'Going it alone': Cross River Rail pushes ahead without federal funds

Despite no federal funding for Cross River Rail in Tuesday's federal budget, the state government is "going it alone" and has announced the companies responsible for building the new train network.

The project promises to deliver an extra 18,000 seats on Brisbane trains, take 14,000 drivers off the roads, cut travel time on existing south-east Queensland train lines and create more than 7700 jobs.

New Cross River Rail design images. The track is set to run underneath an upgraded Woolloongabba station.

The $5.4 billion project includes a 10.2 kilometres stretch of rail track, with 5.9 kilometres to be incorporated in a tunnel, and incorporate four underground stations.

Pulse will deliver tunnel stations at Boggo Road, Woolloongabba, Albert Street and Roma Street. They will also upgrade Dutton Park station and will develop above the new stations.

The consortium includes Italian contractor Ghella, which worked on the Legacy Way tunnel, and companies previously involved in Sydney and Melbourne rail and road projects.

UNITY is responsible for the rail integration systems, the track through the tunnels, incorporating the new rail with the existing network and a major upgrade at the Ekka station.

The alliance has worked with Queensland Rail in the past to build more than $2.5 billion worth of infrastructure on the south-east Queensland train network.

Hitachi Rail will bring a $634 million European Train Control System to the project, which will improve the safety and service frequency in the entire city rail network upon completion.

The international company specialises in signalling, communication and control systems for a variety of different railways across the globe.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the tunnelling work was set to begin in late 2020, a significant delay compared with the "second quarter of 2019" deadline given in February 2018.

Ms Palaszczuk also said the contracts for the endorsed bidders were signed on Wednesday but a commercial-in-confidence market sounding materials report from August 2017 said the Rail, Integration and Systems contract was due to be awarded in October 2018 - another major delay.

New Cross River Rail design images. The new Roma Street station will be built where the existing Transit Centre stands.

"We've already seen work underway at Woolloongabba with the demolition of the GoPrint building in preparation for the brand new station ... and by the end of the year the old [Roma Street] Transit Centre will start to come down and we'll see work commence at Albert Street," she said.

"[Cross River Rail] will mean people coming in from across south-east Queensland will get a reduction in travel times.

"They will save 15 minutes on the Gold Coast line, 15 minutes on the Beenleigh line, eight minutes on the Caboolture line, eight minutes on the Redcliffe line and 14 minutes on the Cleveland Line.

"In this week's federal budget, not one single dollar was given to this project. For the first time in 100 years, there will be a new station smack bang in the middle of the CBD - Albert Street ... we're going it alone without this federal government."

New Cross River Rail design images. The track is set to run underneath an upgraded Albert Street station.

Meanwhile, the first of the problematic New Generation Rollingstock trains were sent to Maryborough to fix its toilets, which were too small and failed to comply with disability standards.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said on Thursday Bombardier and Downer EDI were responsible for the $335 million rectification work, announced in December last year.

He also said subcontractor Bombardier had been paid some money already as part of the agreed contractual pre-arrangements.

"That is the work that we need to do because these trains were ordered by the previous [Newman] government and they were not compliant with disability legislation," Mr Bailey said.

"They will be fixed in Queensland, by Queensland workers, and done progressively over a number of years.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (left), Deputy Premier Jackie Trad (centre) and Transport Minister Mark Bailey (right) announced the companies who will build the Cross River Rail project on Thursday above Roma Street Transit Centre.Credit: Darren England - AAP

"Because they [NGR trains] are all in service, we will be taking a few out at a time rectifying them and keeping the whole system running in that way.

"The first train is already up there being stripped and analysed."

The rectification plan includes a second toilet on all 75 NGR six-car sets, increasing the size of toilet modules by 10 per cent.