Queensland Parliament - Estimates Committees, what questions would you ask?

[ozbob]

Transport and Multicultural Affairs
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk
14/07/2011

Further rail timetable reviews looming

Following the successful implementation of new timetables for the Ipswich and Caboolture rail lines further timetable reviews for other lines will start later this year, Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk announced today.

Queensland Rail and TransLink will again rely on public input to deliver better train services for the Cleveland, Beenleigh, Gold Coast, Doomben, Ferny Grove and Shorncliffe lines.

Ms Palaszczuk said work on Stage 2 of the train timetable was underway with customers to have input from November this year.

"Stage 1 delivered more seats and greater reliability on the Caboolture, North Coast and Ipswich/Rosewood lines and I want to see that level of service afforded to all South East Queensland train passengers," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"We have shown we are serious about working with customers through feedback, consultation and information sessions.

"We received more than 2000 pieces of valuable feedback from members of the public during the first stage and we will be looking for that same level of feedback for Stage 2.

"This review will allow Queensland Rail to maximise our investment in the 64 new three-car trains, which are rolling off the production line at a rate of one per month.

"Currently, there's an average of 180,000 passenger journeys on the Queensland Rail network every day, so we need to make sure that those passengers get to where they need to go in the best and most efficient way possible."

Stage 1 of the new timetable recast started on June 6 - the largest improvement of rail services in more than 15 years - delivering more than 150,000 weekly train seats to the Caboolture, Ipswich, Rosewood, Richlands and North Coast lines.

"For the most part the biggest timetable change in 15 years has gone extremely well," she said.

"It's quite an achievement given more than 870 rail services and approximately 15,000 bus services operate across South East Queensland on a daily basis."

"When the Queensland Government launched the new Queensland Rail on July 1 last year, we promised a renewed focus on meeting timetables, reliability and customer service," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"We will continue to deliver improvement for passengers and remain focused on building a world class public transport system for South East Queensland."

==============================================================

[ozbob]

Question from Member for Indooroopilly for CEO QR ... how much extra for carbon tax to run trains.  Response, still working on the modelling.

Follow up to CEO TL, still working on the costs.

Follow up to DG, how extra the carbon tax will cost QT?   Response, still working on detailed modelling.

[ozbob]

Follow up question from Member for Indooroopilly.  Vic Government has indicated $13 million cost through carbon tax for public transport.

CEO QR to early to comment.

[ozbob]

Question to DG from Member for Indooroopilly, still working on the costs of carbon tax.

[ozbob]

DD on concessions.

[ozbob]

Member for Redcliffe, DD on MBRL.

[ozbob]

Question on long term rail needs.  DD on CRR.

Minister:  One of the biggest tpt projects in Qld History.  Work going on, EIS due out in a couple of months.  See as a long term vision and solution.  Stations etc.   Minister stated the strategic importance, delayed because of the floods.  But IA recognise as an important project, we recognise it as an important project.

CEO QR:  Can't add much other than QR and Customer base look forward to the construction etc. of CRR.

[ozbob]

Question on GCRT,  DD.  Overview by Minister.

Minister mentions the rip up of the line to Southport  in 1964 ... 

[ozbob]

DD on Darra to Springfield transport corridor to Minister.

Ellen Grove mentioned as a future station site, Springfield and Springfield Lakes mentioned.

Bus - Springfield to Richlands mentioned.  

Flicked to CEO TL for update .... looking viable, not surprisingly strong positive feedback from community consultation. Detailed planning stage, services to be supplied later this year!  YAY!!!

  <--

[somebody]

Question on long term rail needs.  DD on CRR.

Minister:  One of the biggest tpt projects in Qld History.  Work going on, EIS due out in a couple of months.  See as a long term vision and solution.  Stations etc.   Minister stated the strategic importance, delayed because of the floods.  But IA recognise as an important project, we recognise it as an important project.

CEO QR:  Can't add much other than QR and Customer base look forward to the construction etc. of CRR.

There was no real commitment to build the line!  Or even go to go to the election with it as a policy.

[ozbob]

Further question from Member for Indooroopilly on Carbon Tax.  Answered by explaining the environmental advantage of ferry, bus, train in terms of taking vehicles off the road. Further discussion on ETS and so forth.

