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Vision for QLD Border Railway becoming a reality

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The $1bn Border Railway project being developed by Australian Transport and Energy Corridor (ATEC) was last week granted Major Project Facilitation (MPF) status by the Federal Government.

  

ATEC chairman Everald Compton told Rail Express the announcement comes as a “big win” for the project.
“This means that the Federal Government and its departments will cooperate in every way possible to get the railway up and join the Queensland and New South Wales Governments in doing so,” Compton said.
“We can get things done a lot quicker and cooperatively because MPF status means some of the things such as approvals we would have otherwise had to do with each separate government, now all operates under the one federal law.”
The proposed $1bn project would see a new 340km standard gauge rail track linking Moree, in northern New South Wales, to a newly constructed intermodal facility in Charlton, near Toowoomba, Queensland and servicing the coal projects in the region.
In the longer term, ATEC envisages extending the line beyond Toowoomba to the rapidly growing industrial city of Gladstone via the Surat Basin.
“If given the final go ahead, this project would deliver significant benefits to regional communities across northern New South Wales and inland Queensland,” Albanese said.
The project could also provide:
• More efficient transport connections;
• Improved access for local coal miners and agricultural producers to domestic and overseas markets;
• Less congestion on the existing coastal rail line; and
• Additional major freight terminals in regional Australia.
The Border Railway is a joint venture between ATEC and Laing O’Rourke. Construction is anticipated to start in late 2012, with a completion date of late 2014.
ATEC – along with partners Xstrata and Queensland Rail – is also developing the proposed Surat Basin Railway (SBR) that would link Toowoomba to the port of Gladstone.
 


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