The delivery of Cross River Rail has been officially guaranteed after financial close was reached this morning between the state government and Pulse, the consortium selected as the preferred proponents in April.
This means that the government will now begin making payments available to the consortium as part of the PPP (public private partnership) agreement.
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said that the Roma Street Transit Centre will now commence demolition, which is expected to begin before the end of the year, with actual groundbreaking construction next year.
“This project will create 7700 jobs during construction, and we expect to see those jobs starting in the next couple of months.”
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad today said this was a key milestone that locks in the companies that will deliver the biggest infrastructure project south-east Queensland has seen in decades.
“After the Newman LNP government scrapped this project and tore up the funding deal, we have got it back on track.”
Currently, the Go-Print site at Woolloongabba has been completely cleared and will soon become the staging area for the large tunnel boring machines and roadheaders.
“Our commitment to this project will see tunnelling construction kick off next year too”.
Ms Trad said the Cross River Rail project would transform public transport in the region and revitalise the precincts around the new stations at Exhibition, Albert Street, Roma Street and Woolloongabba.
“By 2036, the south-east corner alone will be home to nearly five million people which makes the need for turn up and go public transport essential,” she said.
“South East Queensland is one of Australia’s fastest growing regions, and we need to build infrastructure now that helps us keep pace with that growth.
“Our public transport network is nearing capacity, constrained by a single rail river crossing with all lines running through the same four city centre stations.
“Cross River Rail will unlock this bottleneck creating new capacity for the whole region as it grows, ensuring high-capacity train stations where they are needed most.”
The Pulse Consortium is comprised of CIMIC Group companies, Pacific Partnerships, CPB Contractors, and UGL with international partners DIF, BAM, and Ghella Investments & Partnerships.
CIMIC Group Chief Executive Office Michael Wright said they would use an integrated approach to the PPP project, based on CIMIC’s end-to-end capabilities across a project’s life cycle.
“We will finance, design, construct and maintain the new tunnels and rail stations, in partnership with the State Government, to deliver world-class rail assets and services for South East Queensland,” Mr Wright said.
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A very worthwhile and much needed transport project. The Rail Fail needs to be sorted out first. The lack of drivers and lack of preparedness to incorporate the new Redcliffe line into the existing rail network was diabolical, especially as it was known for years that more drivers would be needed for more train services. It has still not been rectified after years of problems. The training of new drivers will need to be underway now to cater for the cross river rail as there will need to be many more and larger trains to cater for the goal of future proofing the rail and road system from the population explosion. The mission statement appears to be to reduce cars on the roads and get people on trains.
There will need to be a huge development of local car parking and in fact multi-level car parking in as many areas as possible. People still need to drive their cars to their nearest rail station and park their cars. I know normal car parking spaces are always being improved, but a case of huge improvement of car parking is required to keep cars to localised areas and for people to then to transfer to trains. The High Rise developments at the Gabba is the way to go for all other rail station hubs to cater for the population growth and to make it close and accessible for rail users to get to the railway stations. The idea of trying to force people on to buses and trains by reducing car parking spaces for each unit failed and now the suburban streets are parking lots. The people who use trains and live in units will still have 2 or 3 cars each unit for other shopping uses, weekend use or travelling away from or across the radial transport spokes, that go into the Central Business District, like we have. It is good that council are in the process of wanting to increase the number of car parks per unit.
The government need to stop the band aide payment of ninety million dollars per year of overtime payment to drivers and guards. Some compromise between government and the unions needs to be undertaken to get services up to scratch for now so that a gradual increase of drivers and guards can be made towards the the bringing on line of the cross rail links. This may include pay rises for guards and drivers and a temporary relaxing or moratorium on non Queensland State Rail Employees to be allowed into the system for a limited amount of time until the number of drivers and guards reach the necessary level so services can be met without the potential burn out of drivers doing huge overtime shifts.
Great step in the right direction for Brisbane