Farmers Seek Answers After Labor Scales Back Inland Rail Project

The 1,700-kilometre freight rail line connecting Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland will now be scaled back to just 800 kilometres due to cost blowouts.

A train pulling carriages full of wood chips for export arrives at port in Albany, Western Australia, on Nov. 2, 2023. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

The New South Wales (NSW) Farmers Federation is calling on the federal government to provide answers amid news the Inland Rail project—a freight route to provide connection from Brisbane to Melbourne—will have most of its track scrapped.

The planned 1,700 kilometre long freight rail line would have cut through regional parts of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, providing a dedicated freight highway for producers to move commodities like grain, livestock and manufactured goods alongside imports and exports.