Western NSW communities that pinned their future on Inland Rail say they are paying the price for a $45 billion blowout, which will now see the rail corridor effectively stop at Parkes, shelving the long-promised connection through to Brisbane.
Originally envisioned as a 1,600-kilometre freight corridor linking Melbourne and Brisbane through regional Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, the project had long been promoted as a transformational piece of infrastructure for inland Australia…