{"id":906995,"date":"2026-05-19T12:12:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/regional-businesses-and-councils-are-reeling-from-the-axing-of-the-45b-inland-rail\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:12:34","slug":"regional-businesses-and-councils-are-reeling-from-the-axing-of-the-45b-inland-rail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/regional-businesses-and-councils-are-reeling-from-the-axing-of-the-45b-inland-rail\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional businesses and councils are reeling from the axing of the $45b Inland Rail"},"content":{"rendered":"<section>\n<p>\n\t\t\tFacing a hollowing out of services and opportunities after decades of structural decline, it\u2019s no wonder communities in western NSW and Queensland are pissed.\t\t<\/p>\n<figure>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.crikey.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/05\/GrainCorp-grain-train-on-Narrabri-to-North-Star-line.jpg?quality=70&#038;w=1024\" alt=\"Promotional material for Inland Rail (Image: Inland Rail)\" decoding=\"async\"  ><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPromotional material for Inland Rail (Image: Inland Rail)\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<div>\n<p>Whether the now-truncated, budget-blowing Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project was ever worth the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crikey.com.au\/2026\/05\/06\/inland-rail-melbourne-brisbane-15-billion-suburban-rail-loop\/\">billions already spent<\/a> is a more than reasonable question. But it does not obviate the profound effect on the plans of multiple regional councils and businesses to leverage the network for the creation of new businesses and hundreds of jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Designed to improve freight movements and down Australia\u2019s most populated stretch, for inland communities the project represented a rare opportunity to boost jobs, investment and long-term economic growth \u2014 as well as freight efficiency and road safety \u2014 by shifting freight from road to rail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> Michael Sainsbury <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crikey.com.au\/2026\/05\/08\/demise-of-inland-rail-hammer-blow-for-regional-australia\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facing a hollowing out of services and opportunities after decades of structural decline, it\u2019s no wonder communities in western NSW and Queensland are pissed. Promotional material for Inland Rail (Image: Inland Rail) Whether the now-truncated, budget-blowing Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project was ever worth the billions already spent is a more than reasonable question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":906996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2487,33176],"tags":[12102,14670],"class_list":{"0":"post-906995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-businesses","8":"category-regional","9":"tag-businesses","10":"tag-regional"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}