$112M FOR LIGHT RAIL
Ex-PM’s secret light rail funding
THE Gold Coast is a huge winner in an explosive leak of megabucks projects secretly approved by the Federal Coalition – it includes $112 million to get light rail from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads.
It is included in a detailed leaked list which reveals ex-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ticked off a suite of infrastructure funding for May’s pre-election Budget.
THE Gold Coast is a major winner in an explosive leak of megabucks projects secretly approved by the Federal Coalition – it includes $112 million to get light rail from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads.
The funding leak reveals a huge leap towards greenlighting Stage 3A of the Gold Coast tram.
But it also comes despite a feasibility study and the controversial proposed route of the tram via Burleigh remaining up in the air. State Government funding has yet to be confirmed.
The Federal funding has been leaked in a detailed list to the Bulletin just days after new Prime Minister Scott Morrison took office.
It reveals a suite of secretly approved infrastructure projects were ticked off by ex-PM Malcolm Turnbull in a massive $7.6 billion roads and rail package aimed at saving marginal seats as part of his reelection blueprint.
The projects were included in May’s Budget for the Coalition to one-byone unveil in the lead-up to the next election.
Under internal pressure since last year, Mr Turnbull had overseen a strategic development of 10 major projects which are fully funded and listed in the most recent Budget under “decisions taken but not yet announced”.
About $1.6 billion will be poured into key Queensland battlegrounds aimed at saving certain MPs.
But the leak will likely now deny Mr Morrison half a dozen strategic “good news” stories in media in the coming months.
A senior Liberal source said: “Others will no doubt claim this stuff as their own but Malcolm had already funded this stuff in the Budget. We are doing it.
“MPs knew this stuff was coming yet they were still agitating publicly about it.”
A month ago, Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey said a detailed business case for Stage 3 of the Gold Coast tram was being built for the 6.7km long track from the Broadbeach South station to Burleigh Heads.
But building it was going to take up to three years – considerably longer than the second stage, he said.
It would comprise seven or eight new stations and add five new trams to the existing 18-vehicle fleet, he said at the time.
Stage 3A is anticipated to have a journey time of around 16 to 17 minutes.
The current trip from Helensvale to Broadbeach is 45 minutes which means the total trip down the coast to Burleigh will take just more than an hour.
Mr Bailey said it would be critical for the community to provide comment on track design: “Valuable community feedback provided during the drop-in sessions will be used to inform the detailed design.”
A detailed business case is to be finalised late 2018.