Cross River Rail Project

[#Metro]

Another example was translink (but ultimately the state minister passing the buck) being powerless to do anything about BCC/BT refusing to modify its bus network which impacted how trains and other bus operators near or in the BCC areas were run.

Don't guarantee the contract. If they don't comply, let the contract expire and then bye-bye... 

[HappyTrainGuy]

And what contractor would have taken over the Brisbane bus routes? The buses might have been paid for in part by the state government but  I guarantee that the contract would be worded as such that BCC/BT own the buses.

[#Metro]

Really? BCC doesn't own it's buses now. Queensland treasury does, BCC only rents them.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/RailExpressNews/status/872745221565448194

[Stillwater]

In one sense, by holding back federal funding, a better project has resulted -- a project that has been better thought through and, finally, integration with Metro.  Through it, the Queensland Government has been dragged, kicking and screaming.  Having won considerable concessions (that should have been provided from the outset), it is time for the feds to put serious money into CRR/Metro.

[ozbob]

It has been reported this morning (4BC News) that the Premier of Queensland will be making representations to the Prime Minister for CRR funding at today's COAG meeting in Tasmania.

[ozbob]

Nine News --> Rail funds on Qld premier's COAG agenda

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will make a final push for funding for Brisbane's Cross River Rail project when she meets with Malcolm Turnbull as part of the COAG meeting in Hobart.

The Palaszczuk government has clashed with the commonwealth over the national government's refusal to contribute any funds for a second Brisbane River rail crossing.

But Ms Palaszczuk insists they can still reach an agreement before the state budget is handed down next Tuesday.

"I plan to be raising that issue at length with the prime minister," she told reporters on Thursday before flying out for Friday's COAG meeting.

"And I think there'll be a lot of other states talking about what their key priorities are for their state, and whether or not the federal government is going to work with the states to deliver their key priorities."

Ms Palaszczuk has also pledged to make a strong case at the meeting for her government's target of 50 per cent renewable energy in Queensland by 2030.

The state Labor government on Monday announced a task force had been set up to implement the recommendations of the Finkel review of national electricity generation, which is due to be released during COAG.

[SurfRail]

Really? BCC doesn't own it's buses now. Queensland treasury does, BCC only rents them.

Council still owns about 140 buses, but the oldest 140 in the fleet, all powered by CNG and not selling at auction even at $2,500 per unit based on recent accounts.  They could replace those numbers in 2 years at the current delivery rate.

[Arnz]

The only buses BCC actually own are the early model Scania CNG buses, which IIRC are slowly being phased out.

A handful of the Scania CNG buses being sold off had been converted to diesel after finding new homes at other operators throughout Qld and NSW.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/CrossRiverRail/status/872700262745493504

[Stillwater]

lol, at last they have found the word 'integration'

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ShaneDoherty9/status/873030355095126021

[ozbob]

9th June 2017

JOINT STATEMENT
Premier and Minister for the Arts
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk

Deputy Premier, Minister for Transport and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning
The Honourable Jackie Trad

Turnbull won't budge on Cross River Rail funding and traffic congestion

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull continues to refuse to commit to a matching Federal Government commitment to the traffic congestion-busting Cross River Rail project for south-east Queensland.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she used the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Hobart to follow-up with the Prime Minister on his Government's commitment.

"I met with the Prime Minister on 18 May and he said there were outstanding information requests from Infrastructure Australia," she said.

"Since then, we clarified the information Infrastructure Australia was seeking, senior officials met with Infrastructure Australia and they have all the information they requested."

"My Deputy Premier has this week also spoken directly with Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester and Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher to reiterate the importance of Cross River Rail for South East Queensland."

"We have also secured important support from Brisbane City Council for the project, and the release of the Connecting Brisbane Strategy shows how important Cross River Rail and Metro are to transforming public transport.

"The Prime Minister now has no excuse for the people of south-east Queensland for continuing to fail to fund Cross River Rail and help alleviate traffic congestion."

"Cross River Rail will take up to 18,500 car trips off our major arterial roads every day and deliver thousands of jobs.

"My Government has already committed $850 million to Cross River Rail.  We expect a matching commitment from the Turnbull Government so work on Cross River Rail can get underway.

"I'm not asking the Prime Minister to do anything more than my Government and I have already done."

Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure Jackie Trad said that the Malcolm Turnbull's refusal as COAG came on the same day that the project had cleared a major approval hurdle.

"The Prime Minister continues to refuse to invest in this critical city-shaping project despite the fact that we have addressed all of his concerns.

