Plans Filed for Inland Rail Section Upgrades

Part of the massive Inland Rail project are rolling along with plans filed for upgrades to sections of the line in Victoria.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation Inland Rail has filed two planning applications with the state planning department for proposed buildings and works.

The plans involve a section of the Inland Rail project from Beveridge to Albury.

Double-stacked freight trains are planned for the Inland Rail project, which will run from Queensland to Victoria with a section branching off at Parkes in New South Wales to connect to a line for Western Australia.

The first plan are to upgrade  an existing 220kV transmission line at 21 Bowers Road in Winton, Victoria.

An existing steel lattice transmission tower will be replaced with a taller structure to ensure that the transmission line is high enough above the north-eastern rail line to account for the double-stacked trains. 

Similarly, the other plan filed needs three new monopole structures installed next to the rail corridor to allow the existing 330kV transmission line off the Lincoln Causeway Gateway Island to clear the new height requirements. 

▲ A render of a section of the Inland Rail Freight Corridor showing double-stacked wagons.

The federal government has committed to continuing work on parts of the Inland Rail project despite undertaking a three-month review of the viability and feasibility of infrastructure projects.

These include track connections in Victoria’s Beveridge and Parkes in NSW as well as lines between Albury and Illabo, and Stockinbingal and Parkes, along with upgrading precincts at Albury, Wagga Wagga and Forbes.

The project was not immune from scrutiny, however, with Dr Kerry Schott as acting chair for the ARTC undertaking a review of the entire Inland Rail project and finding that costs had blown out with insufficient governance, oversight and accountability.

A new entity was created, Inland Rail Pty Ltd, to oversee the project with Dr Schott and five others appointed to the board.

The results of the federal government’s review into all infrastructure projects is due to be released later this year.