Inland Rail $ 14. 5b project 'way over budget' schedule

According to federal Transport Minister Catherine King, one of Australia's largest infrastructure projects has been treated like "a bizarre vanity project" and is "far over budget and very behind time." The $14.5 billion Inland Rail Project is being built across rural Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland with the goal of creating a train connection between Melbourne and Brisbane. The project will add 600 kilometres of additional track and complete Australia's national rail system. Yet a newly unveiled independent evaluation found "serious problems" with the project, and Ms. King said the report made for "gripping reading" at the National Press Club on Wednesday.Ms. King claimed that the Inland Rail project acted as a "damning indictment"  of the project's former management and blamed the Morrison administration for losing sight of the project's objectives. "I believe the previous administration lost sight of its objectives." They did not perceive it as a project with those objectives, she claimed. "Frankly, I believe that under my predecessor, the initiative turned into a bizarre vanity project for him. Inland Rail is is running well behind time and over budget. According to Ms. King, the government is nearing completion of its response to the independent Inland Rail evaluation, which was written by Dr. Kerry Schott, a former CEO of Sydney Water, and will "soon" reply to its conclusions. 

The Inland Rail Project, which started in 2018, had a $4.7 billion budget, but as experts have cautioned, it may wind up costing more than $20 billion by the time it is finished in 2027. Other Australian transportation lines have been "neglected for far too long," Ms. King said in her speech to the National Press Club, putting Australians at danger of losing access to essential freight.She said that up to 20% of the time, Australian rail networks had to close, and that other networks were at greater danger from natural catastrophes. Important transportation routes include the transcontinental rail line, the Stuart Highway, the Carpentaria Highway, the South Coast Highway in Western Australia, and the major west rail line out of Sydney, according to her. Even in the best of circumstances, these roads suffer. Ms. King cautioned that it could be necessary to forgo some expenditures in order to minimise costs and prioritise scarce resources rather than committing to further transportation projects to expand capacity. She asserted that a forthcoming review of Infrastructure Australia will result in the creation of a more condensed, "focused" list of project objectives.With stricter planning and assessment criteria. Australia did not have enough workers to complete ongoing infrastructure projects, Ms. King warned, with a current shortfall of 94,000 workers that was expected to grow to 112,000 workers by September. "This shortage is particularly felt in relation to engineers, surveyors, project managers, and laborers, amongst many others. "  Without getting too political, we need to figure out which projects are actually deliverable and which are just political gimmicks."