TRAMS ARE IN JEOPARDY

A WEEK ago the Bulletin laid it on the line for the State Labor Government.

We accused it of a cynical ploy based on greed, since it was caning rail commuters who parked “illegally’’ near train stations.

This has been happening while it has ignored its own culpability in falling well short in provision of adequate car parking infrastructure or additional stations.

Workers living in the city’s northern suburbs and trying to do the right thing, by using rail to get to work in Brisbane or on the Gold Coast without adding to the traffic already clogging the M1, are fined when – frustrated at missing out on a designated parking space at the station – they end up parking on grass or anywhere else deemed a no-no by rail authorities.

It has been a red-raw practice and should not continue, at least until the serious shortfall is fixed.

Then there is the huge risk to life and limb for those commuters who have to drive, only to find themselves stuck in long queues on the M1 when they need to exit the motorway at ramps that cannot handle the traffic volume at peak periods.

Yesterday federal Labor addressed these issues in the critical knife-edge seat of Forde. The Shorten campaign machine announced it would stop congestion on a horror off-ramp and boost car parking at railway stations.

There was plenty of backslapping, with Senator Murray Watt congratulating Labor candidate Des Hardman for a “remarkable’’ job in securing funding commitments.

With respect, it has been the locals, commuters and the Bulletin that have done the hard running on these issues and although Mr Hardman is a good candidate who went within a whisker of grabbing the seat at the last election, the problems are far from resolved.

It is not a done deal. Apart from having to win the election, a Shorten government would still have to negotiate with the Palaszczuk Government on timing and budget. Given every other transport project requiring federal-state agreement has turned into a bitter fight, will these projects be given priority and completed quickly, or will they drag on because the State Government has, for example, thrown all its resources at Brisbane’s Cross River Rail?

And for the Gold Coast, there remains the vital issue of light rail. As we report today, the $112 million that the LNP and Labor have both promised as a federal contribution to funding stage 3A, to take the trams from Broadbeach to Burleigh, is even further short of what is required than was previously known. Indeed State Transport Minister Mark Bailey now says the amount pledged by both sides as Canberra’s contribution is $157.5 million under what it should be.

The federal election is drawing closer, but the third stage of the city’s light rail system is disappearing from view – and major party candidates in all seats are ducking for cover.

The city’s case for federal support, based on the precedent of contribution to stages 1 and 2, is also jeopardised by comments like that from state LNP MP Sam O’Connor, who yesterday declared the light rail a state project and said “any federal funding is a bonus’’.