The already-converted standard gauge line from Murrayville into South Australia via Pinnaroo is overgrown.
The Inland Rail project is a waste of money.
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It will run from Melbourne to Brisbane, or more correctly Acacia Ridge, and maybe Bromelton.
Being a standard gauge railway, freight will not reach any Queensland port without being reconsigned via the dual gauge Brisbane line, or onto trucks.
I realise that Wagga has a stake in this project because it will pass the Bomen freight hub (RiFL). But let's not kid ourselves - all rail projects are capital-city-to-capital-city corridors. We have little more chance of major advantage from this project than do country communities by-passed in the name of a 24-hour service.
Let me quote three simple examples.
In Darwin a few years ago I was talking with a mango grower at a Sunday market.
I suggested to him that the new Darwin railway line would have revolutionised transport of his produce from Darwin.
He laughed. "Where did you get that idea?" he said. I replied that there had been plans for Riverina produce to travel by fast train to Darwin, and then fast catamaran to Asian markets in just four days.
"Do you know how our mangoes get to market?" he continued. "The B-Double pulls in, and is loaded at the farm. With two drivers it goes straight to market."
"The B-Double has air suspension. We need our fruit to be in the market place in minimum time, and in the best possible condition. The truck often goes direct to the supermarket's distribution centre. Best prices come from the freshest fruit," he added.
"The railway line up here was quickly handed over to private operators," he sneered.
Oddly enough, the company is Genesee & Wyoming Australia, the same company connected with Bomen's RiFL!
"They are only interested in minerals and heavy Adelaide loads. Anyway, from our farm gate to the rail yard takes two hours. That's two hours that the truck could be heading south.
"Then the train takes two days to reach Adelaide."
His other big point was that loading their fruit at the farm meant that they knew it was loaded gently, and packed properly for the journey.
In Trevenard, the port near Ceduna, South Australia, I spoke with a train driver about to start his shift.
A train was arriving in the yards, so I asked him where it was from, and what it carried. The answer was gypsum, the only load carried on that line which stretches west to Pengola but now operates only as far as the mine.
I said that I had noted that the Viterra wheat receival facility was not even near the line.
"Wheat's finished. We haven't carried wheat for years." He thought the line was not even usable to the east of Ceduna.
We're talking about the SA narrow gauge railway network. The line between Ceduna and Port Augusta looks, from the road, to be rusty and neglected.
In many small towns, the line by-passes the Viterra silo, but the silo roads are very well trafficked.
On a trip to Adelaide last year, I noticed that the Ouyen to Murrayville line had been completely rebuilt, as a standard gauge railway.
The Murray Basin Rail Project cost $440million. Wheat will be almost the only traffic.
The already-converted standard gauge line from Murrayville into South Australia via Pinnaroo is overgrown.
According to a 2015 report in the The Murray Valley Standard, the Pinnaroo and Loxton branch lines were closed because Viterra intended to transport all wheat by road.
"Group commercial manager Andrew Hannon said road transport was more cost effective than rail, and that competing on cost was the best way for local growers to reach national and international markets," the Standard's report said.
There are Riverina farmers who truck their wheat to Geelong to get "spot" prices.
Rail lines are not necessarily the answer in 2019.
Fast freight from Wagga to Brisbane will still be transported by road.
Those billions of dollars being wasted on the Inland Rail project should have been used to duplicate the unsafe Newell Highway, resulting in cheaper, faster freight, better connections for scores of communities along the way, and a lot of lives saved.