Inland Rail, the promoter of the eponymous 1,600 km rail freight transport line between Melbourne and Brisbane, has awarded John Holland a contract worth around €293 million (AU$470 million) for the eight remaining construction sites in the federal state of Victoria. The contract includes the replacement of overbridges and the lowering of tracks to accommodate double-deck container trains. The sites are on the Inland Rail Beveridge to Albury section at Benalla, Euroa, Wandong, Hume Freeway-Tallarook, and Seymour, with the remaining three at Broadford. John Holland will also carry out extensive station refurbishments at Euroa and Benalla, including new platforms, pedestrian underpasses, accessibility improvements and additional car parking. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2025 and completion is planned for 2027. The start of operations of Inland Rail is expected to reduce the transit time for freight between Melbourne and Brisbane from 33 hours to under 24 hours.
