ARTC urges calm over road signs

AUSTRALIAN Rail Track Corporation is urging Darling Downs residents to do their research and not to believe unauthorised signs appearing on country roads proclaiming the Inland Rail project will close that road.

Stakeholder engagement manager north Mercedes Staff said the signs which read “Road ahead closing” are misleading and not issued by ARTC.

“These unauthorised signs are causing angst in the community by creating uncertainty for residents. Our aim is to work with the community, but some residents are determined to create an atmosphere of uncertainty which will heighten fear and stress levels by misrepresenting the facts,” Mrs Staff said.

Inner Downs Inland Rail Action Group president Larry Pappin said his organisation had not erected the signs, but understood why farmers were concerned.

Mrs Staff said ARTC had been recently “capturing community feedback about a number of roads through a variety of means from individual calls to landowners, pop-up information stands, interactive mapping online and the Community Consultative Committee process”.

“We are still collating information to be fed into the design process. At this stage no decisions have been made as Inland Rail is still in an information-gathering phase.

“We have gathered more than 350 individual pieces of feedback so far about road usage including clearance widths of trucks and machinery that use local roads, bus routes, postal services and where grade-separated interchanges are preferred.”