We have also just received approval for our Request for Project Change from the Coordinator-General – a key project milestone giving us the go ahead to get on with building this project.

"This new approval includes the new EIS statement reflecting the changes we made to the project that reduced the cost by more than $3 billion and incorporated community feedback about design and impact.

"This approval means we have secured all major state approvals necessary for the project, and provides certainty to both government and the industry about the conditions under which the project can be built.

"We're sick of the political games from Malcolm Turnbull and the LNP. Queenslanders need this project, we could have shovels in the ground tomorrow and we can't keep waiting."

The business case for Cross River Rail was provided to the Turnbull Government 12 months ago. The Secretary of the Federal Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development Mr Mike Mrdak serves on the Board of the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority.

The Coordinator-General's decision can be viewed at: http://www.dsd.qld.gov.au/crr.

[ozbob]

Commence the project tomorrow.
Enough of the nonsense...  Mal will not be around for much longer in any case.
DIG!

4BC News followed up for some comments re the situation with the lacking of funding federally.

Suggested the project should be commenced regardless.  There is no doubt it will get some funding eventually.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Cross River Rail funding hopes dashed as Malcolm Turnbull refuses to commit

The Queensland government's hopes of a last-minute federal injection to Brisbane's Cross River Rail project appear to have been dashed, with the prime minister refusing to commit to funding.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk raised the topic of federal funding for the project during discussions at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Hobart, but did not receive a pledge.

The Queensland government's hopes of a last-minute federal injection to Brisbane's Cross River Rail project appear to have been dashed, with the prime minister refusing to commit to funding.

"The prime minister now has no excuse for the people of south-east Queensland for continuing to fail to fund Cross River Rail and help alleviate traffic congestion," she said.

Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Jackie Trad said Mr Turnbull's refusal to commit to funding came on the same day the project secured all major state approvals necessary.

At a pre-budget address on Tuesday, Treasurer Curtis Pitt said he "had a plan" to fund the project, but that didn't mean federal funds would be unwelcome if they were offered.

Liberal National Party leader Tim Nicholls called on the government to release its business case.

"If it's such a good business case, why are Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad refusing to release the details?" he said.

[Stillwater]

You know, this is starting to reflect on the State Government ... the prime question is 'does the SG believe in this project and in the validity of the Business Case information to have faith in the project and in the prospect of federal funding following on after the initial expenditure of $850m of state funding for initial works'.

We have news today that the Coordinator-General has signed off TODAY on a revised EIS.  The Premier finally admitted three weeks ago that there were outstanding information owed IA, and it has been provided only recently.

IA assessors will need some time to digest this new information.  Had the state got the info to IA earlier, we would not be in the position of Curtis Pitt's office holding the presses on the state budget, to be delivered on Tuesday, with or without reference to a federal injection of funds for CRR.

The answer is simple, because State Labor has played silly buggers over CRR, as did the LNP before them, the feds are not coming to the party at this stage.  Queensland has relied upon politics and bluff to get CRR over the line; the feds have played hardball and won a number of concessions.  Queensland is being taught a lesson for not growing up.

Having said that, the feds must review whether they are playing a game of diminishing returns.  By holding out a bit longer, will they wring a few more concessions, such as occurred with integration of CRR and Metro, or will they soon be faced with having to fund a series of costly road projects that will have to deal with the consequences of not having CRR underway?.  The revised EIS will show that ... and there will be much activity over the weekend.

Either way, there is no reason why CRR can't start, and start tomorrow, according to Jackie Trad.

Perhaps RailBOT members could pitch in and buy the Minister a shovel for the ceremonial sod-turning.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

13th May 2017 resent 9th June 2017

Cross River Rail - start construction tomorrow!

Greetings,

Deputy Premier Trad and Minister for Transport has outlined how politics is affecting Cross River Rail, yet again.

[ Couriermail --> Opinion: PM's excuses about not funding Cross River Rail in Federal Budget 2017 don't add up ]

Leading into the 2017-18 Federal Budget we did warn that it was not looking promising for funding due to the ranking of CRR at Infrastructure Australia (3rd tier, only a high priority initiative) and the fact variations to CRR and the impact of the revised ' Brisbane Metro ' had not been included in the previously submitted business case - well at least no public confirmation of this.  This gave the Coalition Federal Government an out.  Queensland is not the only state shafted, South Australia and Victoria too have been poorly dealt with.

In our view the Queensland Government should commence early works for Cross River Rail.  The project is sound and it will eventually  achieve some Federal funding either from the Coalition Federal Government or a Labor Federal Government in time.

