The Sunshine Coast Case : Rail duplication Beerburrum to Nambour

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily 9th August 2019 page 9

Premier calls for funds fast-track




"We've started work on the Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade using our $190 million commitment .. "  Premier

really? 

[Fares_Fair]

Rubbish, they allocated $14.4m last financial year.
They spent $3.5m.

Money allocated in June 2018 was $160.8m, not $190m.

$50m allocated this financial year.
Wonder how little they will spend on this 'critical' project?

Correction: $14.4m

[achiruel]

I'm sure there's a fly-through video floating around somewhere if we look hard enough...that counts as "started work" right?

[ozbob]

Right!!

The only sounds I can hear of ' men at work ' is the distant sound of music from the jukebox at the Landsborough Pub 

[verbatim9]

Sunshine Coast Daily 9th August 2019 page 9

Premier calls for funds fast-track




"We've started work on the Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade using our $190 million commitment .. "  Premier

really? 

Rubbish, they allocated $14.6m last financial year.
They spent $3.5m.

Money allocated in June 2018 was $160.8m, not $190m.

$50m allocated this financial year.
Wonder how little they will spend on this 'critical' project?

^^That's a classic photo. Looks like she is counting off stuff off one hand that needs to get done. LoL!

[Fares_Fair]

Sunshine Coast Daily 9th August 2019 page 9

Premier calls for funds fast-track




"We've started work on the Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade using our $190 million commitment .. "  Premier

really? 

Rubbish, they allocated $14.6m last financial year.
They spent $3.5m.

Money allocated in June 2018 was $160.8m, not $190m.

$50m allocated this financial year.
Wonder how little they will spend on this 'critical' project?

^^That's a classic photo. Looks like she is counting off stuff off one hand that needs to get done. LoL!

Good pick up Verbatim.
She's counting off the $3.5 (million) they spent on #2tracks in the 2018/19 financial year, when it should have been $14.6 million.

Alternatively, its counting the stages of the Gold Coast Light Rail they've built or want to build (with Federal dollars) whilst doing nothing serious to advance our #SunshineCoast rail.

[#Metro]

Should have a project authority and a trust fund.

[Fares_Fair]

I met with the Sunshine Coast Regional Council Officer today to discuss their Mass Transit Strategy Business Case.
Thank you to Mayor Mark Jamieson for the opportunity.

[Stillwater]

On Saturday, I attended the official opening of the first stage of SunCentral's street grid for the new Maroochydore City Centre. SunCentral is a development company owned wholly by the SCRC. The plan includes a location for the CAMCOS rail station in a future stage. Mayor Jamieson explained it was year four of a 20-year plan to create a new city centre for the Sunshine Coast. Major investors have lodged plans for new buildings, including residential, a new hotel and offices. SCRC has approved a new 'Town Hall' to house all council staff now located at Caloundra and Nambour.

https://www.investoproperty.com.au/never-before-seen-images-of-430m-cbd-s-next-stage

https://itc.icn.org.au/project/3715/suncentral-maroochydore-master-plan?st=projects&psid=1558867137

https://www.mosaicproperty.com.au/insights/sunshine-coast-news-new-infrastructure-set-to-bring-maroochydores-new-city-centre-to-life

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily 9th August 2019 page 9

Premier calls for funds fast-track




"We've started work on the Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade using our $190 million commitment .. "  Premier

really? 

Letter to the Editor Sunshine Coast Daily 14th August 2019 pages 16 - 17

Funding shortfall

[Fares_Fair]

#QldPol #IRONY

2012:
@LNPQLD
submit case for Federal funding for #2tracks to Federal
@AustralianLabor

Get nothing

2017:
@QLDLabor
submit case for Federal funding for #2tracks to Federal
@LiberalAus

Get $390 million (50%).
Then complain it's not enough

[Fares_Fair]

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/revealed-how-much-worse-bruce-hwy-will-get/3810347/

[ozbob]

@SteveAustinABC broadcasting live from Central Station.#2tracks next. pic.twitter.com/OStrHZJxBD

— 🄹🄴🄵🄵 🄰🄳🄳🄸🅂🄾🄽 (@Jeffrey_Addison) August 21, 2019

[ozbob]

Interview on ABC Radio Brisbane 21st August 2019  Host Steve Austin with Jeff Addison Sunshine Coast RBoT

Discussion primarily on the Sunshine Coast line issues.

