The Murray Basin Rail Project is a major railway project in the north-west of Victoria, Australia. The project includes the conversion of a substantial portion of the Victorian freight rail network from the historical broad gauge to the standard gauge used in other parts of Australia, and the upgrading of track to enable higher axle loads for more efficient intrastate freight transfer.
The project is being delivered by V/Line in its role as infrastructure manager of the Victorian rail network, under the direction of Public Transport Victoria, and is jointly funded by the Victorian and Australian governments. Construction commenced in 2016 and was expected to be complete by late 2018; however, by mid-2018 the project was incomplete and its future in doubt.
Background
Prior to the Federation of Australia in 1901, the colonial governments of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, and the other Australian colonies were responsible for development of railway networks surrounding their nascent capital cities. Due to political pressures and disagreements over the technical advantages of various track specifications, a number of different gauges were adopted. In particular, Victoria adopted the , New South Wales and South Australia a combination of broad gauge and narrow gauge.
Following a Royal Commission in 1921 which recommended the adoption of standard gauge across the country, the first Victorian line to be converted was the North East line in 1962 between Melbourne and Albury, eliminating the break of gauge at the state border and allowing trains to run between Sydney and Melbourne for the first time. Then, in 1995, the Melbourne–Adelaide railway was standardised, meaning that all capital cities were linked by a single gauge for the first time in Australia's history. Over the following years, new private rail freight operators invested in new interstate services due to the reduced running costs of a single-gauge network.
In May 2001, the state government under Premier Steve Bracks promised the standardisation of 13 freight lines, incorporating some of track. The rationale offered for the Rail Gauge Standardisation Project was that it would reduce freight costs, improve rail's mode share for intrastate freight, and improve competition between ports. However, the private lessees of the freight network over the following years, Freight Australia and its successor Pacific National, failed to commit to the project, and by 2005, it was largely abandoned. The government announced in May 2007 that the entire state's network would be bought back from Pacific National, with its ownership moving to VicTrack and management responsibility passing to V/Line. Industry groups expressed hope that the purchase would enable upgrade works to proceed on the north-west rail network.
By 2014, approximately of grain was exported from the Murray Basin annually, in addition to of mineral sands and around 13,000 containers of other produce.
In the May prior to the 2014 Victorian election, the Liberal government of Premier Denis Napthine announced the Murray Basin Rail Project, including the standardisation of most rail lines in the state's north-west. The announcement included future plans for the extension of the Piangil railway line to join the East-west rail corridor near Mildura and the return of passenger services to Mildura; some days later, government ministers downplayed the potential for passenger rail following the upgrade. The government expected that the MBRP would be partially financed by the sale of the Rural Finance Corporation, a state-backed investment bank, to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
After the election, in August 2015, the new Labor government of Premier Daniel Andrews announced that they would recommit to the MBRP, with a particular focus on freight, at a cost of $416 million. The Commonwealth government was initially reluctant to fund the project, as it related to track not managed by the federally-owned Australian Rail Track Corporation, but committed to a contribution of half the project cost in April 2016.
Scope of works
The two main elements of the MBRP are the expansion of the Victorian standard gauge network, and the improvement of line capacity via increased axle loads, both of which are intended to facilitate more efficient intrastate rail connections. The rationale for the project is centred on improved access to the Victorian ports of Portland, Geelong and Melbourne, and encouraging freight users such as Iluka Resources at Hamilton to retain access to the Victorian network rather than economising with existing standard gauge connections.