15 May 2022: Years of rail neglect are showing on the Sunshine Coast ...

[ozbob]

Years of rail neglect are showing on the Sunshine Coast ...

15th May 2022

RAIL Back On Track welcomes the ' Train for the Games ' campaign launched by the Sunshine Coast Daily, however CAMCOS heavy rail is needed  with or without the 2032 Games (1).
We welcome the funding committment in the 2022-23 Federal Budget for the rail extension Beerwah to Maroochydore ($1.6 billion).

We urge all parties to commit to funding this project at the 2022 federal election. We wrote to the Federal ALP Party weeks ago asking if they too will support the rail extension to Maroochydore but have had no reply.

Heavy faster rail to Maroochydore will be a game changer. For years the Sunshine coast has seen proportionally less public transport investment than Brisbane or the Gold Coast. Currently the main rail stations on the Sunshine coast are a significant distance inland at Nambour, Landsborough and Beerwah, well away from the bulk of the population on the booming coastal strip. The rail project long known by the acronym 'CAMCOS' will thread right through the centre, putting new stations on the doorstep of hundreds of thousands of residents at places like Caloundra, Birtinya and Maroochydore. It will also support the growing Aura development, ensuring the new city grows sustainably around the rail line. The new line will be built to fast interurban standards, potentially achieving speeds of 140 km/h or more.

The Sunshine Coast has long been the 'poor cousin' for public transport investment in Queensland. The Sunshine Coast Daily recently revealed that for the period 2011-2021 only $151m was spent on rail and bus improvements for the Sunshine Coast compared to $1.38bn on the Gold Coast (2). This equates to about $439 per person for the population of the Sunshine Coast and $2146 for each of the estimated 643,000 people on the Gold Coast.

The upgrade and duplication of the Sunshine Coast line from Beerburrum to Landsborough is an essential pre-requisite for CAMCOS heavy rail but it is also essential for maintaining rail freight services to Central and North Queensland, as well as facilitating long distance passenger rail services, and improved interurban services to Nambour and Gympie North.  The Sunshine Coast Council has recently made the call " ...  the Queensland Government to resolve any funding deficit for the duplication of the North Coast Rail Line from Beerburrum to Landsborough, with a commitment to find a solution to facilitate the extension of the upgrade to Nambour. ... " (3).

Years of rail neglect are showing on the Sunshine Coast. Now is time to properly fund and get these projects into actual construction.

Contacts:

Jeff Addison
Sunshine Coast Region Spokesperson RAIL Back On Track

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track https://backontrack.org


References:

1. Train for the Games
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/sunshine-coast/sunshine-coast-to-brisbane-rail-residents-reveal-support-for-major-transport-project/news-story/81466896431b7bad69286ce75d3ff082

2. Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast public transport spending revealed
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/sunshine-coast/sunshine-coast-and-gold-coast-public-transport-spending-revealed/news-story/7fb12e8885c241e168cbfde68b9ad4a6

3. Sunshine Coast Council calls on all Federal election parties to commit to investing in the region
https://oursc.com.au/featured/sunshine-coast-council-calls-on-all-federal-election-parties-to-commit-to-investing-in-the-region

[ozbob]

Discussion --> https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?msg=258340