23 Jun 2022: Queensland - Rail Revolution 2 Over Before It Started

[ozbob]

Queensland -  Rail Revolution 2 Over Before It Started

23rd June 2022

The 2022-23 Queensland State Budget ( https://budget.qld.gov.au/ ) contained little new funding for its widely trumpeted Rail Revolution (number 2). The first Rail Revolution in 2011 ended up down a branch line.

No money for rail to Maroochydore.
Beerburrum to Nambour on "Go Slow".
Cross River Rail train service network plan (sectorisation) still in hiding.
Heavy rail extension to Ripley Valley is just a line on a plan.
Rail to Beaudesert, Toowoomba or Fast Rail? There's a laugh.
Freight rail is just words in a strategy. North Coast line in the economic shadow of the Bruce Highway billions.

There isn't even funding to deliver the easy stuff like Cleveland and Shorncliffe line duplications or service frequency upgrades with existing staff and trains!!

Queensland Rail Revolution? What Queensland Rail Revolution?  Unless there is a true 'Rail Revolution' the Olympic Games in 2032 will be a transport failure and life in the sunshine state will continue to be transport poor.

Almost half of the Palaszczuk Government's touted 29.7 billion, four-year roads and transport investment plan is being spent widening roads, intersections or freeways. RAIL Back On Track has identified over $11B of SEQ freeway and road expansions that the transport and planning industry knows all to well will just create more congestion from the existing population where evidence of any economic benefit will be hard to find. When the OECD calls such investment a mistake it is time to recognise you've got it all wrong.

A true Rail Revolution would see a significant majority of this roads and transport investment plan being invested in active/public transport and regional/freight rail across Queensland, not well under 30% and mostly that in South East Queensland.

And we haven't even mentioned the state of the SEQ Bus Network or cycling.

There is a reason the % of trips by active and public transport is close to world's worst-practice in Queensland. It's because the Palaszczuk Government and those before it keep prioritising the widening of roads and building of freeways despite knowing it will make more people drive further and more often.

The world has moved on, yet the Queensland Government is still planning like it is the 1970's. Those counties and cities that have prioritised active and public transport are enjoying lower cost of living, healthier communities, easier access to jobs, greater tourism, safer neighbourhoods and more affordable housing.

The closest Queensland gets to a Rail Revolution is looking onto neighbour's NSW State Budget.

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

[ozbob]

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