#ausvotes: Wishing and hoping ...

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily --> RACQ demands highway work be election priority

RACQ'S QUEENSLAND INFRASTRUCTURE PRIORITIES

    Bruce Hwy: Deliver the 10-year $6.7 billion federal funding commitment to upgrading the highway.
    Warrego Hwy: Deliver the $1.8 billion in federal funding promised for the highway upgrade strategy, including the Toowoomba Range Second Crossing.
    Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade: Duplication of the North Coast Rail Line on an improved alignment between Beerburrum and Landsborough and other upgrades to Nambour, to take pressure off the Bruce Hwy.
    Pacific Mwy: Upgrade to eight lanes from the Gateway Mwy to Loganholme and upgrade to six lanes between Nerang and Tugun.
    Cross river rail: New rail tunnel to provide a second river crossing and add capacity in inner Brisbane.
    Inland Queensland Road Action Plan (IQ-RAP) - A 15-year program to upgrade inland regional Queensland roads.

[ozbob]

Media release 9th May 2016

SEQ: Sunshine Coast Line rail duplication
Doing nothing not an option yet that is the plan

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web-based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers has called on the State and Federal government to jointly fund Sunshine Coast Line rail track duplication from Beerburrum to Landsborough north in the first instance, then continue onto Nambour.

Jeff Addison, Sunshine Coast Spokesperson for RAIL Back On Track said;

"There is an imperative for the Federal and Queensland Governments to act swiftly towards construction of dual railway tracks between Beerburrum and Landsborough North, and then onto Nambour."

"Rail freight and long-distance passenger services are right now under threat. The North Coast Line corridor that meanders through the Sunshine Coast is considered to be 'severely under-capitalised' according to a report commissioned for the State Government in February 2015 (2). An accompanying document from the TransLink Infrastructure Investment Committee dated 23 September 2015 (3) says; 'The results of the project identified that there is NO "DO NOTHING" APPROACH if rail is to have a future in this corridor.' "

"The economic benefits of these infrastructure projects are profound! Landsborough to Nambour works would generate $4.57 billion in output generation to the South East Queensland economy over the 7 year construction period, and create 2786 jobs at any one point in time."

"Clearly, it is time the State Palaszczuk government and the Federal Turnbull government prove that they are governing for all Australians. The federal seat of Fairfax in which some of these works occur, was the most marginal seat at the 2013 Federal election (53 vote margin)"
"Upgrade of the Sunshine Coast Line has twice been promised by the State, but the Sunshine Coast is yet to see it built."

"We are also concerned that rail construction standards are being reduced which will further disadvantage rail over road freight. Current duplication completed in April 2009 to Beerburrum, was designed for 160kph speeds. We now know that the intention is to reduce design speeds back to just 100kph, and that's not very competitive against an increasingly congested 110kph Bruce Highway."

"The time for taking the Sunshine Coast for granted is over; the time for action is here."

Contacts:

Jeff Addison
Sunshine Coast Region Spokesperson for RAIL Back On Track

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

References:

1. The Sunshine Coast Case : Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6647.0

2. North Coast Line Capacity Improvement Study – Final Report by TransLink and the Department of Transport and Main Roads
February 2015 (p100)

3. TransLink submission to the Infrastructure Investment Committee
Submission No. 5.1 (p1) 23 September 2015

[Stillwater]

The Sunshine Coast Daily sums up public sentiment well in this column by Jeff Sawyer:

IT REMAINS to be seen what value our political aspirants are going to place on our region.

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014-15 data indicated we underwent the second-largest growth in Queensland regions outside Brisbane, second only to the Gold Coast (Sunshine Coast population increased by 5300 people in 2014-15).

We also experienced the second-fastest growth rate for that period in regions outside of Brisbane, with us and the Gold Coast accounting for almost two-thirds of growth outside Greater Brisbane and almost a quarter of state's overall growth.

These are not insignificant figures.

Caloundra West, Buderim south, Mooloolaba and Alexandra Headland experienced the largest growth on the Coast, while Mountain Creek was the fastest growth area in the region, alongside Peregian and Mooloolaba-Alexandra Headland.

Mooloolaba-Alexandra Headland ranked in the top 10 for most densely populated areas in the entire state, according to the 2014-15 ABS data.  So why are we still scrapping tooth and nail for our share of basic infrastructure?  If we're accounting for such large swathes of growth in regional Queensland, in doing so boosting the state's prosperity, we deserve much more than we've received.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson constantly refers to the region as the 10th fastest-growing in the country.

Cities like Geelong are aiming extremely high at the moment, with swings against the incumbent ALP at the 2013 election an axe hanging over the head of sitting MP Richard Marles, although the decline of the motoring industry could play against the LNP there.  But there's no doubt a sense of uncertainty for incumbents and opportunity for oppositions leads to value for voters.  Too far in one direction and opposing parties aren't heavily incentivised to pour resources in, while for the governing party, particularly when the sitting MP is a member of that party, it's all too easy to pay mere lip service to such a strongly held seat.

The ALP have already called in one of the big guns here on the Coast in Anthony Albanese this week, but we're still short on real commitments from either major party thus far in the campaign.  If the ALP is to launch an assault here it could spark the LNP into action, and we may see both parties start to make commitments. With the Palmer experiment likely to drive Coast voters back to the two major parties, any local promises could prove decisive here

[Stillwater]

ABC local radio abuzz about a 'major announcement' for the Sunny Coast today.  It all seems a bit vague.  Tony Abbott in Cooroy today, Barnaby Joyce in Gympie, where the locals are hoping for government dollars to revitalise The Rattler.  We will just have to wait to see if a 'big news' statement is made.  Meanwhile, traffic gridlock on the Bruce Highway again today, due to a truck rollover at Beerburrum.  This congestion due to traffic crashes seems to be an almost daily occurrence.

[ozbob]

^ more money for the bottomless road pit I expect ..

[Stillwater]

yes, $187m extra for the Bruce Highway, if Turnbull Govt elected

[Fares_Fair]

It's not even new money, merely brought forward from 2019-20 to 2017.
Road prevails over rail once again!

[Stillwater]

Queensland is on track to receive the nation's largest slice of transport infrastructure spending at this election, just not where it needs to be spent.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-parties-form-convoy-along-the-porkbarrel-highway-20160626-gps6ai.html

[#Metro]

An analysis by the Grattan Institute of the transport promises of the Coalition, Labor and the Greens has found all are guilty of backing multiple projects that have not been given a green light by Infrastructure Australia, the federal government's independent advisory authority on major projects.

Funding of projects without a business case, or with a BCR below 1 (calculated from the public sector perspective) should be banned.