget 2015 invests heavily in infrastructure for the Territory’s future,” Giles said.
“A new 600km rail project linking these two centres has the potential to provide enormous economic opportunities, particularly in the resources industry.”
The project would provide a standard gauge rail link to the Port of Darwin from north western Queensland via the Adelaide-Darwin railway, at the same time as opening up access to a broad new area of the NT, Giles said.
“Previous investigations indicated a number of mining companies in the Mt Isa area had an interest in shifting their exports of bulk materials through the Port of Darwin, instead of Townsville, if the cost of transport was right.”
Exporting minerals through Darwin could also alleviate shipping pressures in Far North Queensland, the chief minister added.
“Linking northern and eastern markets would provide incentives to explorers and producers to invest in the NT, creating jobs and driving money into the economy,” Giles said.
The Department of Defence has also reportedly expressed strong interest in the project.
“We’re investing $1 million to investigate the possible corridor acquisition and construction of the rail spur. This business case is expected to take two years to complete,” Giles said.
“This is a project of national significance and the Australian Government will be asked to match this funding in line with its commitment to developing the North.”
The corridor has the potential to include a railway link, pipelines and telecommunications infrastructure, Giles said, explaining there are significant potential cost savings by focusing on a multi-purpose corridor rather treating these as individual projects.
“The proposed link may also provide the opportunity for a new rail experience for tourists if it could connect with existing passenger rail services such as ‘The Inlander’ in Queensland and ‘The Ghan’ here in the Territory,” he said.
“This would be a long term project with a price tag in excess of a billion dollars, but its benefits would be exponential to the Territory and I’m keen to explore whether it’s economically viable.”
If an initial business case proves positive, detailed environmental impact studies, geotechnical investigations, engineering design, sacred sites and heritage clearances would need to be done to refine the project, costings and construction plan.
What should therefore be considered is to dual gauge the line from Mt. Isa to Townsville for greatest economic benefit.
Totally agree, I wonder what the different between going standard gauge as apposed to dual gauge would be?
I suppose if they dual gauged any line between Mt Isa and Tenant creek they could run the train from Brisbane – Townsville – Mt. Isa – Tenant Creek through service to connect to The Ghan to Darwin. How much passenger demand there would be I have no idea. To dual gauge the line Mt. Isa – Townsville would require some realignment and quite a bit of upgrading but the benefit would outweigh the cost IF the line connected to the Darwin line to ship freight between Brisbane or Townsville and Darwin which would make it a lot cheaper than having to go via Broken Hill.