{"id":620244,"date":"2026-04-21T00:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620244\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:24:20","slug":"mount-gambier-locals-hope-for-rail-return-following-qantas-flight-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620244\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Gambier locals hope for rail return following Qantas flight suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

As South Australia’s second-largest city faces the looming end to Qantas flights<\/a> as well as high fuel costs, some residents are calling for the return of rail services to drive down the cost of freight, and possibly passenger travel.<\/p>\n

Former Regional Development Australia Limestone Coast deputy chair, and Mount Gambier local, Alan Richardson said the organisation had looked into the feasibility of bringing back rail over the years, finding most lines through the region were not viable.<\/p>\n

But Mr Richardson said that with local timber factories expanding, moving freight out of the region by rail could be the answer.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Mount Gambier line was converted to broad gauge in 1953. It closed about 40 years later. (Supplied: Mount Gambier Library)<\/p>\n

“The new products being produced for the domestic market by the timber industry here really make a strong case for rail freight into Mount Gambier,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The road transport industry is having all sorts of trouble finding enough qualified drivers for their vehicles.<\/p>\n

“Road safety is enhanced with less trucks on the road.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The former rail corridor into Mount Gambier has been repurposed as a walking and cycling trail. (ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham)<\/p>\n

“The more you can stop burning fossil fuels by running a lot of trucks on the road and running trains which are more efficient in terms of amount of fuel burnt, that’s certainly something worth having for the environment.”<\/p>\n

Air travel uncertainty<\/p>\n

The calls also come as concerns grow for the future of air travel to SA’s south-east.<\/p>\n

Last week, Qantas announced it would suspend services between Mount Gambier and Adelaide<\/a> from May 18, citing low demand and rising fuel costs.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Qantas has announced it will cease flying between Mount Gambier and Adelaide from May 18. (ABC South East SA: Eugene Boisvert)<\/p>\n

With the airline’s indefinite departure from the region, it leaves only Regional Express flights and Stateliner coach services as mass transit options from the state capital to the Limestone Coast.<\/p>\n

Passenger rail has not operated in the lower Limestone Coast since the 1990s.<\/p>\n

University of Sydney senior lecturer in transport and logistics management Geoffrey Clifton said the lack of population density and slow, windy routes between towns were part of why rail went out of fashion in regional SA.<\/p>\n

“Money was spent on improving the road services rather than improving the rail services,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Geoffrey Clifton says rail is having a revival in other parts of the world. (ABC News: Greg Nelson)<\/p>\n

“That was particularly the case in south-east SA, where the rail lines were often quite windy and slow getting into Adelaide.”<\/p>\n

Mr Richardson said while freight would need to be the main force behind any return of rail, passenger transport could be the “icing on the cake”.<\/p>\n

“Passenger rail might end up being something worth doing once you’ve got that rail line up and running again, but I don’t think that’s going to happen in the short to medium term,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Freight has to be the economic reason to drive the re-establishment of rail to Mount Gambier.”<\/p>\n

Dr Clifton agreed that freight would be “essential” for any rail return.<\/p>\n

More news from regional SALocal support for rail<\/p>\n

Independent member for Mount Gambier Travis Fatchen said he would support bringing back a rail connection to Mount Gambier, but it would be expensive and take time.<\/p>\n

“If the government was willing to commit money now, it would probably still be a five- or 10-year project,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we could have rail return we would embrace that, but I think it would [cost] millions, if not probably billions, of dollars.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Travis Fatchen says rebuilding a rail connection to Mount Gmabier would be a medium- to long-term project. (ABC South East SA: Samuel O’Brien)<\/p>\n

“All forms of government would need to support it.”<\/p>\n

Despite the cost and expected timeframe, Mr Fatchen says rail infrastructure would take pressure off roads in the region, which locals have said are in poor condition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The roads are getting beaten up every day with all the [truck] transport,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It would potentially take some of that [pressure] off the roads and could go onto rail.”<\/p>\n

Dr Clifton said there was always a possibility of a regional rail revival in SA, as it has in parts of North America, the United Kingdom and Europe.<\/p>\n

“If you put in a rail service, it needs passengers and that will often mean growing the regional towns,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It also needs the space to be found, because some of these rail corridors aren’t there anymore.”<\/p>\n

He said expansion of coach services to the region could help show if there was enough demand for rail to come back.<\/p>\n

\"Freight<\/p>\n

Trains used to come through Mount Gambier carrying both freight and passengers. (Supplied: City of Mount Gambier)<\/p>\n

“It’s not something that’s likely to happen soon,” Dr Clifton said.<\/p>\n

“But, as fuel prices continue to rise, there’s more appetite for investing in things like rail networks.”<\/p>\n

A state government spokesperson said the government would “monitor the impacts of the Qantas cancellation, including on demand for the Stateliner service”.<\/p>\n

“We are also reviewing the state’s regional public transport services, including for Mount Gambier,” they said.<\/p>\n

“The review is focused on identifying key needs and gaps in current services for regional communities accessing health, education and employment and will recommend improvements for our regional public transport network.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As South Australia’s second-largest city faces the looming end to Qantas flights as well as high fuel costs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[300779,64,63,99,473,300781,300780,300778,55730],"class_list":{"0":"post-620244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-abandoned-railways","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-limestone-coast","13":"tag-passenger-rail","14":"tag-rail-freight","15":"tag-rail-travel","16":"tag-trains"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}