FARMERS say regional roads in north-west Victoria will be smashed by thousands of additional truck movements this harvest while the Murray Basin Rail Project remains stalled.
As Victorian farmers look ahead to a bumper grain harvest that’s predicted to top seven million tonnes, it’s been revealed the botched rail upgrades will limit capacity to just two-and-a-half million tonnes.
Quambatook grain grower and former Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) grains group president Brett Hosking said roads were crumbling into disrepair as heavy trucks continued to pound the bitumen.
“I’m driving along the road heading to Nullawil — a major freight route — on that Donald to Kerang road, and there is a two to three inch drop-off where the bitumen meets the gravel,” he said.
“That’s really unsafe when you have got large trucks overtaking and machinery on the road.
“We have seen a massive under-investment in our regions and ridiculous amounts of investment in metro areas.
“We really need to reverse that trend.”
Mr Hosking said a second business case has been completed for the freight rail project, “which has shown costs way, way higher than the previous business case”.
“At the moment the state investment maintains the broad-gauge on the standard lines of Sea Lake and Manangatang.
“We probably need to see that significant investment in standardisation if we are going to see all of the promises that were made around the basin rail project.”
Under the initial works, the Sea Lake and Manangatang lines were to be converted from broad-gauge to standard-gauge to increase the allowable train axle loading from 19 tonnes to 21 tonnes.
According to the government, work has been completed to replace approximately 120,000 sleepers between Sea Lake and Dunolly, enabling speed restrictions to be removed along the line.
The revised business case, seen by The Guardian, shows new costings redacted, but highlighted that “performance issues remain with the current network”.
“A number of these issues remain due to the decision to pause further work on the project, leaving the network in a configuration state that was not intended to be permanent,” the report said.
“These issues are resulting in reduced capacity, increased journey times and increased costs for operators and producers.
“The mode share of freight transported from the Murray Basin has continued to shift from rail to road over the past five years.
“Some of this mode shift may have been driven by the disruption caused by the delivery of the rail project.
“This shift from rail to road has continued to have a detrimental impact on the condition of roads and the safety and amenity of regional communities.”
Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh said the State Government owed farmers an apology.
“Shoddy workmanship, poor contract management and the use of poor-quality materials in the years since the government was elected have left this once-in-a-generation project at a standstill,” Mr Walsh said.
In September, the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) found the Murray Basin Rail Project was currently $367.9 million over budget and five years overdue.
“The Federal Government has put up more than $200 million in extra funds to fix Labor’s mess, with just $5 million needed from the Victorian Government to get planning underway for future stages,” Mr Walsh said.
VFF grains group president Ashley Fraser said the unnecessary extra truck movements on “wavy, potholed … crumbling” rural roads would cause “safety issues”.
“Regional roads continue to crumble and freight trains crawl to port at a huge cost to industry,” he said.
“Our freight rail network is critically under-maintained and urgently needed Murray Basin Rail Project is already two years overdue.”
Mr Fraser said investment in rail freight was essential to get trucks off roads and reduce Victoria’s future road maintenance and upgrade bill.
“On certain sections of track, trains have been reduced to a maximum speed of 20km per hour. Time is money and many operators have made the decision to transport produce on our roads,” he said.
“This is forcing more trucks onto the roads, with the potential for 10,000 B-double trucks of grain using the roads each month.”