Here > https://backontrack.org/docs/abcbris/abcbris_ja21aug19.mp3 MP3 22.5MB

[ozbob]

Photograph of the single track at Palmwoods (Jeff Addison 2015) This single track is a major freight and passenger corridor! Precarious to say the least ..
No wonder the Bruce is a dangerous congested mess!#qldpol
Photo Entry into #Palmwoods station from the north 🚉 pic.twitter.com/Kby9qtsXLV

— RAIL_BoT_Forum (@railbotforum) August 21, 2019

[Fares_Fair]

Our rail duplication to feature as a story on ABC News tonight, as part of their infrastructure and transport series.
Thank you ABC for giving us a voice for our Sunshine Coast rail bottleneck that impedes freight to Cairns and passengers everywhere.

[Fares_Fair]

I have been invited to an #SEQ Stakeholder discussion with the Hon @AlanTudgeMP, Federal member for Aston and Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure.
Looking forward to highlighting the #SunshineCoast #rail, and #publictransport circumstances/needs.#2tracks

— 🄹🄴🄵🄵 🄰🄳🄳🄸🅂🄾🄽 (@Jeffrey_Addison) September 2, 2019

[Stillwater]

Do you know who might be the other invitees?

What of the North Coast Connect Business Case?  It should be out about now.

[Fares_Fair]

The Deputy Premier and Treasurer, Hon Jackie Trad MP
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner
I don't know of the others but most likely Chambers of Commerce reps and such, I'm guessing similar to the one held by Hon Darren Chester in 2016 at the Ettamogah pub.

No public word on the North Coast Connect business case.

[Stillwater]

North Coast Connect Business Case.   

[Fares_Fair]

Patience SW
Good things come to those who wait     PREFERABLY BACKED BY $

[Stillwater]

We know from publicly available sources that disproportionate investment in the Bruce Highway versus the North Coast Line means that it is more profitable and efficient to send freight by road south of Rockhampton, but the Sunday Mail today (Sunday 8 September 2019) reveals some startling figures that shed new light on the freight and passenger rail conflict on the North Coast Line.

The information comes from the Port of Brisbane Corp. and POB chief, Roy Cummins, quoting the findings of a Deloitte investigation. Its focussed on Inland Rail and the need for a direct link for Inland Rail to the port. According to Deloitte, just 2.5 per cent of container freight in Brisbane is moved by rail because the shared network gives priority to passenger services.

The Port of Brisbane has forecast that its load of 1.35 million containers a year will grow to more than 5 million by 2050, adding an extra 13 million truck movements annually around the city to service the need for goods by a growing population.

The study revealed that western Queensland container exporters had abandoned rail completely after making up 26 per cent of freight taken to the port via rail just nine years ago. (The Toowoomba Bypass would have assisted this trend.)

Now, here is the telling bit:

One hundred per cent of export containers currently on rail to the Port of Brisbane comes via the North Coast Line, particularly from Rockhampton and further north. Yet there is evidence these freight forwarders are turning to trucks.

Deloitte says: "Of the 198 loaded intermodal container trains from central and north Queensland to the port in 2017 carrying produce for export, 37 (17 per cent) were delayed into the port by over 2 hours, and another 69 (35 per cent) were delayed into port by between one and two hours."

Even when CRR is built, Deloitte predicts that rail freight operations to the port from the north would still be hampered due to the extra passenger rail services CRR would herald still clashing with rail freight train schedules.

And where is the biggest clash of passenger and rail freight? The Sunshine Coast, where the state has federal money, and some of its own, to build duplicated rail tracks.  Yet the project is stalled due to petty politics.  Queensland's economy and ability to export its goods and products is severely hampered.

[ozbob]

The biggest obstacle is the department of Transport and Main Roads.  They are not advocates for rail and frankly are almost anti-rail in my view.

They ' capture ' the Minister of the day, who ends up believing the tripe they peddle.

Unless there are some radical restructures and key appointment changes.  Progress will be poor, the situation will get very chaotic ( one could argue we are at that point, how about more chaotic  ) .

But don't worry about freight, we are GOING HAVE FAST RAIL TO EVERYWHERE for the OLYMPICS !!   

[Fares_Fair]

I mentioned the current situation on #2tracks rail funding at the SEQ City Deal Roundtable held on Friday morning.
The Federal Minister, the Hon Alan Tudge MP (Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure) responded that they had been holding productive discussions with the Queensland Government. 

[Stillwater]

Remember when Anna Bligh was Premier? It seems like eons.  In Premier Bligh's time, the timeline for duplication to Landsborough was extended out from 2012 to 2021 and to Nambour by 2031, when the original timeframe had been 2016.

What's the chances that the 2021 and 2031 timeframes are still locked in place, showing that the bureaucracy has not budged one iota over the years?  It will even be a race to get dual tracks to Landsborough from Beerburrum by 2021.

