RAIL NEEDS A BIG REV-UP
TENS of thousands of commuters trek between the Gold Coast and Brisbane each day.
All of them are frustrated, if not by delays on the M1, its exits and feeder roads, then by a painfully slow rail service that bogs down on the so-called “Gaza Strip’’ north of Beenleigh and across Brisbane’s southern suburbs.
The Queensland Government yesterday announced “world class’’ consortia for its $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project, going it alone without federal support to build tunnels beneath the Brisbane River and CBD and open the way for increased frequency and “faster’’ services for the Gold Coast line.
Having trains operating every five minutes between the Coast and Brisbane at peak times, as Labor senator Murray Watt suggests will happen, sounds like a dream. The Government says the new system will be ready by 2024, taking 47,000 vehicles off roads and freeing up the M1. The Gold Coast’s fingers are crossed that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s pledge to deliver such improvement eventuates.
A jaded public however will resist being caught up in the hype. There has to be a nagging concern that the $5.4 billion figure will blow out, based on long experience involving infrastructure projects, or that shortcuts may be taken to come in on cost, which could lessen the promised services.
The State Government has to get this right. It is not building an underground just to look after Brisbane residents. This is a massive project funded by all Queensland taxpayers. It has to work for all of the southeast.
The Bulletin sincerely hopes the Government is able to achieve the benefits it promises, but we remain supportive too of the fast-train plan being hatched out of Canberra. Like all promises in the lead-up to an election, the public may be right to retain a degree of caution on this, just as it will adopt a “believe it when we see it’’ view on Cross River Rail.
All the Morrison Government has done is offer $8 million for a study into a fast-rail link between the Coast and Brisbane.
It is of major importance, but there is a massive difference between a study and actually delivering, and as the Bulletin pointed out when the study was mooted, there remains the usual issue of state and federal refusal to co-operate over funding carve-ups.
When Ms Palaszczuk delivers what she has promised, then full marks to her.
But if the journey still takes an hour despite the time “savings’’ she is touting, and commuters still have to walk long distances or catch buses from their station to work, it will remain a hard sell to convince them to leave the car at home.
Cross River Rail has to happen. But the challenge remains in reducing the commute time by half, which will require much more than offering more express services from Beenleigh north. Canberra talks about a 32-minute trip by fast rail. This has to happen to entice people on to public transport.
We need both. With the Gold Coast population on track for a million people in the next 25 years, the city is staring at a transport nightmare unless both levels of government start working together.