[ozbob]

Member for Indooroopilly. Will costs of carbon tax be passed on to ticket prices? Minister we don't know the costs, modelling has to be done.

[ozbob]

Member for Indooroopilly.  Question on licence plates contract.

[ozbob]

Member for Indooroopilly.  Question to TL CEO, complaints in Tracker increased?  

Followup, why was there in an increase?  Response:  Flooding, and the difficulties with the river system out and so forth.

Followup:  per 10,000 trips.  Why have the complaints gone up 25%?  Response, number of factors, dislocation in the network, ....

[ozbob]

Member for Indooroopilly.  Question on fare adjustments, to CEO TL.

Online now 26% of adjustments.  Mentioned they did a blanket adjustment following the issues at Roma St last week.

Repeat of question, how many requests for adjustment?  Unable to respond with actual asked for only number adjusted.

(Missing the real issue IMHO, how many fixed fares, how many adjusted ...)

[ozbob]

Member for Indooroopilly,  question on performance bonuses.

[ozbob]

Question from the Chair on road safety. 

[ozbob]

Question on Kuranda rail,  nice DD to wind up I think ... lol

[ozbob]

Another DD on Cairns bus station project.

[ozbob]

Final question from Chair, remote and regional intiatives.

Another DD from Member for Brisbane, on delivery of Cycling infrastructure projects.  Mention of the Cycling Congress.

[ozbob]

Member for Brisbane question on efforts for  2011/12 to further improve public transport?  DD

We need to hear what people are thinking.  Formed PTAG, with community reps etc.  Go card usage at 80% was stressed as being successfull (the price differential for paper was not mentioned).  Go card enhancements mentioned in general terms.

[ozbob]

Member for Indooroopilly.  Question on why is patronage projected to fall for 2011/12?

[CEO TL now advises total number of requests for adjustments is recorded.]

Question on affordability?  Spun away ..

[ozbob]

Concluded:

Summary

Some effort by the Opposition to highlight waste, missed the bus on the real issues with the go card IMHO.

Minister gave a general overview on many things.  

Good news is that Richlands <--> Springfield bus is GO!

Committment to stage two timetable review.

Hansard will be up in around an hour and a half.  Minister thanks CEOs , committee, personal staff, staff at Dept of Transport and Main Roads.  

Second that!

[Stillwater]

Some key issues:

Minister is committed to Go-card enhancements, although these enhancements are not stated.

CRR is not dead.  It survives on life support.  An EIS will be ready in 'several months', which causes a question to be asked about when a draft EIS will be ready in time for public comment such that the final document can answer community questions and incorporate those responses in any final documentation.  Of course, no commitment to construction start date.  All indications are that this project is slipping (as are other transport infrastructure projects) and, if it is slipping, itscost is accelerating all the time.  This affects the BCR bottom line.

Good news that timetables for major rail lines other than Ipswich-Caboolture will proceed from November 2011.

[ozbob]

Transport and Multicultural Affairs
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk
14/07/2011

Eastern busway to deliver 100,000 new weekly bus seats

New buses will roll through two new bus stations adding more than 100,000 weekly seats to the transport network when work on the Eastern Busway finishes later this year.

Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said the bus service package would coincide with the opening of the $466 million Eastern Busway extension which links Buranda to Coorparoo via two tunnels and two new stations at Stones Corner and Langlands Park.

More than 2000 bus services a week would stop the new Stones Corner busway station and more than 1700 bus services would stop at Langlands Park.

"These new bus services will benefit thousands of Brisbane residents in and around Coorparoo, Stones Corner, Greenslopes, Carindale, Belmont, Mansfield, Chatsworth and St Lucia," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"The Eastern Busway is a significant addition to our world-class busway network which moves more than 60 million people each year."

She said the package included 31 new buses, 12 new bus stops and five new bus routes, including two new high frequency bus routes - route 222 (Carindale-Roma St) and 590 (Garden City-Number One Airport Drive).

"These services will also target crowded buses around Carindale and UQ St Lucia," she said.

The main service on the Eastern Busway extension is the 222, which will run every 10 minutes in peak and every 15 minutes off peak between 6am and 11pm.

