Kickstart Qld: Fast rail an election winner, survey finds
Southeast Queensland voters back a fast rail scheme that would slash travel times between Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine coasts and Toowoomba, as well as creating thousands of jobs.
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Southeast Queensland voters back a fast rail scheme that would slash travel times between Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine coasts and Toowoomba as well as creating thousands of jobs over the next 20 years, polling results given exclusively to The Courier-Mail show.
According to the poll commissioned by the Southeast Queensland Council of Mayors, almost 90 per cent of voters back fast rail and more than half of the southeast voters would be more likely to back a state election candidate if they supported fast rail.
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The mayors will use the results from the ReachTEL poll of 2137 respondents across the southeast to push the State Government and Opposition to commit to a formal partnership with all levels of government and industry to undertake a “genuine exploration of fast rail in southeast Queensland”.
The mayors say the money is there to explore fast rail – with speeds up to 160km/h, compared with the Citytrain average of 60km/h – with an existing Commonwealth commitment of $8 million to investigate Fast Rail between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, another $15 million from the Commonwealth to explore passenger rail to Toowoomba, and the completed North Coast Connect business case.
Council of Mayors (SEQ) chair Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the Commonwealth, councils, the community, and industry all want a real investigation into fast rail in southeast Queensland.
“We’re asking the State and Opposition to commit to partnering with the Federal Government, Council of Mayors (SEQ) and industry to bring together the expertise needed to give this investigation our best shot,” Cr Schrinner said.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said the design and delivery of a southeast Queensland fast rail network would deliver an economic windfall for the region at a time when it needed it the most.
“Fast rail would create a long and stable pipeline of jobs for southeast Queensland. We’re talking about thousands of jobs each year across a 20-year delivery time frame,” Cr Tate said.
“The economic, social and environmental benefits of fast rail are enormous. Slashing the commute time from the Gold Coast Airport to Brisbane to just 45 minutes would transform the way commuters and tourists move around our region.”
The Courier-Mail revealed the details of the mayor’s Fast Rail scheme as part of the Kickstart series last week, which aims to connect Brisbane to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba in as little as 45 minutes would create more than 8000 jobs at its peak as well pouring billions of dollars into the Queensland economy.
It includes two pricing options – $16.9 billion for a “60-minute region” or $28.8 billion for the 45-minute option, and argues southeast congestion will be costing Queensland $6 billion a year by 2031 and can only be unclogged with what would be the state’s biggest infrastructure project to date.
