Interesting infrastructure plans and such ...

[ozbob]

February 2015

" We have delivered ... "  errr  really ?   

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

April 2013

" It's a cracker of a tunnel .. "   

Always good, a bit of HSR huh? 

[ozbob]

Or  ...

Feburary 2013

[ozbob]

March 2013

[ozbob]

[Stillwater]

Could this be the answer to Brisbane's CRR woes?  A combined car and train rail solution .. without the tunnel. 

[ozbob]

Could be big Mr Stillwater, just like HSR ... whoa ...

[ozbob]

October 2015

[ozbob]

August 2015

[ozbob]

October 2015

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

July 2009

[Stillwater]

No Queensland PT Infrastructure Plan this week, no prospect of one next month ... we probably won't see one until it emerges as ALP strategy at the time of the next state election.  Wait for the TV commercials, the website and the glossy brochure in the letterbox, no doubt plastered with photos of the Premier and your local Labor candidate.  Nothing major would have been done during this term of the government ... we will be offered more promises next term.

Anna Palaszczuk likes to give the impression that she is a 'safe pair of hands' steering the ship of state.  She doesn't realise that the ship is becalmed, going nowhere.  Voters are ghostly captives and the ship of state is the Marie Celeste.  The Premier believes it is the Queen Mary.  Hello.   

[#Metro]

We don't need yet another plan, we already have SEQ 2031
No more plans, just build!

[ozbob]

Bits and pieces ....

It can be a big job generator, planning and virtual infrastructure promotion.  In fact the Sunshine Coast Light Rail has already received an award for ' virtual infrastructure excellence '.

We are on a roll Queensland ...   

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

October 2015

[ozbob]

October 2015

[ozbob]

^

[ozbob]

 

[Stillwater]

There is a station planned at Aura (Caloundra South), there's just no commitment to build it.  Oh, and there is no railway line either, but it is in the planning too.  In fact, next year was when, according to some past planning, a rail line was to be built to Caloundra.  That is the thing about good planning.  The planning is flexible.  One plan today, a BaT tomorrow, who knows beyond that.  They all have such imaginative names and beautiful photos.  They have become ends in themselves, with no intention of implementing them.

[SurfRail]

What that area really needs is a Maha Sinnathamby or somebody similar who understands the significance of getting the railway built and will push for it.

Stockland I expect do not have anybody like that around, and even if they did they wouldn't be sitting on top of the pile.

[Stillwater]

This cooperative means of supplying infrastructure will become the norm, I believe.  For instance, a developer being given approval to develop a 'new town' for the cost of a transport infrastructure upgrade.  That could come with the possible development of 'Beerwah East', now under investigation. 

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/why-council-prefers-beerwah-development/2240486

At Aura, SC Council negotiated an infrastructure deal around parks, drains, footpaths and roads.  It saw heavy rail as something for the state to negotiate over.  SG has no money, so it had nothing to put towards a rail spur that would have attracted a matching contribution from Stockland, plus it would have had to pick up the bill for extending CAMCOS rail from the boundary of Aura to Caloundra proper.  Something may come from whatever Malcolm Turnbull and his new Cities Minister, Jamie Briggs, are hatching together.  Reports are that it will involve the federal government borrowing money, wearing the interest rate bill on the federal books, and handing the money to the states for approved infrastructure investment.  The debt does not show on the state books.

[ozbob]

June 2010

"It is important that public transport goes in early ... "

Hello?  Anyone home at Aura ??

[ozbob]

December 2013

MAHA - The Springfield Story

[ozbob]

December 2013

[ozbob]

[SurfRail]

At Aura, SC Council negotiated an infrastructure deal around parks, drains, footpaths and roads.  It saw heavy rail as something for the state to negotiate over.  SG has no money, so it had nothing to put towards a rail spur that would have attracted a matching contribution from Stockland, plus it would have had to pick up the bill for extending CAMCOS rail from the boundary of Aura to Caloundra proper.  Something may come from whatever Malcolm Turnbull and his new Cities Minister, Jamie Briggs, are hatching together.  Reports are that it will involve the federal government borrowing money, wearing the interest rate bill on the federal books, and handing the money to the states for approved infrastructure investment.  The debt does not show on the state books.

That's entirely sensible because Federal borrowings attract lower rates of interest because we are sovereign over our own currency at that level, but the States and Territories aren't.

Effectively, it becomes a case of the Commonwealth being the banker. 

Put a reinvigorated and largely apolitical version of IA in control of the purse and you have the makings of something very prudent.

[Stillwater]

Well, at least the government has heard the cries from the community, the banking sector and the construction industry about the need for a comprehensive Infrastructure Plan, properly costed.  But there is a bit of smoke and mirrors going on ....

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/commsec-report-says-queensland-construction-slumps-20151026-gkil46.html

Ms Trad trumpets that she released a Statewide Infrastructure Plan 'Directions Statement' in June.  It is full of motherhood.  No plan there.

She says there will be a two-tier plan.  Part One seems to be the result of panic ... someone in government shouting 'for God's sake, pull everything we have on the books, across all government departments – schools, hospitals, the lot – and let's call that our Infrastructure Plan'.

Part Two is the interesting bit and we can't see that, because it has not been done.  It will be a wish-list, devised by political operatives.  The list will be handed to Infrastructure Queensland (still being formed) to implement.  The wish-list won't be arrived at as a result of proper evaluation of the projects needed to get the state moving.  Part Two is on target to be the ALP Infrastructure Policy for the 2018 election – another 3 years of doing nothing.

Those pink construction boots haven't seen much use!

Meanwhile, the Courier-Mail has nailed it:

"INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Jackie Trad has unveiled the Government's draft state infrastructure plan, which contains no previously unannounced major projects."  It is a rehash!

Where is the plan for future projects, Ms Trad?

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-draft-infrastructure-plan-released-with-no-new-projects/story-fntuy59x-1227582903245

Somewhere along the way, Transport Infrastructure has been rolled into 'general infrastructure' to disguise the fact that transport infrastructure is receiving short shrift.  When people ask 'where is the new train line or new duplicated track', Ms Trad's plan is to say 'look at the new prison we built and here is the new Townsville Stadium.'

[ozbob]

There is a new thread for the SIP > http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11752.0

I think we have hit ' peak planning '  Mr Stillwater ... this calls for a celebratory song I think ..   

[ozbob]

[Stillwater]

Ozbob, I think this is the Musak in Jackie Trad's lift to her penthouse office. 

[ozbob]

" Look around, there is nothing but blue sky ...  "

[ozbob]

The Melbourne Cup has been run and won by a long odds outsider.

Might still be some hope for the grand vision and plans hey?

November 2011

[ozbob]

August 2012

[ozbob]

October 2014

[ozbob]