Cross River Rail will be a major boost for essential health workers
A long-anticipated new train station is set to provide year-round servicing for workers at one of Brisbane’s fastest-growing health precincts, as well as improve access to major city events.
QLD News
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Workers at Brisbane’s fastest-growing health precinct will have a brand new train station when the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project opens in 2024.
The new Exhibition station will be open all year round servicing the nearby RBH and Herston Quarter health precinct, and significantly improve access to events at the RNA Showgrounds and the King St entertainment precinct.
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The Courier-Mail, in conjunction with the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority, is presenting a series looking at the project and what it will bring to the state.
Exhibition station precinct will accelerate the area’s urban renewal creating a connected health, housing, and recreation hub, CRRDA tunnels, stations and development project director Jeremy Kruger said.
It will also help the 6000 health workers at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital – Queensland’s largest which provides more than 1 million medical appointments and treatments every year – as well as the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Ekka and other events at the RNA every year.
The new and expanded station will link the inner city and Brisbane’s northern suburbs and is expected to handle 9500 passengers every weekday by 2036. It will have three new connections linking the King Street Precinct to Bowen Park, including replacement of the existing RNA Cattle Underpass, a pedestrian and cyclist link connecting the station to Bowen Bridge Road.
There will also be new secure bicycle storage.
More than 7700 people will work on the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project over the five years of construction, with 400 local suppliers signed up and more than 160 apprentice and traineeship positions already filled of the 450 to be created.
Among them is graduate engineer Amy Clem. At 26, Ms Clem already has an enviable resume, having worked on the construction of Brisbane Airport’s $1.1 billion parallel runway, which opened to flights earlier this month.
Working for joint venture partner CPB, she is looking forward to working across the megaproject and picking up the skills and experience that entails.
“It’s awesome to have five years-plus worth of work in Brisbane,” Ms Clem said.
“I wanted to work on a rail project and prior to this there wasn’t really anything in Brisbane so I was thinking I was going to have to move to Sydney or Melbourne where they had major projects.
“I think rail is really important for Australia to get things and people from A to B.
“I’m excited to work on such an awesome project.”
Major construction works have started and are due to be completed in 2024.
The 10.2km rail line will run from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills, including 5.9km of twin tunnels under the Brisbane River and Brisbane CBD, creating a second river crossing for the rail network that means more trains more often across the network.
Originally published as Cross River Rail will be a major boost for essential health workers