Passenger Rail

Hinchliffe: State Opposition will be last aboard Cross River Rail

Queensland’s Liberal National Party should follow the lead of its federal body and get behind Cross River Rail, the state’s transport minister Stirling Hinchliffe has said.

Hinchliffe, appointed by Labor Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk late last year, said the state Opposition was now the last major party – state or federal – to oppose the project.

Listed by Infrastructure Australia as a high priority initiative, Cross River Rail would provide a north-south passenger rail line through Brisbane.

The Cross River Rail proposal is for a 10.2-kilometre rail link from north of the CBD at Bowen Hills, to south of the CBD at Salisbury.

The project would involve a 5.9-kilometre tunnel under the Brisbane River and CBD.

The current Cross River Rail is the third version of the rail link, after the Bus and Train (BaT) Tunnel proposal made in 2013, and the previous Cross River Rail originally launched in 2010.

Queensland’s Labor Government on April 7 announced it would establish an authority to deliver the project, and will seek federal, state and local government co-investment and private sector participation in funding it.

Federal major projects minister Paul Fletcher has voiced his support for the project, saying on April 7 the Turnbull Government “stands ready to work with the Queensland Government” on the project.

“As part of [the business case] assessment, the Turnbull Government will be particularly interested in seeing if there are options for innovative funding and financing,” he said.

The project has the support of the Federal Opposition, with leader Bill Shorten saying on April 7 that Cross River Rail is “Labor’s number one infrastructure project for Brisbane”.

With both sides of federal politics supporting the project, Hinchliffe on April 11 called on Queensland’s Liberal National Coalition to join the rest of the parties in supporting the project.

“The Australian Government and Federal Opposition have reiterated their support for Cross River Rail, and both support the use of innovative funding and financing to deliver this critical infrastructure project,” Hinchliffe said.

“It is only the Queensland LNP and Scott Emerson who refuse to get on board.

“Support is building for Cross River Rail because everyone acknowledges this is a time critical project that must be delivered to address capacity constraints identified in the Australian Infrastructure Audit.

“Scott Emerson and the Queensland LNP are the only ones who are out of the loop when it comes to support for a second river rail crossing.”

1 Comment

  1. It looks like Hinchcliffe is playing politics again – the previous (LNP) government had indeed backed a plan to do something about the congestion on the Merivale Bridge.
    A shame that the media just print this hogwash – a little research would have shown that the previous government had a plan.