Other eastern bus improvements include:

    New peak P217 route servicing Carindale, Camp Hill, Carina, Benetts Road, Coorparoo, Langland's Park, Stones Corner, Buranda via Captain Cook Bridge and terminating in the city at Queen and Wharf Streets (Riverside);
    New peak-hour feeder route 213 (Cannon Hill to Carindale via Belmont);
    New peak hour route P205 (Scrub Road-city via Winstanley and Samuel Streets);
    New high frequency, cross-town route 590 (Garden City-Number One Airport Drive) via Carindale, Cannon Hill, Metroplex, Trade Coast Central and the Gateway Motorway; and
    New inner city bus route 29 (Woolloongabba busway-UQ Lakes Bus Station) every 15 minutes during university semester.

Member for Greenslopes Cameron Dick said residents were looking forward to the completion of the project in coming months.

"Residents have been extremely patient since construction began in late 2009," he said.

"But the end result will be a fast, frequent and reliable public transport link that will take thousands of cars off our roads."

==============================================================

[O_128]

So we just wasted 450 million and the 200 and etc arent moving to the eastern busway?

[somebody]

[CEO TL now advises total number of requests for adjustments is recorded.]

Confused by this exchange.  Tracker reports >5 go card adjustments per 10k go card trips, against around 3 adjustment requests.  I think I prefer the suggestion that this statistic isn't logged.

[ozbob]

Transport and Multicultural Affairs
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk
14/07/2011

LNP running scared at transport estimate hearing

The LNP could only manage 10 questions to Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk at an estimates hearing that went for more than two hours this afternoon.

Shadow Transport Minister Scott Emerson shied away from asking the Minister questions showing a complete disinterest in public transport issues Queenslanders care about.

"It was an extraordinary display from an Opposition that has no policy and no plan for public transport in Queensland," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"Quite clearly their interest in public transport is skin deep with next to no questions about the government's massive $1.8 billion spend for public transport."

Ms Palaszczuk said it is clear the LNP want to avoid transport discussion given divisions within the Party over the Gold Coast light rail project and Cross River Rail.

"And who could forget the silent response when the LNP's Sunshine Coast members were recently asked how they would spend $1 billion on public transport by local newspapers," she said.

"Particularly the answer given by the Shadow Minister who could not name a project or 'go into specifics'."

Ms Palaszczuk said the Government would continue with the biggest transport infrastructure projects in Australia including the Moreton Bay Rail Link, Gold Coast light rail project and rail extension from Darra to Springfield.

==============================================================

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Thousands spent on phantom car parks

Thousands spent on phantom car parks
Daniel Hurst
July 14, 2011 - 4:14PM

Thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent paying for inner-city car parking spaces that did not exist, a parliamentary committee has been told.

Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads spent $2.6 million a year on 505 car parks but 16 of these spaces could not be found, an audit report seized on today by Opposition transport spokesman Scott Emerson said.

Mr Emerson said the review also showed some carparking passes were held by people who no longer worked for the department or the passes did not have employee names recorded for them.

It also found 8.5 per cent of people did not have a clear entitlement to their car park space.

The department had potentially paid $79,000 too much in fringe benefits tax for carparking in 2009/10, or 12 per cent more than it should have, according to the September 2010 draft report that was released to the opposition.

Transport and Main Roads director-general Dave Stewart, who faced a grilling at today's budget estimates hearing, said the department had acted on the findings and new policies had been put in place.

"As soon as we found a discrepancy within the data we closed the issue down," he said.

"I am very confident that we identified this issue and we sorted this issue out."

Mr Stewart said people who were not entitled to parking bays no longer had passes.

Under questioning by Mr Emerson, Mr Stewart said he was not aware of any issue of fraud regarding the parking entitlements as the auditors had not raised it.

"I didn't ask the auditors that specific question," he said.

Mr Stewart said the money overpaid in fringe benefits tax had not yet been recovered.

Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Department of Transport and Main Roads was a "huge organisation" and various car park leasing arrangements were in place.

"I have every confidence that the Director-General will take the necessary action needed in relation to this issue," she said.

The draft version of the audit report stated said the Department of Transport and Main Roads paid for 505 car parking spaces in 19 leased and owned buildings in the CBD and Fortitude Valley.

"However, only 489 bays were accounted for in the stocktake of parking bays," the report stated.

"Monthly charges range from $122.98 to $835.70 for an individual car space across buildings."

Mr Emerson said it was clear the government was "wasting taxpayers' money at every turn".

