Last week’s Federal Budget saw funding for the ambitious regional rail project slashed, but Inland Rail remains committed to reaching the end of the line. create highlights some of the engineering innovations involved.
By Lachlan Haycock
Inland Rail was set to be a star in the country’s regional rail network.
The project was designed to connect Melbourne to Brisbane by way of Albury, Narromine and Narrabri, with 1600 km of continuous rail to alleviate the burden on road freight through regional Australia.
The announcement in the lead-up to May’s Federal Budget that the line will end at Parkes instead of continuing all the way to Queensland has thrown the project into the spotlight.
Catherine King MP, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, pointed to the latest cost estimate of the entire project of $45 billion – up from $16.4 billion in 2020 and $31.4 billion in 2022 – as a key factor in the decision to “realign” the future of the project.
Industry players such as Caroline Wilkie, CEO of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), have weighed in following the announcement.
“Inland Rail remains an essential project for Australia’s freight network and the industry is committed to completing its delivery to Parkes,” she said in a media release. “The ARA will now engage with [the] government to identify what additional investment is required on the ARTC [Australian Rail Track Corporation] east coast network to address the impact of Inland Rail not being completed to Brisbane.
“We need to ensure that the ARTC network is resilient and fit for purpose, to meet the needs of the rail freight sector over the coming decade.
“We hope to see [the] government revisit the remaining sections of Inland Rail in the future to realise its vision to unlock economic opportunity along the full Melbourne-Brisbane route.”
Wikie pointed to the economic and social gains of both passenger and freight rail that “always justify the public investment”.
“New funding for the Australian Rail Track Corporation will make our freight network more productive, efficient and resilient at a time where greater use of rail is more important than ever.”
Building regional capacity
The vision was for a high-capacity spine that increases the speed, reliability and, importantly, cost competitiveness of rail freight, according to David Fogwill FIEAust CPEng EngExec, Executive Director Engineering, Integration and Program Performance at Inland Rail.
“Australia’s freight demand is growing rapidly,” Fogwill told create. “We’re looking at a 25 per cent growth forecast by 2050. Without targeted investment in rail freight, we’ll only see marginal amounts of growth compared to road freight.
“One double-stacked container train is capable of carrying as much freight as 100 trucks. The safety and sustainability benefits speak for themselves.
“The project’s aim has been to strengthen the supply chain along the east coast of Australia, providing a smarter, safer and cleaner way to move freight by rail.”
Let’s explore three areas where the project stands out.
Earthworks
Even the truncated length of the rail line means there’s a “massive” amount of earthworks.
“The full project would have seen more than 20 million cubic tonnes of dirt moved, which is enormous,” Fogwill explained. “Being efficient has been vitally important for us across construction, from both a cost and a sustainability perspective.
“We’ve been successful with the use of stabilisation technologies, such as lime and other products, to enhance existing material so we can use it for new construction.”
The challenging terrain of the rural areas Inland Rail passes through required high-quality compacted foundations.
“There’s a lot of black soil, which isn’t very stable. The railway is heavy, as are the trains, and we need a good formation to build on top of.
“Some of the biggest reliability and cost issues in maintenance is when the formation is of poor quality. You end up with bumps and dips and twists in your railway which are very expensive to repair. That means good drainage is always important. By introducing products such as lime, we’ve been able to improve our ability to compact those existing materials and make them more durable for use.”
Rail profile
Inland Rail has used a customised rail profile that is the same shape of the steel rail itself.
“You can buy a rail profile ‘off the shelf’, or you can mould it for the specific application needed,” Fogwill said. “We chose the latter approach, which prevented the need for in-feed grinding before it can be used in commissioning.
“That was an innovation we adopted in collaboration with our operator, ARTC.”
Check out the carousel below for imagery of the section of Inland Rail from Narrabri in NSW to North Star, near the border with Queensland.
Solar power
Inland Rail recently delivered its first solar-powered level crossings, including on the section from Narrabri to North Star.
“This proves to be cost effective as mains power isn’t needed,” Fogwill said.
“One of the things that can be cost-prohibitive is getting power to the railway where it doesn’t exist today. This often requires complex negotiations with energy providers and property owners to get land easements.
“Now we’ve been successfully improving this technology, we can roll it out along our greenfield sections of railway where there is no current power, providing a safer, more cost-effective solution.”
Generational project
The large samples of earthworks across hundreds of kilometres has meant digital tools play a significant role.
“We use a digital geotechnical data product that integrates all of the geotechnical investigation data into a single platform,” Fogwill said.
“We take our alignment design detail and use that to inform our operational modeling, so we can simulate future network performance and capacity. That helps us to validate that our scope is achieving the desired benefits.”
Summing up, Fogwill pointed to a clear benefit to the community.
“We’ve not seen a big federal project like this for decades – arguably since electrification,” he said. “Regional towns along the route have been struggling for decades. With increased freight coming through, they have the chance to reinvent themselves instead of being purely agriculture-based.”
Get on board for Transport 2026 in Cairns next month.
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