Final designs NSW/Qld border to Gowrie
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The public consultation period for Inland Rail’s NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie revised draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) closes 4th August 2025
Helidon to Calvert
Calvert to Kagaru
Inland Rail Review outcomes for the Calvert to Kagaru project
The Australian Government has announced that the Inland Rail Service Offering of double-stacked trains will operate between the intermodal terminal at Beveridge, Victoria, and a proposed terminal at Ebenezer, Queensland, with a single-stacked connection to be built between Ebenezer and Kagaru.
I still feel like this undermines the efficiency of the Bromelton Industrial Area, which was deliberately set aside for intermodal industry at the Nexus of the Inland Rail and Bne-Syd lines. Bromelton as an employment hub was also supposed to assist in getting more people from Flagstone and Yarabilba working closer to home (and away from already congested areas).
It’s also taking a big industry area away from a little Council and giving it to a much bigger Council.
And it’s interesting that Ebenezer is the spot they decide ‘nah, double stacking doesn’t work for the rest’. The last 50 or so kilometres. Not where real savings or efficiencies might be realised, like, say, a multimodal facility adjacent to Wellcamp airport where double stack can me made single, some agricultural products can go onto planes, and you could more easily and cheaply electrify the system from Rosewood to Toowoomba.
I also look forward to the transparent publication of all EIS feedback regarding the Condamine floodplain 
.
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When Ebenezer firmed up there was a plan floated a couple of years ago for a $6 billion 52-kilometre tunnel linking the proposed logistics hub at Ebenezer to the Port of Brisbane via driverless freight shuttles. I don’t think that will get up.
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At going rates, 6 billion might get the system a tunnel as far as Springfield . Is there space in the corridor for a third dual gauge track? The Springfield line comes within 10km of the interstate line around the bottom of Forest Lake.
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ABC report, couple of years old but still interesting.
‘It will never get to Brisbane’: Inland Rail project at a crossroads | 7.30
The best option for the Queensland section is to just completely scrap the current route towards Brisbane and build the line to Gladstone as advocated by Everald Compton (Father of the Inland Rail).
Debatable. Everald’s plan has never done anything for intercapital freight or for getting coal and other commodities off the existing metropolitan network and out of the way of passenger trains, or to build a better rail alignment between Brisbane and Toowoomba, which combined are more than half the point of spending money on this at all. Cotton and grain aren’t just going to be sent further away to be transhipped at facilities that don’t exist at Gladstone.
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Everald’s plan has never done anything for intercapital freight or for getting coal and other commodities off the existing metropolitan network and out of the way of passenger trains
One of the main selling points for the connection to Gladstone is that it could completely remove some of the commodities trains from the Brisbane suburban network by sending them to Gladstone, where as the proposed route to Brisbane would only remove trains from the Ipswich and Springfield lines while still having freight trains using the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines to get to the port.
Cotton and grain aren’t just going to be sent further away to be transhipped at facilities that don’t exist at Gladstone.
Such facilities could be built there. The fact it is further away might even not matter as train speeds would be faster than current rail line.
In the end it is a matter of time and money. A rail line to Gladstone would be far cheaper than one to Brisbane and quicker to build while still providing similar or perhaps better benefits.
I suppose it depends on what people hope to get out of the whole thing.
If this is purely a bulk freight project where the objective is products for ports and export, Gladstone seems to make sense. The sorts of things we presently like to move by rail.
If you care about the movement of things like containerised products for domestic consumption, moving them to Gladstone substantially increases their journey time to where they’re most likely to be used - in South East Queensland. The way I see it, those are the sorts of things we should also be moving by rail, but the incentive seems somewhat diminished if you have to cart that stuff off at Toowoomba and either truck it (which would be the fastest method without a new range crossing) or send it the slow way down the existing range railway (I’m not even contemplating sending it all the way round via Gladstone).
I’m not convinced at face value the Gladstone option would be hugely cheaper. Somewhat cheaper, probably. But in the end, I think value is more what we’re after, rather than simply having both eyes on the cost. So the question would seem to be what we ascribe the most value to for the project in Queensland.
Just to lay it on the table, in terms of what would be needed for the Gladstone option, we’re talking about a substantial amount of dual-gauging (Gowrie to Miles); re-commissioning and dual-gauging of Miles - Wandoan (essentially new track considering the speed limit was down to 30kph before being booked out of use), entirely new track to meet the Moura system (somewhere around Banana if memory serves), including a range crossing between Taroom and Theodore, and upgrades/dual-gauging to Gladstone.
That’s almost 300km of upgraded track from Toowoomba to Wandoan, almost 200km of new track (including a range crossing) for the missing link, and another 150km or so of upgrades to the Moura system (and remaining component of the Monto Loop). The Moura system between Biloela and Mt Alma is very curvy (another mountain range) and wouldn’t meet the specifications for Inland Rail if it had to meet the same requirements as the rest of the project.
And dare I re-state the obvious, but cost blowouts in rail projects these days are… essentially universal occurrences.
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Toowoomba to Gladstone Inland Rail Extension Business Case
https://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/projects/toowoomba-to-gladstone-inland-rail-extension-business-case
