The beleaguered inland rail project was once described as being derailed from the start.
From an original estimated investment of $4.7 billion in 2015, the cost for the freight rail route between Melbourne and Brisbane blew out nearly 10 times that amount to $45.6 billion by 2025.
But that eye-watering figure, which prompted the federal Labor government to scrap the route north of Parkes in central NSW, was only a modest estimate of the surging cost, a Senate estimates hearing has been told.
Infrastructure department secretary Jim Betts on Monday tabled the independent analysis that informed the government's decision to vastly curtail the original route.
The biggest sticking points identified in the report by advisory ACIL Allen, which itself cost $1.87 million, were several pending approvals for the Queensland route.
