Whichever party wins Queensland’s state election this Saturday, the new government will need to maintain a long-term vision of an integrated transport network and remain committed to investment in the state’s rail system if the benefits of projects are to be realised, according to Neil Scales, director-general of Queensland’s Department of Transport and Roads.
Speaking to a large AusRAIL conference audience on Wednesday, Scales said that it was important for government to envision 5 or 10-year timetables for outcomes on planned projects, rather than narrowly considering results borne by the initial the 12 or 18 months as determining ultimate success or failure.
Moreover, the state’s rail system, according to Scales, had to be viewed as part of a single integrated and accessible network.
“We want to connect people to people, people to places, people to education, people to healthcare, people to opportunities,” Scales told AusRAIL delegates.
“There is a massive freight task as well, getting goods from paddock to port and back again. We’ve therefore got to make sure everything is integrated. Transport is an ecosystem. And this means that whatever government gets in, whether federally or state-wise, they continue to invest in the transport network.”
In the context of such a large state with a “massively decentralised” network, Scales said, long-term planning for such a system was necessary. The Department of Transport and Roads has been developing twelve local plans to address this decentralisation, all of which will be co-ordinated towards the goal of system integration.
These Regional Transport Plans, the drafts of which are to be released in early 2018, will be developed with stakeholders from state and local government, business and industry, thereby establishing common transport priorities between the various parties.
One draft plan, developed in co-ordination with the Mackay, Isaac, and Whitsunday Regional Councils, has already been released, and is now being developed toward its finalisation.
Scales said it was important these plans were all working in the same direction.
“And that can be really difficult when government changes. We’ve spent a lot of time with the last government in a big planning programme, and we’ve taken the best of that forward. And that’s what we all know is important about rail: once you’ve got a plan, you have to stick to it and keep to the investment,” he told the audience.
Referring to the Queensland’s New Generation Rollingstock fleet, he said that “Bombardier had done a great job, and people will see how good they are when they are actually out on the network. Drivers like them”.
He also noted that, while there have been widely-reported issues with the fleet, it had to be kept in mind that the period between the testing and rollout for Brisbane’s previous Downer-constructed fleet was not brief either, and that a meticulous testing and adjustment phase was a normal part of placing new trains on any network.
The lengthy construction period for the first Gold Coast light rail line between Gold Coast University Hospital and Broadbeach South was also, Scales said, standard for these kinds of systems, and the planning and delivery process had set the groundwork for a speedier installation of the second line expanding upon it.
Scales also used the opportunity to remind politicians and treasury officials that the long-term positive impact of rail development can’t necessarily be reduced to benefit-cost ratios, and said that the Australian rail industry could look to London’s Crossrail project (who’s chair Sir Terry Jones spoke at AusRAIL on Tuesday) as a salutary example.
“Instead of concentrating on the BCR, we should be looking at the public benefits 4 or 5 years after we open a project,” Scales said.
Scales finished his address to AusRAIL by emphasising rail’s status as the backbone of an integrated transport system, but said that it couldn’t exist and thrive in isolation from other transport modes.
“Rail’s future, I believe, is bright. But it is not a standalone, mono-modal system – it’s part of an integrated transport network, part of an ecosystem. Rail does not exist in a vacuum,” he concluded.