If the Queensland Government is genuine it can spend the money already budgeted on actual construction rather than more glossy brochures and 'seat warmers' to create them.

If an actual start is made prior to the federal election the position of the Turnbull Federal Government circus becomes untenable, and the electoral pressure to provide funds intensifies, of course if the Queensland Government does nothing prior to the Queensland election the electorate will view that failure poorly and added to the other failures for rail in Queensland will have an undoubted effect at the ballot box.

Best wishes,
Robert

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

References:

1.  Budget 2017-18
http://www.budget.gov.au/

2.  Infrastructure Priority List 2017 - Project and Initiative summaries
http://infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/policy-publications/publications/Infrastructure-Priority-List.aspx

[ozbob]

https://www.crossriverrail.qld.gov.au/request/

Request for Project Change Report

The Coordinator-General has evaluated the Request for Project Change for the Cross River Rail project, including consideration of all submissions made during the consultation period.

The Coordinator-General has released an evaluation report including updated conditions to minimise and manage the environmental impacts of the project while it is being built and once it is up and running.

More information is available in the Coordinator-General's change report, available at the Coordinator-General's website:

http://www.dsd.qld.gov.au/crr.

9 June 2017 Coordinator-General's report on project change (PDF 1.5 MB) released, approving the change.

[#Metro]

Just offload a state-owned power station or two to pay for CRR.

People might want to own it, but we don't need to own it.

Queensland's largest power station (1680 MW) is already operated by private sector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladstone_Power_Station having previously been QLD Government owned and sold by Red Team in 1994.

Cross River Rail is far more important than operating power stations, which others are more than happy to do.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

10th June 2017

Goodbye Prime Minister Turnbull - Dig Queensland, dig!

Good Morning,

We welcome and note the Cross River Rail Project: Coordinator-General's change report June 2017.
[ http://www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/resources/project/cross-river-rail/crr-cg-change-report.pdf ]

CRR is now ready to roll.  The State must commence this project immediately.  The intransigence and myopic stance of the present Federal Coalition Government will no doubt cost them dearly in an electoral sense in the days to come. The Queensland LNP State Opposition are in conflict with Brisbane City Council that rightly understands the synergy and opportunity for improved public transport not only for Brisbane but SEQ as a whole with CRR and Brisbane Metro. Both projects are integrated from an operational perspective, CRR and Brisbane Metro  should not be seen as competing projects, but as two elements of the single public transport solution.
[ http://www.dilgp.qld.gov.au/infrastructure/connecting-brisbane.html ]

This the correct path now to public transport resilience, capacity, and hence successful delivery and outcomes. Both projects will provide the economic stimulus that is needed.

It is sad that the  Queensland LNP Opposition seem to be the only major player that does not understand the need for Cross River Rail.
[ LNP Opposition Media release  STATEMENT: Brisbane Metro http://www.timnicholls.com.au/statement-brisbane-metro/ ]

The Queensland LNP has previously stamped their public transport credentials as very mediocre with such absurd proposals as the ' Cleveland Solution ' and the ' Bus and Train ' tunnel.  They are consigning themselves to irrelevancy once again unless they come on board with the integrated public transport solution that CRR and the Brisbane Metro now promise for SEQ and Brisbane.

We have waited long enough.  ' Now is the hour '. Goodbye Prime Minister Turnbull.

Best wishes,
Robert

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

[ Attached: https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2034.msg193665#msg193665 ]

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/873215827113238528

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/873217056329441280

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/873217771068284929

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/RACQOfficial/status/873304618851196928

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/AlboMP/status/873051035295662081

^

https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/873058513160818689

[James]

Just build the damn thing already! If the business case is finished and everything is ready to go, get a move on. Once construction is underway, it won't be stopped. Stop tweeting, start digging!

[ozbob]

Just build the damn thing already! If the business case is finished and everything is ready to go, get a move on. Once construction is underway, it won't be stopped. Stop tweeting, start digging!

[Stillwater]

^   

[Derwan]

From the Brisbane Live thread:  LNP trumps Brisbane Live plan for Roma St railyards with grander vision

The existing transit centre would be demolished and replaced with a new one, with space for the Cross River Rail underground system.

Does that mean that the LNP supports Cross River Rail?

[ozbob]

^ I asked Tim Nicholls that very question.  Still waiting for a response ..   

[verbatim9]

^^With the amount of potential people in the area at one time. The demand would be there for CRR, redeveloped station and retail precinct.

