Opinion piece: Is the dream of the inland rail merely a fantasy?

This opinion piece was published in the Canberra Times and other Australian Community Network publications on Monday 24 April 2023.

The Inland Rail project is a critical piece of infrastructure that, if designed and run properly, could revolutionise freight transport in our country. Trouble is, it’s been so poorly handled that the dream of a world-class freight rail system is fast turning into more of a nightmare.

The multi-million dollar inland rail project has been in the media for all the wrong reasons of late, facing well-deserved criticism over delays, a lack of transparency and facing questioning about the proper use of taxpayer funds.

The Locomotive Division of Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW has long advocated for a system similar to the inland rail project. Shifting more of our freight movement away from roads and air and onto rail tracks has countless benefits from decreasing the environmental impact of our freight movement through to increasing the speed of delivery.

A well-designed inland rail system could – as the dream has been sold – also bring much needed investment and infrastructure into our regional towns.

However, as a recent independent report and anyone with half an understanding of the industry could tell you – the embattled project is far from well-designed at this stage.

Social licence is a key element of projects of this nature. The operators looking to turn a tidy profit off the back on this enormous investment should need to have rock solid evidence that the huge impost on taxpayers and local communities will be far outweighed by the positives the project will bring.

Regional towns have been promised a rail system that will bring gifts in the form of new infrastructure and jobs and a steady stream of workers looking to spend dough in the towns.

But our regional communities haven’t been consulted with properly at all, many are incredibly and legitimately worried about the impacts on communities and the local landscape, and the way the operators are shaping up to run the project, local communities won’t be seeing much, if any, benefit at all.

In fact, it seems the operators involved are doing everything in their power to limit the social benefits available from this enormous outlay of public funds.

One particular concern is that the operators have no intention of boosting our local communities at all, but instead plan on introducing sleeper cars on the trains which essentially allow them to bypass our regional communities altogether.

Crew sleeper cars, or simply crew cars, are a type of rail rolling stock that is used to transport crew members who are required to work on freight trains over long distances. These cars are typically attached to the rear of a freight train and can provide sleeping accommodations and other amenities for crew members. This means that trains with sleeper cars operate with a rotating crew, one crew sleeps in the crew car while the other operates the train, swapping every 8-hours or so as required. The train stays in constant motion, crews do not have to rest or change in regional communities, city-based crews can operate the whole length of the track, all of which effectively lowers costs for operators. Historically, crew-cars have only been used in extremely remote locations, like the Nullarbor, where regional communities are too sparsely spread to accommodate any alternative.

There are several obvious drawbacks to the use of crew sleeper cars on the inland rail. One major concern is the safety of crew members who are required to travel long distances and work long hours. Fatigue, exposure to dust in living quarters, lack of exercise, and other health issues can be a major concern, particularly if crew members are not provided with adequate rest and relaxation facilities.

Another concern, particularly with respect to the inland rail project, is the potential negative impact on local communities of not building rail depots. Rail depots provide a range of social and economic benefits to local communities, including job creation, increased economic activity, and improved access to freight transport services. 

Simply put, the bustling railways towns of past rail projects are not likely to materialise.

If you sell people on a dream of a world-class, innovative and beneficial rail system, you better deliver on it. At the moment, a costly nightmare is looking like the only thing we’re going to get.

Farren Campbell, Secretary, Loco Division of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW