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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Gabrielle Chan

This is not Utopia: how will the inland rail project stand up to real-life scrutiny?

A freight train sits at signals outside Parkes, Australia
The Inland Rail project will likely take at least the next decade to complete and cost more than the $31bn blowout in the recent review by Kerry Schott. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The public service comedy Utopia has a lot to answer for when it comes to sullying the name of “nation-building” rail projects, after it devoted an episode to the perennial political story of high-speed rail.

That may be why the high-speed rail passenger concept is often mixed up with the inland rail freight line, a less exciting but much more real plan to build a 1,727km line connecting Melbourne to Brisbane.

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