[verbatim9]

Remember when Anna Bligh was Premier? It seems like eons.  In Premier Bligh's time, the timeline for duplication to Landsborough was extended out from 2012 to 2021 and to Nambour by 2031, when the original timeframe had been 2016.

What's the chances that the 2021 and 2031 timeframes are still locked in place, showing that the bureaucracy has not budged one iota over the years?  It will even be a race to get dual tracks to Landsborough from Beerburrum by 2021.

Yep! Once they lock in long term projections, most of the time they are set in stone. They then have clever marketing spin Doctors to divert attention away from these topics, or just spin political blame to and from year to year, as time passes by.

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast Daily 19th September 2019 page 12

Funds fight fails to stop rail works

[ozbob]

Start Beerburrum to Landsborough.   

[achiruel]

Start Beerburrum to Landsborough.   

This would be a good idea, and allow 30 minute services all day to Landsborough where buses connect to Caloundra and Sippy Downs/Mooloolaba/Maroochydore.

What then, though, is duplication to Nambour still a priority or is CAMCOS a more pressing need? I tend to lean toward the latter.

[timh]

Duplication to Beerwah at least is needed for CAMCOS tho..

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Stillwater]

The project is still in the 'pre-construction' phase.  Mr Bailey should give exact details of the phases and the time it would take to build each. It would be helpful also to define the added costs of building one phase, packing up, then coming back to build the second phase etc., as well the cost of multiple tenders.  That way, it could be demonstrated that there are cost savings in building bigger sections as a job lot.  Armed with that information, bright minds might see wisdom.

Beerburrum-Landsborough is logical. CAMCOS remains a pipe dream. In any event, the commitment is for duplication to Nambour, not Caloundra or Maroochydore. That is a related, but different, argument.

[achiruel]

Duplication to Beerwah at least is needed for CAMCOS tho..

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Understood, my post was more about what happens post-Landsborough duplication, if it is more important to continue to Nambour or to build CAMCOS. From a passenger movement perspective, I'd go with CAMCOS, but obviously NCL is more important for freight.

[Stillwater]

Annie Gaffney, the ABC Sunshine Coast mornings announcer, revealed on air today that she will be working and undergoing skills training at ABC Southbank HQ for the next three months. Today will be her last day on air for the rest of the year. She will be travelling too and from her new temporary workplace by train, every weekday. A new Sunshine Coast rail advocate in the making?

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> $250m Qld public servant bonuses could have funded major rail projects

A NEW congestion-busting and job-creating rail line could have been built for southeast Queensland with $250 million instead being splashed on public servant bonuses.

As anger builds over the $1250 payments to public servants earning up to $122,000, The Courier-Mail can reveal two rail lines labelled as "priority projects" by Infrastructure Australia could have been funded with the money.

The next stage of Gold Coast light rail and the Sunshine Coast rail duplication are both stalled due to a funding fight between the state and federal governments.

But either shovel-ready project could have broken ground for the same amount being doled out to public servants.

Despite state and federal funding commitments, light rail stage 3A from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads is short by $270 million and the Beerburrum to Nambour line needs $230 million to go ahead.

The State Government is arguing the Commonwealth has short-changed the state and needs to tip in the shortfall.

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk defended the taxpayer-funded handouts — which come on top of a "responsible" 2.5 per cent pay boost — after Treasurer Jackie Trad insisting the move was about driving economic growth.

She said the pay rise was in line with other states and the bonuses were factored into the Budget.

"Let's be very clear here, we're talking about our nurses, our fireys, our teachers," she said.

"Are people saying that the fireys don't deserve this?"

The Government maintains 91.4 per cent of its workforce are in "frontline and frontline support roles", but there is no list of jobs defined as "frontline support".

The Courier-Mail revealed this year that of 4391 public servants expected to join the ranks in 2019-20, only 61 per cent are in what the Government lists as key frontline positions - teachers, teacher aids, nurses, health practitioners, doctors, paramedics and police officers.

Infrastructure Association of Queensland chief executive Priscilla Radice said building infrastructure was a real economic stimulus.

"As a principle, I would like to see money going into infrastructure more broadly," she said.

"We believe investment in economic-enabling infrastructure stimulates the economy.

"It provides jobs ... (and) ensures that we can deliver on population growth and it's population growth that drives economic growth."

"It keeps companies working in Queensland and people in jobs and we have to support private sector jobs."

She said both rail lines were key projects that must go ahead as southeast Queensland was "rail light" and poorly connected, but road networks also needed upgrading.

Meanwhile, pensioners joined the chorus of farmers, builders and economists who suggested the money could have been better spent.

