A review ordered by several industry groups and local councils in Queensland has led to a push for more cattle train services.

The Shires of Paroo, Bulloo, Quilpie and Murweh have completed a research project to get a gauge of transport in the region, where it is going the best and where it could be improved. It will now be used to lobby governments and transport investors for more attention on cattle trains, finding that dedicated rail could easily take hundreds of trucks off some of the worst highways in the country.

Quilpie Mayor Stuart Mackenzie says he has not seen a cattle train in over a year but the potential market is definitely there, it only needs an enterprising operator to work with suppliers.

“The sort of numbers we are talking about is 210,000 head [of cattle] move out of here every year, realistically a rail service could probably move a quarter of that,” Mayor McKenzie said

“To give you an idea, we are talking nearly a thousand type two road trains - that is what is going out now, that's the triples - and we could take nearly a quarter of them or up to a third of them off the road if we could get the rail service going again.”

“So it is has a big impact not just on us locally on our roads and our freight services but also right through to Brisbane.”

The councils will use the document to lobby governments and providers for some new options.