State off track with transport focus says Katter

KAP leader Robbie Katter has slammed the State's focus on a study on the Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor (TEARC) amid pleas for action on the Mount Isa rail line. He was commenting after a roundtable forum involving Transport and Main Roads Minister Bart Mellish and Resources and Critical Minerals Minister Scott Stewart to discuss the Mount Isa rail line. “The ignorance of the Resources Minister to announce a $2 million ‘study’ into TEARC at a roundtable called on short notice to discuss the issues on the Mount Isa rail line is disappointing,” the member for Traeger said. “Those in the room were there to offer real observations and talk about incentivising use of the 50 per cent spare capacity on the Mount Isa Line, yet the Minister announced a tokenistic money dump to yet more consultants for a report that Labor will unlikely get a chance to read, let alone action.” Mr Katter said that he had heard of mining proponents seriously investigating any freight options to unlock the critical mineral resources in the North West which didn’t involve dealing with the perverse policy on the Mount Isa Line. “There are a range of serious, thoroughly planned options on the table from these companies – be that using Darwin or even heading north to Karumba,” he said. “The numbers stack up when they consider the headache that is Queensland Rail and the Queensland Government policy settings. “I’ve raised this issue with five Transport Ministers now during my time in Parliament. The time for tokenistic money splashes on consultants to tell us what we already know has long gone." Mr Katter said more and more freight was hitting the bitumen, not rail, in the North West due mostly to the policy settings of the Queensland government. “It was fantastic that current and former users of the Mount Isa line were able to give two hours of their time in Townsville to give the Transport and Resources Ministers some often frank and fearless advice, and for the Queensland Rail bureaucrats to be there to hear it too," he said. “What they clearly said was the charging mechanism is flawed, and there is no incentive to increase utilisation of the line. “Issues such as reliability and resilience from weather events and ongoing speed restrictions were also raised; however, if there is not urgent structural reform to the charging mechanism, we will continue to see the trend of freight being moved onto the crumbling Flinders Highway.” Townsville Enterprise welcomed the TEARC business case funding as a major win, saying the project would not only support the growth of industries like mining but also strengthen the region's economic resilience by streamlining logistics and ensuring competitive access to global markets. TEARC is a key advocacy project for the economic development body. The proposed 8.3km rail freight line would connect the North Coast rail line directly into the Port of Townsville through the Townsville State Development Area, parallel to the Port Access Road, creating capacity for the growing tonnage demand on the Mount Isa rail system, Townsville Enterprise chief executive officer Claudia Brumme-Smith said. https://industryqld.com.au/calls-to-improve-mining-regions-rail-freight-options

State off track with transport focus says Katter

Industry Queensland

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