Article: State calls for federal help to ease Coast rail crisis

[ozbob]

From the Sunshine Coast Daily click here!

State calls for federal help to ease Coast rail crisis

State calls for federal help to ease Coast rail crisis

    Kathy Sundstrom
    23rd Jan 2013 5:45 AM

THE FEDERAL Government has been asked to help ease the Sunshine Coast's rail bottleneck.

It has been confirmed the state government applied for federal funding for the crucial duplication of the railway line between Beerburrum and Landsborough in August last year.

This duplication will make it possible to provide much-needed express trains for this route.

But the issue is not likely to be heard until the next Nation Building program, in 2014-15.

The $300 million project was under way by the former Labor state government, but rail commuter Jeff Addison said it stopped "26 days after Andrew Powell was elected as Member for Glasshouse in 2009".

"On April 14, 2009 stage one of the duplication finished at Beerburrum," he said. "It was supposed to be completed to Landsborough by mid-2012.

"Instead it left an infrastructure bottleneck that achieved nothing for faster times of travel or extra capacity."

Attempts to bring the duplication back on track have been unsuccessful.

Mr Addison has been appealing to state and federal governments since early last year for it to be prioritised.

He sent a submission to federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese in May 2011, highlighting the importance of the route.

Mr Addison said the former speaker, Peter Slipper, had requested a meeting with Mr Albanese last year. It was declined.

Mr Albanese's spokesman said this was because it was a "state issue and the state government hadn't asked for funding for this route".

State Transport Minister Scott Emerson said he would contact Mr Albanese to "reinforce the importance of our rail needs".

>> WHY WE NEED DUPLICATION

     The train trip from Caboolture to Brisbane took 42 minutes in 1986. Today the same trip takes 62 minutes.
     44% of the daily train services between Nambour and Caboolture are buses.
     Buses take 90 minutes to travel 54km, a train takes an hour. Buses are needed because there is not enough room on the single-line track for the long-distance passenger trails, the freight rail services and city rail passenger services.
     This section of the north coast line has been identified as the busiest single line in Australia.
     Express routes to Brisbane can't begin without the duplication.

[ozbob]

Twitter

Robert Dow ‏@Robert_Dow

Fix the bottleneck - a campaign for the future ... http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=7079.msg75248#msg75248 ... #sctrains @the_daily @Sunstro #railfailinSEQ

[BrizCommuter]

If it's anything like the Ferny Grove duplication, the $300m Sunshine Coast duplication will be built, opened, but with the same old timetable and rail bus services.