ARTC holds meetings in Narrabri to discuss the Inland Rail project

Officials from the Australian Rail Track Corporation held meetings in relation to the Inland Rail project in Narrabri across two days.

The meetings, held on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, saw the corporation’s chief executive officer Mark Campbell and interim chief executive of the Inland Rail project Rebecca Pickering gather with civic, industry and business representatives.

Following the ARTC meetings, a spokesperson said Mr Campbell and Ms Pickering had met with Narrabri Shire Council, the Narrabri and District Chamber of Commerce, Narrabri Industrial Network and the Narrabri National Party Branch to discuss the project.

“The route for Inland Rail from Narromine to Narrabri has been informed by years of study and refinement, ARTC is not considering an alternative route,” the spokesperson said.

“These were important discussions on Inland Rail, with key community leaders, and covered the economic opportunities, the history of route selection and the extensive work that is being done to mitigate flood impacts.

“The discussions covered the significant amount of work undertaken to develop the route and to ensure the design is of a significant and reliable standard.”

The ARTC spokesperson said the organisation also heard more about the concerns in the community about flood impacts and committed to working closely with local engineer Jim Purcell to share more of the work undertaken as part of the environmental approvals and to ensure there is no new information that needs to be taken into consideration.

“While the route is set and will not be changing, as part of this commitment, ARTC will provide an updated route history document to councillors and will share further detailed information on the route history and the reason with Mr Jim Purcell and Narrabri Shire Council,” the spokesperson said.

This information will be completed in the coming weeks, and ARTC has said the outcomes will be shared proactively in an open letter to The Courier.

“Inland Rail is being designed to be connected to the country regional rail network including the proposed Narrabri Inland Port and will bring benefits to Narrabri through construction and operation,” the spokesperson said.