Report details work needed to allow for Inland Rail's double-stacked trains in southern NSW

Wagga Wagga Councillor Richard Foley says the Inland Rail project should not cut through the city. (Emily Doak: ABC Riverina)

The thought of 1.8-kilometre long, double-stacked trains regularly rumbling through Wagga Wagga in southern NSW has residents and the local council worried. 

It is set to become a reality as part of the $14.5 billion Inland Rail project, an Australian government initiative to provide an efficient rail freight corridor between Brisbane and Melbourne.

The environmental impact statement, made up of 57 documents, for a proposal to upgrade the existing 185-kilometre rail line between Albury and Illabo has been publicly released.

Sections of the track would need to be lowered to allow the 6.5-metre-high trains to pass under some bridges, pedestrian bridges would be removed or replaced, and road bridges in Junee and Wagga Wagga would have to be raised.

The pedestrian bridge at the Wagga Wagga railway station will be replaced. (Emily Doak: ABC Riverina)

There are also several level crossings in Wagga Wagga, and local councillor Richard Foley said he was worried about how the road network would cope.

"I just don't see the point of putting this thing through centre of the biggest inland city in NSW," he said.

"Twenty-five trains a day. When that starts it's going to have a major impact on the amenity and livability of this city."

A photomontage of a what a double-stacked freight train would look like. (Supplied: ARTC Inland Rail)

The Inland Rail environment manager for NSW and Victoria, Wayne Windows, said boosting freight capability in eastern Australia will deliver wider benefits.

"What it does is unlock job opportunities for regional centres like Albury and Wagga Wagga where industrial estates that have connectivity to the rail can hook onto the rail network and take product else where in the country," he said.

"It's a broader economic multiplier impact that we are achieving in these regional communities."

Calls for a bypass

Mr Foley wants an alternate route that would bypass the city to be considered.

"They built Narrabri to North Star, which is on the border with Queensland, 230 kilometres, new rail, brand new everything and they did it within two years," he said.

The Inland Rail project between Albury and Illabo will require work at 24 sites, impacting several towns. (Supplied: Inland Rail)

"We are talking about 20 kilometres of bypass [in Wagga Wagga] potentially that could be built, let's put all ideas on the table."

But Mr Windows said that's not an option.

"The route that we are taking through the EIS is the one that was endorsed previously through the business case for Inland Rail so it's the preferred route and the one that's been endorsed by the Australian Government," he said.

The proposal is open for public comment until September 12.