The issue was raised during today's transport-focused budget estimates committee hearing.

This year, for the first time, government and opposition MPs are entitled to directly question senior public servants during the estimates sessions.

Earlier, Ms Palaszczuk trumpeted government investments in transport, pointing to busway, rail and cycle projects. She highlighted projects such as the light-rail development on the Gold Coast and the upcoming Moreton Bay rail link.

More than two hours has been set down for questioning on transport portfolio matters.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/thousands-spent-on-phantom-car-parks-20110714-1hfht.html

[somebody]

The LNP could only manage 10 questions to Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk at an estimates hearing that went for more than two hours this afternoon.

She has a point.

[ozbob]

Question from Member for Indooroopilly for CEO QR ... how much extra for carbon tax to run trains.  Response, still working on the modelling.

Follow up to CEO TL, still working on the costs.

Follow up to DG, how extra the carbon tax will cost QT?   Response, still working on detailed modelling.

The Victorian Government has claimed today that the Carbon Tax will cost $13 million for their public transport electricity costs. 

[STB]

So we just wasted 450 million and the 200 and etc arent moving to the eastern busway?

I don't think it's necessary for route 200 to service the new busway (at least until the busway is extended to Carindale).  There's other routes that will service the busway including possibly existing routes 250 and 270.  Just pull Routes 250 and 270 out of The Gabba and all will be good.  Those passengers wanting The Gabba catch route 200, those wanting Buranda catch either routes 250 or 270.  Or any other route that will go there.

[somebody]

There is also the 204.  Do you see a need for both of these routes to connect Old Cleveland Rd and Woolloongabba?

[ozbob]

Eastern busway discussion --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2726.msg63214#msg63214

[ozbob]

Hansard is now available --> http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/hansard/2011/2011_07_14_Estimates.pdf

ESTIMATES—TRANSPORT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE—TRANSPORT

[Jonno]

Just pathetic.  The lack of questions on true transport planning issues make me sick to the stomach.  Grade 3 class could have asked harder questions.  Real insight into Departments approach to planning with 500 car parking spaces bring provided for staff.  Public and active transport does not stand a chance.

Next election I am voting for the Grade 7 class at Mt Gravatt State Scool (random school)   They could do a better job than either major party.

Very long sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SurfRail]

Real insight into Departments approach to planning with 500 car parking spaces bring provided for staff. 

This figure of course is interesting for 2 reasons:

1. It presumably only includes the commercial rates being paid to landlords of buildings they occupy as tenants, and therefore would not include parking provisioned in government buildings, which will push that figure up significantly.

2. The government lets out several buildings in the CBD fringe within spitting distance of busway and railway stations.  RBWH station and the big government presence in Citilink is one such pairing that comes to mind, as is the fact there is on-grade parking for staff at inner-city South Brisbane Station, which is possibly the easiest rail station in SEQ to get to by bus and train given the amount of connections available...

[longboi]

2. The government lets out several buildings in the CBD fringe within spitting distance of busway and railway stations.  RBWH station and the big government presence in Citilink is one such pairing that comes to mind, as is the fact there is on-grade parking for staff at inner-city South Brisbane Station, which is possibly the easiest rail station in SEQ to get to by bus and train given the amount of connections available...

Bit hard for staff who have to be at the station before first train/after last train 

[SurfRail]

2. The government lets out several buildings in the CBD fringe within spitting distance of busway and railway stations.  RBWH station and the big government presence in Citilink is one such pairing that comes to mind, as is the fact there is on-grade parking for staff at inner-city South Brisbane Station, which is possibly the easiest rail station in SEQ to get to by bus and train given the amount of connections available...

Bit hard for staff who have to be at the station before first train/after last train 

South Brisbane contains a fair amount of office space, which is what most of that parking seems to be for.

[longboi]

2. The government lets out several buildings in the CBD fringe within spitting distance of busway and railway stations.  RBWH station and the big government presence in Citilink is one such pairing that comes to mind, as is the fact there is on-grade parking for staff at inner-city South Brisbane Station, which is possibly the easiest rail station in SEQ to get to by bus and train given the amount of connections available...

Bit hard for staff who have to be at the station before first train/after last train 

South Brisbane contains a fair amount of office space, which is what most of that parking seems to be for.

As somebody who has worked at that particular station I can tell you it is also for station staff.