The opening of a redeveloped station has marked the completion of the first half of the Victorian section of Australia’s largest freight rail project.
Wangaratta Station, the final part of the Beveridge-to-Albury section of the 1600km Inland Rail project, is now operational.
McConnell Dowell delivered the Wangaratta Station transformation for Inland Rail. The project included relocating the east track to create a new west track, adding a western platform, replacing footbridges with an underpass, lowering tracks under the Green Street Bridge and replacing them on the same alignment.
The station is also more accessible with a new carpark, pathways, lifts, ramps and stairs.
The Inland Rail project has also lowered tracks under the Murray Valley Highway at Barnawartha North and replaced bridges at Glenrowan and Seymour-Avenel Road.
Work on the second half of the Victorian section is already under way and expected to cost $470 million. John Holland is contracted to deliver the project.
There will be eight stations in the second tranche, at Benalla, Euroa, Wandong, Hume Freeway-Tallarook, and Seymour, and three sites at Broadford.
Completion of Tranche 2 is scheduled for 2027.
Beveridge will be the intermodal terminal for the Inland Rail project in Melbourne.
The project will allow double-stacked freight and cut rail freight travel times between Melbourne and Brisbane to less than 24 hours.
Inland Rail chief executive Nick Miller said the Beveridge to Albury section cost $300 million and would also help with safety.
“If we think about the trains that run on Inland Rail will be1.8km long, double stacked ... each one of those trains will take 110 B-doubles off the road,” Miller said.
“That’s good for safety, it’s good for sustainability and it’s good for the economy in terms of having an efficient connection between Brisbane and Melbourne and the inland ports along that route.”
Inland Rail is expected to cost $31.4 billion, according to an infrastructure review, a significant increase from the original $9.3 billion when it was proposed in 2017. Currently $14.5 billion has been committed by government.
Inland Rail is also currently working on planning and land acquisitions for the line north of Narromine in New South Wales.
Site investigations are also under way on the 39km Ilabo to Stockinbingal section.
Environmental approvals are needed for the section from the NSW-Queensland border to Gowrie in Queensland, while geotechnical investigations are under way between Brookstead and Millmerran, also in Queensland.
