In recognition of its potential as a nationally significant piece of infrastructure, I’ve granted Major Project Facilitation (MPF) status to the Border Railway Project being advanced by the Australian Transport and Energy Corridor Ltd (ATEC).

The proposed $1 billion project would lay some 340 kilometres of standard gauge rail track, linking Moree to a newly constructed intermodal facility in Charlton, near Toowoomba, and servicing the coal projects in the region.

In the longer term, the proponents of this project envisage extending the line beyond Toowoomba all the way to the rapidly growing industrial city of Gladstone via the Surat Basin.

If given the final go ahead, this project would deliver significant benefits to regional communities across northern New South Wales and inland Queensland as well as to the broader national economy, including:

• More efficient transport connections;


• Improved access for local coal miners and agricultural producers to domestic and overseas markets;


• Less congestion on the existing coastal rail line; and


• Additional major freight terminals in regional Australia.

The ATEC is expecting to start construction on their Border Railway Project in late 2012, with a completion date of late 2014.

In less than three years, this Labor Government has granted or renewed MPF status for projects worth more than $60 billion and the potential to create some 36,000 jobs across the critical sectors of infrastructure, mining and resources, and advanced manufacturing.