Article: Rail link tops list

[Fares_Fair]

Article: Rail link tops list
Sunshine Coast Daily
Owen Jacques | 10th February 2012

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2012/02/10/rail-link-tops-list/

DEAR George St, the Sunshine Coast needs a population cap, major projects sped up, more jobs and more tourists.

But mostly we need a proper rail system.

That is the wish list for the next state government, produced by six of the region's most influential groups, ranging from business interests to environmental activists

The results are surprising, with the Coast's peak development body and leading environmental group finding common ground.

Both the Urban Development Institute of Australia - which represents developers - and the Sunshine Coast Environment Council agreed a proper rail system topped their list of demands from the next state government.

The Daily's survey included residents group OSCAR, Hinterland Tourism Sunshine Coast, the Sunshine Coast Chambers of Commerce Alliance, SCEC and the UDIA.

OSCAR president Ian Christensen said the 31 member groups of the organisation wanted the state to give communities the right to determine their size.

"We can't continue to grow and grow and grow without major impacts on infrastructure," he said.

"We also need the critical infrastructure, like the rail link."

SCEC executive officer Wiebe ter Bals also backed the need for access to trains.

"At the moment if you want to get from Noosa to Maroochydore by bus, it's two-and-a-half hours," he said.

UDIA Sunshine Coast branch head Frazer Dean said better rail and an upgraded highway were must-haves for the Coast.

"I think anything they can give us in a public transport realm, whether duplicating the rail line to Nambour, duplicating the Bruce Hwy or giving rail to Maroochydore would be great," Mr Dean said.

Sunshine Coast Chambers of Commerce Alliance chair Stephen Dittmann said we needed to speed up the airport expansion and Maroochydore CBD while creating more jobs.

Hinterland Tourism boss Angus Richard had a more humble request. He said the Coast simply needed more Aussies to holiday at home.

[Arnz]

SCEC executive officer Wiebe ter Bals also backed the need for access to trains.

"At the moment if you want to get from Noosa to Maroochydore by bus, it's two-and-a-half hours," he said.

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2012/02/10/rail-link-tops-list/

False.  

Noosa to Maroochydore is 1hr.  1hr 10mins at most during "peak" hours when all the office types in Maroochydore knock off.

http://translink.com.au/resources/travel-information/network-information/timetables/110829-620.pdf

[Cam]

It would be very interesting to see how quickly funding was found for CAMCOS if several of the sitting LNP members on the Sunshine Coast lost their seats at the coming election to independants or minor parties who were campaigining to fast track CAMCOS.  

Unfortuantely, the LNP are taking all but Nicklin on the Sunshine Coast for granted so there's no need to promise anything substantial to their loyal voters. Likewise, the ALP know that they have no chance of winning any Sunshine Coast seats so they won't promise anything substantial here - better to make promises in areas where they are trying to hold onto seats.  

[Stillwater]

It is indeed rare for the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) and the Sunshine Coast Environment Council (SCEC) to agree on any subject, but it is not hard to see how both their interests would be served by a rail track upgrade to Nambour and construction of the CAMCOS rail project.  The Bligh Labor government has cancelled both projects, after first promising they will be built in a few years time.  It has lost face on the Sunshine Coast - so much so that it could not find local candidates to run in half the LNP-held seats on the Sunshine Coast.  The names of ALP ring-ins from Brisbane will appear on the ballot paper.

The LNP will have even more egg on its face if, as predicted, it gains the Treasury benches after the March state election.  It's clear that voter dissatisfaction with Labor will allow it to win it all existing seats on the Sunshine Coast, with a return of all the usual faces that have been telling constituents for the past three years, and lately, that only the LNP has a strategy to plan and build critical infrastructure for Queensland.  Remember the questions in parliament and the e-petitions they sponsored calling for the track duplication to Nambour?

The UDIA and the SCEC are united in the critical transport infrastructure needed on the Sunny Coast.

But what has the LNP done?  It has pledged to support Labor's plan for transport infrastructure upgrades serving the Gold Coast, and to build that infrastructure to a timetable that will allow it to come on line before the Commonwealth Games.  LNP members will sheepishly have to appear at public meetings and 'meet the candidates' events over the next few weeks to explain why they, as Sunshine Coast MPs about to take the reins of government, back transport spending for the Gold Coast while planning to spend nothing on the Sunshine Coast projects they have been banging on about for the past three years; and which the local community has identified as its top priority.

Let's not forget the bruhaha over the government's delay of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, which is shameful.  Local members campaigned on that to the max. The LNP plan is to rip $400 million from its construction budget, but it has not explained whether this will affect the number of beds or the range of clinical services to be provided there.  Queensland has a Labor government that says one thing and does another, but faces the prospect of an LNP government that will behave in exactily the same way.