Crossed signals in rail study

A STUDY into a $ 300 million rail project in Townsville has been completed but it seems the bureaucrats in the Department of Transport are yet to brief Minister Mark Bailey about it.

That is the logical explanation for an apparent mix- up, with Townsville MP Coralee O’Rourke telling the Bulletin on Friday the Government was yet to formally receive the document when in fact it had been delivered to the department last month.

Last night Ms O’Rourke declined to comment on the discrepancy but said if the department had received the study, that was “great”.

“Once the agency has it, they will provide a briefing. It still needs to go through the relevant minister and Cabinet,” Ms O’Rourke said. “The advice I was given was the Government had not formally received the business case from Building Queensland.”

Mr Bailey was announced as Minister for Transport in the new Palaszczuk Government on December 10, taking over the portfolio from Stirling Hinchcliffe. Building Queensland is leading the development of a business case for the Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor in partnership with the Department of Transport.

The Bulletin put a series of questions to Building Queensland yesterday. The group provided the following statement:

“Building Queensland has completed the detailed business case for the Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor project. The detailed business case was delivered to the Department of Transport and Main Roads in December 2017 and is currently with the department for consideration.”

Building Queensland did not respond to questions about the project’s benefit cost ratio or whether it sees the project as commercially viable.