Southern Freight Rail Corridor Study

The Southern Freight Rail Corridor has been identified as a future route connecting the Western Rail line near Rosewood to the interstate railway north of Beaudesert. The Southern Freight Rail Corridor will serve as a major freight link connecting a future Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail line with the existing south-east Queensland rail freight network.

Background

Freight movement across Queensland is expected to double in the coming years, with the most rapid growth anticipated to be in south east Queensland.

As part of the effort to plan for this growth, we undertook preliminary planning and impact assessment for the Southern Freight Rail Corridor Study.

The study aimed to identify a future route for a freight rail corridor connecting the western rail line near Rosewood to the interstate railway north of Beaudesert. The Southern Freight Rail Corridor  will serve as a major freight link connecting the proposed Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project with the existing south east Queensland rail freight network.

The Southern Freight Rail Corridor Study was a long term planning study and preserving this route will ensure the appropriate land is available when needed. This will give south east Queensland a major reserve of freight rail capacity for the state’s future economic growth. Any decision regarding the future construction of the Southern Freight Rail line will ultimately depend on a range of factors, including the proposed Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project.

Following consultation in 2008, and new koala habitat values mapping undertaken by Department of Environment and Resource Management in 2009, a significant koala habitat area was identified in the Ebenezer/Willowbank area.

As a result of this new information, a revised assessment report was completed in 2010. The Southern Freight Rail Corridor was realigned for 12km to minimise impacts to this important koala habitat. The final alignment is from the western railway south of Rosewood to the interstate rail line near Kagaru, north of Beaudesert.

Benefits

  • Increases capacity
  • Contributes to economy
  • Contributes to regional growth

Key features

  • identification of a future rail corridor connecting the Western rail line at Rosewood with the interstate rail line north of Beaudesert
  • preservation of the route to increase the states rail freight capacity for the states future economic growth.
Phases of the study
  • Phase 1: Consultation with community and stakeholders about the project and its potential impacts (late 2007) 
  • Phase 2: Release of draft assessment report for further feedback (October 2008) 
  • Phase 3: Announcement of revised alignment (November 2009)
  • Phase 4: Release of the revised assessment report for public consultation, finalisation of study (March - May 2010)
  • Announcement of final alignment (October 2010).

Read the executive summary or the full report for the Southern Freight Rail Corridor Study.

Community consultation

Community consultation was an important part of the Southern Freight Rail Corridor Study and helped to shape analysis and inform reports.

The designation process provided two formal opportunities for the community to comment. The Minister considered comments from these consultations in making a decision on designating the alignment of the corridor.

The first of these consultations occurred with the release of the draft assessment report in October 2008. The community had a second formal opportunity to provide comment following the release of the revised assessment report in March 2010.

Further information