State LNP government still pushing rail line to Maroochydore for 2032
Sean Parnell
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has called on the federal Labor government to prioritise funding to support the LNP’s pledge to extend rail services to Maroochydore.
The Miles government only planned to extend rail to Caloundra, and Infrastructure Australia has now left the remainder of the project off its draft priority list.
In a press conference with Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli on Monday, Bleijie said Queenslanders had voted for change and wanted “generational and transformational infrastructure”.
Bleijie, the member for Kawana, said federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King had previously cut funding to Queensland, and the latest draft cut the number of priority projects in the state from 29 to seven – with none on the Sunshine Coast.
“The federal Labor government appear not to have Queensland as a priority,” he said.
King said the list was a draft, Commonwealth infrastructure funding to the state had increased, and if the Queensland government wanted projects on the final list “it needs to have done the work”.
“I seek advice from Infrastructure Australia as to whether something is investment ready, has the cost benefit work … done,” King said.
“Because what we had inherited was, frankly, a lot of press releases, a lot of press releases telling me that there was money set aside for projects – chronically underfunded – and what we’ve had to do is really make sure we’ve got a disciplined process.”
It won’t happen. It’s basically unachievable at this point in time. Birtinya might be achievable, but the longer they leave it, the worse the situation becomes.
Unless there are willing to look for alternate rail alignments that have a better BCA score, the Sunshine Coast will end up getting their own 'BCC fake-metro-pretend-tram-scam" rail substitute under the guise of “its too hard to build trains, lets build buses, because buses are cheaper, and its Labor’s fault”.
SCUH (Birtinya) is the most realistic the LNP can get heavy rail in a realistic timeframe. The “Maroochydore by 2032” promise was always going to be a bunch of porkies considering the ongoing Mooloolah River interchange circus.
First thing is to review the bus service that runs a similar route and see if it can be better.
Then extend the rail line into Caloundra. As the rail line extends, the rapid bus route shortens until the entire line is rail.
This is what happened with the Springfield train line. It is a good approach.
Thus the Route 601 Beerwah to Kawana thread as a short term measure, which acts as a rail feeder like the 605/615 now. All that is needed is bus and drivers (plus HASTUS driver rostering changes to fit in the new route).
That route gradually shortens (and frequency increases as it gets re-purposed as a local service) as the Baringa/Caloundra stage of the DSCRL opens up, and when it gets to Birtinya, the buses are moved to boost the existing routes servicing and/or terminating at Birtinya/SCUH now.