Australian Pensioners and Superannuants League state secretary Cherith Weis said her members would have preferred to see rego rises capped or utility subsidies increased.

"I mean the first I knew about it was when I grabbed the paper on Sunday on the way home from church," she said.

"I think it's outlandish, I really do."

She said she didn't see how the money would boost the economy, as claimed.

"I can't see how and I've been around for a while and I just can't see the reasoning," she said.

https://twitter.com/railbotforum/status/1176514066799423488

[Stillwater]

Palaszczuk and Trad have handed a gift to the Coalition Federal Government in Canberra.

Premier/Trad/Bailey: "Give us another $250m for the Sunshine Coast Line duplication, bring the cost-sharing to 80-20 per cent and we will get on and build it."

Feds: "Why should we?  Maybe you will just give it away to public servants."  And why should the Feds give money to Queensland for a worthwhile project if the dollars get syphoned off through the system to spend on some other dumbarse idea.

Minister Trad's claim that the bonus/pay deal bribe to public servants is an economic stimulus doesn't stack up.  All Queenslanders are being taxed to pay the bonus to a relatively few or, as is more likely the case, the $250m will be borrowed or skimmed off the top of GST payments from the Feds to the state.

Putting it towards new Infrastructure construction costs (other than CRR, which is already 'fully funded by the state', Trad says) would create jobs during the construction phase and would trigger the BCR benefits of that project.  Looked at in that light, the probable outcome of a $250m handout to public servants generates a BCR of one 1:1.

[SurfRail]

We already get heaps of money from Canberra (more than most states), we just p%ss it all away on roads and other unproductive assets.

[Gazza]

Duplication to Beerwah at least is needed for CAMCOS tho..

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Understood, my post was more about what happens post-Landsborough duplication, if it is more important to continue to Nambour or to build CAMCOS. From a passenger movement perspective, I'd go with CAMCOS, but obviously NCL is more important for freight.

-Duplicate to Landsborough first

-Then do whatever is needed to lengthen passing loops north between Landsborough and Nambour to bring it up to the standards of the NCL as a whole. This would permit longer more frequent freight, and an hourly passenger service no worries.

-Build CAMCOS to Aura and Caloundra at least. North of that point the SC can decide wether they want heavy rail or light rail first.

Much like the Eastern Busway and Northern Busway plans with extensive tunnelling have been in suspended animation for years, I think the concept of the full realignment with extensive tunneling and 160 km/h running between Landsborough and Woombye is destined to forever sit on the drawing boards for a few reason.

-It's a step increase in cost. $500m to duplicate to Landsborough is a bargain. $2-3bil to do the rest is not.

-It's overkill for freight because they cant do 160 km/h

-It's overkill for passenger services because Mooloolah, Edulo and Palmwoods are too close together to really take advantage of that track speed, and the passenger numbers north of Landsborough are only a few hundred per day.

-If CAMCOS or light rail exist, they'll shift to carrying the bulk of the passenger load, attract new passengers. The 605, 610 and 615 will see less demand (Like what happened to the 740 after light rail stage 2 opened on the GC) and Nambour will see less relevance as a connection hub.

[Stillwater]

From the QR Annual Report

North Coast Line Capacity Improvement Project:  Queensland Rail is committed to improving freight capacity on the North Coast line and in 2018-19 continued its $100 million investment to lengthen eight passing loops and boost capacity for freight trains using this important supply chain.

A $14.5 million contract to complete the civil design and construction work was awarded during this period and design and site geotechnical investigations commenced. Early works, including earthworks and the construction of culverts, will commence in the coming year.

When completed, the project will allow the length of freight trains travelling on the line to be increased from 650 metres to 950 metres, significantly boosting the volume operators can transport on the line.

[Gazza]

Nice.

Is there a long term vision for the maximum train length they want? 1500m?

Guess it depends on passing loops all the way to Cairns....

[Fares_Fair]

From the QR Annual Report

North Coast Line Capacity Improvement Project:  Queensland Rail is committed to improving freight capacity on the North Coast line and in 2018-19 continued its $100 million investment to lengthen eight passing loops and boost capacity for freight trains using this important supply chain.

A $14.5 million contract to complete the civil design and construction work was awarded during this period and design and site geotechnical investigations commenced. Early works, including earthworks and the construction of culverts, will commence in the coming year.

When completed, the project will allow the length of freight trains travelling on the line to be increased from 650 metres to 950 metres, significantly boosting the volume operators can transport on the line.

An excellent initiative by the Qld state government.
Great work QR and great for freight.
So good to see these incremental improvements for freight.