Given the overwhelming public concern, an elected Coalition Government will re-visit specific elements of the Adelaide Rail Freight Movement Study and apply a more credible methodology to the analysis of diverting rail freight traffic out of the Adelaide Hills.

We will also pause any new capital projects on the current rail freight line while the revised social impact study is completed.

In its current form, the Adelaide Rail Freight Movements Study does not make a case for the immediate construction of an alternative rail freight line out of the Hills region.

We are concerned, however, that elements of the study are flawed. In particular, its consideration of the cost-benefit analysis examining the social benefits of constructing a Northern Bypass, known as Option 3.

The study’s considerations of a Northern Bypass are shallow and based on a methodology that assesses the impact of noise based on distance, rather than its severity on local residents.

Intensity-based, rather than distance-based calculations would have provided far more effective analysis.

A Coalition Government will determine its position on the future of the Adelaide rail freight line based on the conclusions of this new analysis and the health of the federal budget after Labor’s years of wasteful spending.