I AM greatly disturbed by the continual false information that is being fed to Australian taxpayers in regards to the Inland Rail, Narromine to Narrabri section.
The Australian Rail Track Corporation and the government have not conducted the proper investigations into their route selection and therefore have left farms to be torn in half and devastated by the impact the Inland Rail will have.
It will, I think, be another National Broadband Network or Light Rail, nothing less than a budget-blowing government spend up.
It seems the easy route is what has been decided on, with no consideration for trains being beneficial to country towns, farmers or businesses.
For the sake of some big companies let’s railroad farmers and save five minutes here or 11 minutes there to keep the time frame down to 24 hours from Melbourne to Brisbane.
Do they think that by keeping the time frame under 24 hours it will compete with trucks?
Do the trains deliver to Woolworths’ doorstep? No farmer is going to put their grain on a truck to go to a silo to be put on a train to go to a city to be put on another train to go to a port.
Even the large companies that intend to use Inland Rail will not have their freight delivered door-to-door in 24 hours, as transitioning from factory to outlet involves more handling and downtime.
What a farce to cut through farming land rather than use existing corridors where the land has already been acquired, the property owners are already adjusted to the impact of trains and obviously a lot of the environmental and geotechnical studies have already been carried out.
What studies have been done to justify the social or economic impact this Inland Rail has on the community for the sake of a few minutes?
Who is the government accountable to?
There needs to be a proper investigation into route selection and costing as well as the social impact, before it is too late and the taxpayers foot the bill.
The questions need to be asked for everyone’s sake.
KAREN WILSON,
“Woodlea”, Balladoran.