Sent from my XT1562 using Tapatalk

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Queensland Budget: $2 billion for Cross River Rail

THE State Government will today signal it is prepared to go it alone on Cross River Rail by adding a further $2 billion towards the much vaunted project.

The Courier-Mail can reveal today's State ­Budget will allocate the extra $2 billion to kick-start the project, taking the state's contribution to almost $3 billion.

The massive funding ­injection still leaves a hole of about $2.5 billion to build the inner-city Brisbane rail link between Dutton Park and Bowen Hills, which includes three new underground stations.

The State Government will leave the door open for future federal contributions and deals with the private sector or a combination of the two. However, it is understood the Government will indicate that it is prepared to go it alone on the 10.2km link, which has been mooted for more than a decade.

Additional cash from coal prices, GST receipts and wholesale energy costs, as well as lower government-sector debt, has helped the Government boost infrastructure spending in today's Budget after two years of subdued capital investment.

The Federal Government has so far refused to commit any more than the $10 million it has already allocated to Cross River Rail, raising concerns with the business case undertaken by Building Queensland. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out ­allocating money in future years from a promised $10 billion national rail fund, should it decide CRR does stack up.

Federal Labor has pledged to help fund CRR, should it win the next federal election, due in 2019.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday took another swipe at Mr Turnbull for not guaranteeing Commonwealth funds.

"All I am getting is roadblock after roadblock after roadblock," she said.

"We are not seeing Malcolm Turnbull come to the party when it comes to our number one project, Cross River Rail. What we need once again is we need the Federal Government to put some money into Cross River Rail.

"We will not give up on that fight. We will continue to fight for Queensland and we will continue to fight for our fair share.''

The Government has argued Cross River Rail is needed after 2021 when Brisbane's only southbound rail river crossing, the William Jolly Bridge, will reach capacity.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad had previously hoped construction could start as early as this year on the project, which she previously said was "shovel ready".

Treasurer Curtis Pitt will today also announce that the Government will cap future rises in fees and charges, such as vehicle registration, to ­inflation.

It follows several years of above-inflation increases at 3.5 per cent.

The change will come into force from July 1, 2018, following the next state election.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

13th June 2017

Cross River Rail underway ...

Good Morning,

Budget day.  Appears that the State will now commit to commencing Cross River Rail.  This is great news of course and we congratulate the State Government [ Couriermail --> Queensland Budget: $2 billion for Cross River Rail ].

" THE State Government will today signal it is prepared to go it alone on Cross River Rail by adding a further $2 billion towards the much vaunted project.

The Courier-Mail can reveal today's State ­Budget will allocate the extra $2 billion to kick-start the project, taking the state's contribution to almost $3 billion.

The massive funding ­injection still leaves a hole of about $2.5 billion to build the inner-city Brisbane rail link between Dutton Park and Bowen Hills, which includes three new underground stations.

The State Government will leave the door open for future federal contributions and deals with the private sector or a combination of the two. However, it is understood the Government will indicate that it is prepared to go it alone on the 10.2km link, which has been mooted for more than a decade. "

The Turnbull Federal Government is consigning themselves to the political scrap heap with their partisan infrastructure political nepotism, rather than putting all Australian States and Territories first!

Best wishes,
Robert

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

Sent to all outlets:

10th June 2017

Goodbye Prime Minister Turnbull - Dig Queensland, dig!

Good Morning,

We welcome and note the Cross River Rail Project: Coordinator-General's change report June 2017.
[ http://www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/resources/project/cross-river-rail/crr-cg-change-report.pdf ]

CRR is now ready to roll.  The State must commence this project immediately.  The intransigence and myopic stance of the present Federal Coalition Government will no doubt cost them dearly in an electoral sense in the days to come. The Queensland LNP State Opposition are in conflict with Brisbane City Council that rightly understands the synergy and opportunity for improved public transport not only for Brisbane but SEQ as a whole with CRR and Brisbane Metro. Both projects are integrated from an operational perspective, CRR and Brisbane Metro  should not be seen as competing projects, but as two elements of the single public transport solution.
[ http://www.dilgp.qld.gov.au/infrastructure/connecting-brisbane.html ]

This the correct path now to public transport resilience, capacity, and hence successful delivery and outcomes. Both projects will provide the economic stimulus that is needed.

