INLAND Rail Action Group members have gathered almost 2500 signatures for their petition to stop freight and coal trains from moving through the proposed Kagaru to Acacia Ridge line.
Forestdale residents Stan and Suz Corbett, who live 300 metres from the proposed line, were drumming up support for their campaign during a Saint Stephens School fete at Algester on Sunday, August 25.
Inland Rail Community Consultative Committee member, Ms Corbett, said their petition called for an alternative route to send the trains to Gladstone.
"We received good support from the community, estimating in excess of 20 residents an hour visiting our stall to discuss their concerns," she said.
"Their major issues were how the noise vibration, coal dust and diesel fumes would impact upon their families and lifestyle.
"The school is within the impact zone of the proposed Inland Rail line and with a train passing every 30 minutes, the parents are extremely apprehensive..."
Ms Corbett said 1968 online signatures and almost 500 paper signatures had been collected.
Australian Rail Track Corporation representatives spoke about their plan to address air quality and noise concerns at the most recent Inland Rail Community Consultative Committee meeting at Jimboomba on August 5.
An ARTC spokesperson said preliminary work was underway to identify the most suitable sites for air quality testing.
"Air quality is one of the major areas of concern being flagged by local communities in this section of Inland Rail," the spokesperson said.
"We will also be undertaking significant background noise monitoring to understand existing noise levels and this will inform our future noise modelling in this area so that we can adequately assess what impacts, if any, Inland Rail will have."
ARTC is awaiting a decision from Queensland's Coordinator General on whether the Kagaru to Acacia Ridge project will be declared a coordinated project,which would trigger an Environmental Impact Statement.
An EIS would involve a 12 to 18 month investigation to mitigate geotechnical, flooding and hydrology, ecological, noise, air quality and vibration, social and heritage studies impacts from the project.
This comes as Coordinator General of seven years, Barry Broe, stepped down from the position last week, months before his term was due to expire in November.
