Editorial: Travesty if politics stands in way of newly refined Metro system

THE refined Brisbane Metro plan costs about $500 million less and better complements the planned Cross River Rail project, but it still has several significant hurdles to overcome.

An artist’s impression of the Brisbane Metro system, which has been revised to better compliment Cross River Rail. Picture: Supplied

• Metro project dead in current form
• Metro could be taken over by state

NEARLY 50 years ago former lord mayor Clem Jones, in a bid to “modernise” Brisbane and respond to the rapid growth in private car use, ripped up the city tram system.

Today, successive local and state governments are still battling to address the mass transit problems that are a direct result of the decision.

As The Courier-Mail reveals today, the latest blueprint for tackling congestion and public transport overcrowding is a revised version of Lord Mayor Graham Quirk’s Brisbane Metro project. The first incarnation of this scheme came to light in the middle of last year’s local government elections. At the time it seemed not much more than a quickly conceived thought bubble to counter Labor’s proposal for light rail.

Now the Metro scheme has been substantially refined.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk. Picture: Jack Tran

It is expected to cost about $500 million less than originally thought and it better complements, rather than competes with, Brisbane’s planned Cross River Rail expansion. It also abandons the rather odd “buses on rails” idea that was originally mooted.

The interconnectivity, station upgrades and fast links to the outer suburbs are all sensible aims, but the plan still has several significant hurdles to overcome.

Questions over cost, and the extra effect that may have on ratepayers aside, the plan is also dependent on removing cars from the Victoria Bridge and obtaining State Government approval to repurpose busways for use by Cr Quirk’s proposed new fleet of mega-buses.

These are not insurmountable hurdles if the shortsighted politics of an election year in Queensland do not see the future of Brisbane’s transport system used as a wedge.

As it stands, some of the latest delays surrounding the Cross River Rail link can be attributed to Cr Quirk’s original Metro blueprint. This had the network using the same GoPrint site at Woolloongabba that was integral to the planning of the new rail link.

Consequently, the Federal Government has argued more work needs to be done on the $5 billion Cross River Rail project before it considers any funding requests because it did not integrate properly with existing transport networks.

Under the revised council proposal, that is no longer an issue.

That means the Federal Government is fast running out of excuses when it comes to delaying urgent consideration of one of the most vital pieces of public transport infrastructure on the books in Australia today.

It would be a travesty of public policy if politics stood in the way of good planning, simply because of the potential discomfort that could be extracted by leaving a Labor state sweating on funding for a project they had promised to deliver.

Governments at all levels come and go. Cross River Rail, and this new council Metro, will serve us for many decades.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Lachlan Heywood, corner of Mayne Road & Campbell Street, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND. (ACN 009 661 778)