Passenger Rail

Trad, Palaszczuk call on Turnbull for CRR funds

Queensland Premier and Deputy Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad have urged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to commit funding to Brisbane’s massive Cross River Rail project ahead of Friday’s COAG meeting in Hobart.

Palaszczuk said on Thursday she planned to use Friday’s meeting of the Council of Australian Governments to repeat her request for a matching contribution for CRR from the Federal Government.

“My Government has committed $850 million for Cross River Rail,” Palaszczuk said on Thursday.

“It will take up to 18,500 car trips off our major arterial roads every day. There can be no more excuses. The Turnbull Government needs to contribute to Cross River Rail and help my Government cut congestion.”

Trad, the deputy premier and minister for infrastructure and transport, said she would also be discussing CRR with the federal ministers at the meeting.

“Without Cross River Rail, we won’t be able to build the vital connections to our growing regions, including the Sunshine Coast, Flagstone and Springfield lines because we simply won’t have the capacity across our one inner city river crossing, the Merivale Bridge,” Trad said.

“We have worked co-operatively with the Federal Government and have provided all the information they need to make a decision. The Turnbull Government has funded major rail projects in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia but is refusing to give Queensland our fair share.

“This is not good enough,” she concluded. “We need the Federal Government to start listening to Queenslanders and contribute funding to our number one infrastructure priority Cross River Rail.”