In a 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' situation, the 70 kilometre rail line between Lake Cargelligo and Ungarie is in desperate need of an upgrade.
According to local broadacre farmers, also in need of upgrades is the Lake Cargelligo GrainCorp silo.
But it seems one won't happen without the other, creating a very frustrating situation for local growers which has been going on for more than 20 years.
The current rail line, which is over 100 years old is not capable of handling current export trains carrying bulk grain to the main line and onto ports.
Peter Skipworth, Currebah, Lake Cargelligo (also on our cover), said the issue with the rail line is the low poundage and low axle loadings and needs upgrading.
"Eighty per cent of the freight on this line is for exports and currently they are taking most of it out by road," he said.
"We can't run main line locomotives here at Lake Cargelligo and at Tullibigeal so there is a lack of competition from buyers.
"This has been an issue for over 20 years since they went to bigger trains.
"The line has been there for 100 years and if they bring it up to main line standard it will be right for another 100 years."
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Mr Skipworth said the current silo owners and any prospective owners were being put off investing any upgrades to the site by the outdated rail line.
"There are a number of things which need upgrading at the site," he said.
"The silos need to be upgraded to gas sealed as increasingly more customers are staying away from chemically treated grain.
"Also, the in-loading system is back from the horse and buggy days.
"But why would anyone put money into it if they can't get trains to it? Someone needs to jump first."
MORE THAN JUST A MONEY ISSUE
The flow-on effects of more trucks on the road is clear for all to see with local growers concerned a catastrophe will occur before anything is done about the situation.
The road used to connect the silos at Lake Cargelligo and Tullibigeal to the Ungarie site is Wyalong Road and during harvest it takes a pummeling.
"Not only is it dearer to get trucks in, and harder to get them during peak periods, but there is also a safety aspect as well," Mr Skipworth said.
"We have found that our roads are deteriorating faster as they were never set up to handle these loads.
"Roads become increasingly unsafe and just last harvest we had truck drivers saying they would rather take the extra time and wait in line at Lake Cargelligo, than drive the road to Ungarie.
"On some patches of road, it is too (narrow) for two b-doubles to pass with one truck forced to pull off to the side and let the other one through.
"School buses use this road and when we are in the middle of harvest it is just unsafe. I just hope something is done before something horrible happens."
Another local grower, Murray Henderson, Wilga Park, Tullibigeal, said after looking at the numbers, upgrading the rail was a no brainer.
"The line infrastructure is there," he said. "It has metal and concrete sleepers except where there are joins and it only needs the heavier gauge line so that export trains can run on it.
"We have been given a rough figure of around $30 million for the upgrade.
"I have figures from Bland Shire Council that say it is costing them $7m to repair 7km of roads from last harvest and they say they have another 14km to do. So they are probably spending another $20m on roads.
"It would make sense to lessen the load on the roads."
There is a $400m NSW Government program called Fixing Country Rail which is designed to fund regional freight projects and seems to align perfectly with the needs of the growers in the area.
"We can't see anywhere this fund is being utilised to improve regional freight," Mr Henderson said.
"In a letter to our local member, Steph Cooke, Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway stated 'there are no plans to upgrade the rail lines between Ungarie and Lake Cargelligo at this time'.
"We want someone involved in the program to come out and do an assessment and help allocate money to this project."
