The Federal Government has announced that it will ‘fast track’ approvals for the inland Rail project as part of a post-pandemic infrastructure package.

After years of delays, however, rail workers, remain sceptical about the Federal Government’s ability to deliver.

RTBU National Secretary Mark Diamond said Inland Rail was supposedly the Federal Government’s signature regional infrastructure project.

“When it comes to our freight infrastructure, Australia has a world class road network, but a third-world rail network.

“This Federal Government, however, has spent more time talking about Inland Rail than building it.”

MAKING RAIL MORE COMPETITIVE

Mr Diamond said Inland Rail will:

• reduce the length of journeys between Melbourne and Brisbane by up to 10 hours,
• improve reliability by 15 per cent,
• reduce rail costs for inter-capital freight travelling between Melbourne and Brisbane by $10 per tonne,
• increase capacity on the transport network,
• and reduce the rail distance between Melbourne and Brisbane by 200km.

“It shouldn't have taken pandemic to wake the Government up, but let's hope that it’s finally going to get moving and turn the Inland Rail dream into a reality,” Mr Diamond said.