The Bligh Government’s rail revolution blue print released this week will get close scrutiny from the bus and coach industry as QBIC prepares its response
By David Goeldner | September 1, 2010
QBIC Executive Director David Tape says it will take some time to digest the Bligh Government’s 2031 ‘blueprint’ for transport in south-east Queensland.
This week’s release of the Connecting SEQ 2031: An Integrated Regional Transport Plan for South East Queensland generated substantial media coverage, but Tape says the plan is in draft form and not final.
“It’s a plan that is not fully funded, and neither was the previous plan, however a lot was achieved in the previous plan without specific funding allocated to it at the time,” Tape says.
“We only received the draft at yesterday’s briefing, so my intent is to engage with QBIC’s executive to digest what has been presented and then provide an appropriate industry response.”
Tagged as the ‘rail revolution’, the Bligh Government plans to triple south-east Queensland’s passenger rail capacity by 2031, costing $123 billion spent mostly on an extra 207km of railway line.
Continued construction of the busway network to the north and south-east of Brisbane is part of the plan.
“On the surface it appears to be a very bold plan,” Tape says.
“We don’t have an issue with it being called ‘rail revolution’, we see the bus and coach industry as part of the solution to our current transportation problems.”
Tape says the initial announcement late last week of the impending launch of the Bligh blueprint suggested the plan was final.
“Initially this is the way it did come across to me, that here is our plan and we are going to launch it on Tuesday,” he says.
“But it did not turn out to be the case.”
Tape commended Deputy Director General of Transport and Main Roads Mark Cridland for his presentation at this week’s briefing.
“I thought it was an excellent presentation given by Mark and his team, but it was emphasised that it is a draft plan.”
Tape says now that the draft is ‘out the door’ key stakeholders will consider their positions.
“We have three months to go over the draft, see if there are any shortfalls, and round off what I believe is a very bold and visionary plan.”
He says QBIC will take the required time to fully digest the Bligh Government’s transport proposals.
“We will take it apart, look at it in isolation if we need to and then make an appropriate industry response.”