It is sad that the  Queensland LNP Opposition seem to be the only major player that does not understand the need for Cross River Rail.
[ LNP Opposition Media release  STATEMENT: Brisbane Metro http://www.timnicholls.com.au/statement-brisbane-metro/ ]

The Queensland LNP has previously stamped their public transport credentials as very mediocre with such absurd proposals as the ' Cleveland Solution ' and the ' Bus and Train ' tunnel.  They are consigning themselves to irrelevancy once again unless they come on board with the integrated public transport solution that CRR and the Brisbane Metro now promise for SEQ and Brisbane.

We have waited long enough.  ' Now is the hour '. Goodbye Prime Minister Turnbull.

Best wishes,
Robert

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

[ Attached: https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2034.msg193665#msg193665 ]

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/874302527004487680

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Opinion: Labor's Cross River Rail announcement a ticket to poll hopes

CROSS River Rail will today go from a Labor Government pipe dream to reality.

Treasurer Curtis Pitt is tipped to announce that the Government will pour another $2 billion into the 10km rail tunnel when he hands down the Palaszczuk Government's crucial pre-election Budget.

He will likely also leave the door open to paying the ­remaining money needed for the $5.4 billion second river crossing in future years, should private and Commonwealth funding not eventuate.

The move will signal the Government is serious about getting the major piece of infrastructure — a project that has been a decade in the making — off the ground should it be re-elected for another term.

It will also give Labor a major platform on which to campaign in the state's southeast in the lead-up to the election expected this year.

And it will put the Commonwealth on notice — either they stump up or they risk missing the train entirely.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/9NewsQueensland/status/874341362170118144

[ozbob]

 

[Stillwater]

Ms Trad has stated previously that CRR work 'could start tomorrow' if the funding was there to build it.  We can look forward to Ms Trad, in her pink safety boots, hardhat and shovel with a matching pink ribbon on the handle at Wollongabba bright and early on Wednesday morning, shifting dirt for the TV cameras and other media.

[#Metro]

Great news! But channel 9 has the wrong CRR video! 

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Queensland budget: State Government to fund half of $5.4 billion cost of Brisbane's Cross River Rail

The State Government's funding for Brisbane's Cross River Rail will be increased to more than half the project's $5.4 billion cost in today's Queensland budget.

The Queensland Government has set high public expectations for the 2017/18 budget to be handed down at 2:30pm, promising significant infrastructure spending and a "jobs bonanza".

As the last budget from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk before the next election, which will be held in the next six to eight months, the budget will leverage lower debt repayments and include higher coal royalties to pay for more projects across the state.

This is despite the recent hit from Cyclone Debbie which has reduced the expected surplus and growth rate.

The state has now set aside $2.8 billion for the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project, indicating it is prepared to start the 10.2 kilometre rail line without waiting for federal funding.

The funding decision also gives Labor a strong re-election pitch in south-east Queensland.

However, Ms Palaszczuk said she was "not even thinking about" the election benefits of a potentially popular budget.

She set a high bar when she told Parliament that the budget would be "gold — a jobs bonanza". ...

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Queensland budget 2017-18: Govt to add $2 billion for Cross River Rail

The Queensland government will commit another $2 billion to Brisbane's Cross River Rail, after failing to secure federal funding for the project.

The money, understood to be allocated in the state budget on Tuesday, takes the Palaszczuk government's spending to roughly $2.85 billion, leaving a significant gap to get the project off the ground.

The state describes the project as "critical" for keeping the south-east corner's train network flowing ahead of an expected bottleneck on the city's only north-south rail bridge across the Brisbane River.

The Commonwealth government has chipped in $10 million towards planning, tied to integration with the Brisbane City Council's proposed Brisbane Metro project, but refused to commit to more.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk raised the topic of federal funding for the $5.4 billion project as recently as last week, at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Hobart, but was not successful.

"We are not seeing Malcolm Turnbull come to the party when it comes to our number one project, Cross River Rail," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.

"We will continue to fight for Queensland and we will continue to fight for our fair share."

The state government has previously touted the possibility of private funding to help get Cross River Rail off the ground.

Ministers have called for all three levels of government to kick in funding and it's expected the door will be left open for future funding from Canberra.

The Labor government has already announced several big-ticket items in the budget but more are expected, with the government repeatedly referring to it as a "jobs budget".

Among the announcements, the government has earmarked $5 million over two years to honour its commitment to help small councils install fluoride infrastructure for local water supplies.

A $2 billion surplus had been on the cards, according to the mid-year economic review, but that took a hit of more than $1.1 billion when Tropical Cyclone Debbie smashed into central Queensland and triggered flooding down the coast.

Treasurer Curtis Pitt said he intended to post a surplus.

Mr Pitt will hand down the budget in state Parliament at 2.30pm.