Just imagine you get on a train and you are heading towards the capital city of a state. You are enjoying your trip as you look out the window to see the scenic views along the way. You pull out of a station to get going again. All of a sudden the train stops and reverses back up the track. You are wondering "what on earth is happening?" No - someone hasn't hijacked the train. The train is just going back to the previous station. Why? To allow another train to pass of course. That is what you get on the Sunshine Coast Rail Line between Beerburrum to Nambour. That is just one of the bizarre things that occur on this stretch of train track. If this occurred in Europe we would be a laughing stock, so you have to wonder what tourists say about us when they get home.
Mystery 2 - You turn up to the train station to catch a train. You wait on the platform for the train, only to be told you missed the bus. Yes, a bus. Due to there being only one rail track, buses are used along the line. This is because freight services are using the single train track. 44% of the train services are buses. That amounts to 26 bus trips a day. The Nambour to Caboolture stretch of track is just 54kms in length. To take a bus and not the train adds at least 30 minutes to a commuters travel time.
Travelling to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast can be daunting. Just think about those people that travel to Brisbane 5 days a week to work. They are squeezed in like sardines on the trains. On occasions there is not even toilet facilities for the long haul trip. I haven't travelled on the service for over 4 years now, but I understand the situation has not improved. The situation is also likely to worsen as the population on the Sunshine Coast is set to boom. The Sunshine Coast population in 2006 was around 297000 people, 2012 around 330000, by 2031 it is expected to reach half a million.
Why is 2031 important, that is what the former Labor Government set as the target date to have the duplication completed by and what the new LNP Government has committed to do. The LNP prior to their big win were giving the impression that they would be fast tracking the duplication. There was the petition by John Connolly(contender for the Nicklin Seat) which was sponsored by Andrew Powell(Glass House Mountains MP and Environment Minister) calling for the duplication
to be resumed. So, I hope they keep their promise.
The Bligh Government had planned on the duplication to be done earlier. 2009 saw the completion of the Caboolture to Beerburrum track duplication. It also saw Labor lose the seat of Glass House Mountains in their re-election win. 24 days later the duplication project was shelved. In 2012, there is a new LNP government. Scott Emerson the Transport Minister announced an audit which will look at the duplication along with other public transport issues. I asked Jeff Addison a Sunshine Coast Commuter Advocate, "what do you expect from the LNP's Rail Audit? Put it off til 2031 or is there hope?" His reply, "There is hope. I'm certain of that." The final report is out on June 30. We will have to wait and see if these mysterious goings on will finally be resolved for Sunshine Coast Commuters.
CORRECTION; Hon Scott Emerson MP, Minister for Transport and Main Roads, is not looking into rail duplication. The audit referred to is looking into the reliability and integrity of the rail network. This includes the Sunshine Coast line also.
ReplyDeleteI do have hope that the rail duplication to Nambour will occur before the current 2031 deadline. Reality may be much different. Time will tell if the LNP make up for the long neglect of Sunshine Coast rail.
ReplyDeleteThis is from the Queensland Parliament Hansard - I have made two additions to the statements. they are marked with an * and are bracketed.
ReplyDeleteMr WELLINGTON: My question is to the Minister for Transport. With respect to the delays in the completion of the duplication of the railway line from Nambour to Brisbane, will the minister support calls to bring forward the completion of this important transport link and, if so, discuss the project with the
federal transport minister at the next ministerial conference?
Mr EMERSON: I thank the honourable member for the question. This project has a long history.
Let us not forget what Labor promised ahead of the 2009 election. Before the 2009 election it promised that this work would be done, that the money was in the bank and that it would complete the project.
However, 26 days after the 2009 election, what happened? The honourable member sitting behind me was elected to the seat of Glass House and Labor scrapped the project. They said, ‘There’s no money, despite our election promises of 2009.’ We know about all the other election promises they scrapped. Was there a mention about asset sales? No! There was nothing on asset sales(*LNP have also announced asset sales and there was no mention of them before the election).
What did the member for Nicklin do? Let us not forget who put Labor into power in 1998(*Kept One Nation out. It was a minority Labor government and his support was only required for 6 months as the Nationals and Liberals lost the Musgrave by-election). It was the member for Nicklin. In 2009 they promised him, ‘We’ll deliver’, but what did they do? Twenty-six days after the election, they scrapped the project. The reality is that there is no money from Labor for 31 May 2012 Questions Without Notice 359 that project. All that was delivered by the former transport minister, who is now the Leader of the Opposition, was a 140-page document that she called Connecting SEQ 2031, but everyone else called ‘Conning SEQ 2031’. Do members know what the biggest con was? Passed her glossy photo at the front of the brochure, at about page 130, on the top left-hand side, is a little paragraph that says, ‘We don’t commit to any of the projects in here’. On the next page it says that the cost of all the projects she outlined was $227 billion, which she did not have and did not commit to. We will work to put the appropriate infrastructure in place when we can afford it. The reality is that from Labor we have inherited $85 billion of debt, a $2.8 billion deficit and a $100 million a week interest bill on that debt. Can the member for Nicklin, the man who put Labor into power in 1998, imagine what his community could do with an extra $100 million? That money is going to pay off Labor’s debt.
On the 30th of May, Peter Wellington Mp, the Member for Nicklin submitted a petition calling for the resumption of the duplication. the petition had 301 signatures.
ReplyDelete