Cross River Rail bungle begging for independent inquiry
Cross River Rail will include two stations that are barely more than a stone’s throw apart. One is difficult to upgrade to meet disability standards while the other leads to an engineering nightmare. With the cost implications massive, this issue is begging for a proper independent inquiry, writes Steven Wardill.
Opinion
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Is the State Labor Government about to have a scandal of health payroll proportions?
The series of leaked briefing notes and internal documents into Cross River Rail’s Boggo Road Station sure paint a picture of questionable decision-making and intransigence that will come at a huge cost to taxpayers.
Experts were ignored and decisions taken and no one seems able to adequately explain why.
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On paper, what the Government is proceeding with certainly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Cross River Rail will include two stations, a redeveloped Dutton Park and a new stop at Boggo Road, that are barely more than a stone’s throw apart.
Dutton Park is on a curve and is difficult to upgrade to meet disability standards while Boggo Road leads to an engineering nightmare.
The project’s delivery authority, technical experts and bidders all came up with an eloquent solution that would have done away with these issues by building a single station in between at the back of Princess Alexandria Hospital on land already owned by Queensland Rail.
It would have given patients and visitors direct access to the hospital and delivered multi-modal solutions with Brisbane Metro.
But it was rejected and a multi-billion dollar contract signed despite well-known flaws.
Why?
Could it be something as simple as Labor promising repeatedly that Dutton Park station would remain when it opposed the LNP’s alternative tunnel plan?
Did then minister, Jackie Trad, not want to explain why she was delivering only four stations, not five?
With the cost implications massive, this issue is begging for a proper independent inquiry.