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Logan residents say planned Inland Rail route will make life 'unbearable' in booming suburb

For 23 hours of the day, Suzanne and Stan Corbetts' home in Forestdale, south of Brisbane, is their personal piece of paradise. 

But six times a day, paradise becomes pandemonium. 

"You can feel the vibration coming through the ground to your house, you can't hear a phone conversation, you can't hear the TV," Mrs Corbett said.

"At night time [when you're] trying to sleep, or when you're sound asleep, the trains will come by and it's deafening."

And it's about to get worse.

The line behind the Corbetts' home is about to be upgraded, as part of the $14.5 billion Inland Rail project connecting Melbourne to Brisbane

The Kagaru to Acacia Ridge section – or K2ARB – will become the final stretch of the 1,700 kilometre rail line.

And when it does, the trains will be louder, larger and far more frequent.

By 2040, 40 trains will pass their house every day. 

"It's just going to be unbearable to live here," Mrs Corbett said.

The Corbetts have been fighting to have the line re-routed or revised since they heard about the proposal.

They say their concerns have been ignored.

"For six years now, we've been trying to say: 'Look at it harder' and it's just not happening," Mr Corbett said.

"We just want it built with the people in mind, but it feels like ARTC (Australian Rail Track Corporation) don't care about that, they just care about getting the rail built."

Thousands affected 

The Corbetts paid for population modelling to estimate how many people would be affected by the rail line in their area. 

"We've become the 50,000 forgotten people," Mrs Corbett said.

"South-west Logan is booming and it's all around this railway line — it'll be disruptive to everybody.

"So, 50,000 today, 150,000 by the time the rail is [fully functional]."

In a statement, the ARTC said it had undertaken initial noise modelling on the project which found about 400 houses and businesses might be affected.

"We are committed to ensuring residents and stakeholders along this section are engaged and consulted, and will work collaboratively to complete noise and other environmental studies," it said.

The Corbetts fought to have an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) carried out, but the Coordinator General's office denied the request, finding "the project is in an existing operational rail corridor and did not require complex approvals".

It is the only section of the line in Queensland that isn't protected by an EIS.

Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) said it had completed similar studies, but Mr Corbett said "it doesn't have the teeth an EIS would have".

"They don't give you that almost legal leg to say: 'What you've done isn't good enough, go back and do it again'," he said.

ARTC's director of stakeholder engagement Nicola Mitchell said: "The whole point of those environmental investigations is to look at what the potential impact of the railway might be".

"So, noise generated, environmental impacts, dust generated," she said.

Those studies have been completed, but the rail company is waiting for the state government to sign off on an approval pathway before it can give residents a clear plan for the future.

Ms Mitchell said her message to those in the K2ARB section was, "bear with us".

"We really want to work with you, we really want to understand your concerns, but we just need to get a little bit more information about what's going to be happening in the future so we can provide that to them."

Until then, residents like the Corbetts are in the dark.

"This is just a job to them, this is our lives, our future and they just don't give a damn," Mrs Corbett said.

Inland Rail review

The government has announced an independent review into the Inland Rail project, led by former Energy Security Board chair, Kerry Schott.

She will assess and scrutinise the planning, governance and delivery of the project and make recommendations on the final route.

The Corbetts are hopeful their concerns will be heard.

"This is our last chance," Mrs Corbett said.

"We've written hundreds of letters, had meetings with so many people and this is our last chance to have our voices heard."

The review will be handed down early next year.

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