Community members will have the opportunity to learn more about the progress of the Narromine to Narrrabri (N2N) section of Inland Rail with a community information session.
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The session in Narromine will take place at Soul Food Design on Friday, March 13 with a morning session between 11am-2pm and an evening session from 4pm-7pm.
Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) Inland Rail Director Community and Environment Rebecca Pickering said these sessions are a great opportunity for local community members, landowners, and local businesses to learn more about the work conducted to date to refine the proposed N2N route.
Inland Rail is the largest freight rail infrastructure project in Australia, spanning 1700 kilometres and is being built in some of the most complex environments in the country.
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Narromine to Narrabri is one of 13 projects that complete Inland Rail and comprises approximately 300 kilometres of new track. It is the longest project within Inland Rail.
"Our work to date to progress the future alignment between Narromine to Narrabri has included more than 12 months of engagement with the community, environmental and hydrology studies and early engineering design work to inform how we will build 300 kilometres of new track," Ms Pickering said.
The ARTC had confirmed its focus area in July 2019, which had been reduced to about 150-400 metres wide.
While initially up to 300 landowners were impacted by the 307 kilometre study corridor between Narromine and Narrabri, that number has been reduced to 180.
The Inland Rail are now inviting members of the community to understand more about the environmental planning and consultation work they have carried out to date, and learn about the future opportunities large and small from this game-changing project connecting Brisbane and Melbourne.
"Community consultation and engagement is vital to the success of Inland Rail," Ms Pickering said.
"We are committed to leaving a positive legacy by ensuring the community benefits from the project through initiatives like jobs and local spend during the construction phase, the Community Sponsorship and Donations program and training and support of local businesses.
"Large-scale infrastructure projects such as Inland Rail are a catalyst for growth - they boost economic development and investment, bring jobs and opportunities to local businesses and communities, a hopefully welcome boost in challenging times of drought."
