Logan City Council will continue to fight against an inland rail route through the suburbs of the city.
Mayor Darren Power has long been advocating for a lobbying program urging the federal government to look at other routes, and he was last week formally supported by his team of councillors.
Cr Power said the Kagaru to Acacia Ridge and Bromelton section (known as K2ARB) would have catastrophic impacts on the local community.
One of the implications would be housing prices. The other would be noise.
“In the next 20 years, we expect almost 40,000 residents to live within 1km of the rail corridor in the City of Logan,” Cr Power said.
“Those residents will bear the brunt of noise, vibration and air quality issues.
“It’s not good enough that their fears have been consistently ignored by the Australian Rail Track Corporation and the Australian government.
“As we approach the upcoming federal election, candidates should be on notice that we are going to make a lot of noise about inland rail going somewhere other than Logan.”
Cr Power said councillors had sought feedback from other mayors and councillors at the recent LGAQ Annual Conference about changing the proposed route to connect Toowoomba to the Port of Gladstone.
“Even deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said the Australian gvernment would provide up to $10 million to investigate the viability of a connection to Gladstone, so this fight isn’t over yet,” he said.
“There is also a proposal for a 52km freight train tunnel from Ebenezer, west of Ipswich, to the Port of Brisbane.
“We have no preferences on the options; we just don’t want freight trains running through a heavily-populated area 24 hours a day.”
At the Ordinary Meeting, Council also resolved to continue advocating for the Australian Government to engage with stakeholders in an open, transparent and rigorous investigation of alternative routes.
Picture: Mayor Darren Power (right) and Infrastructure Chair Councillor Teresa Lane at a Forestdale rail overpass, which is on the proposed Inland Rail route between Kagaru and Acacia Ridge.
