Transport minister admits long-debated Sunshine Coast rail cost unknown

The state government does not know how much it will need to spend to fulfil its major election pledge to build the Sunshine Coast Rail to Maroochydore by 2032.

The Sunshine Coast Rail is likely to be scrapped.

The state government does not know how much it will need to spend to fulfil its major election pledge to build the Sunshine Coast Rail to Maroochydore by 2032.

Speculation over whether the government is willing to keep its election commitment grew on Thursday as Opposition Leader Steven Miles accused Premier David Crisafulli of lying to Queenslanders.

Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg, asked how much the extension to Maroochydore would cost, revealed the government had not completed any cost analysis work, before criticising the $23m business case for future stages completed under the former Labor government.

“A business case was done, and I’ve read that business case,” he said.

“It’s quite substantial, I have to say. But it doesn’t consider any of the impact on the community in any meaningful way.”

The government has indicated that the future of the Sunshine Coast Direct Rail, including whether it will be pursued as a major infrastructure project ahead of the 2032 Games, will depend on the advice of the 100-day Olympics review.

“The reality of the situation where we face ourselves now, (is) we’re focused on getting on with the job,” Mr Mickelberg said.

Minister for Transport Brent Mickelberg.

“The games review committee will make a recommendation in relation to what’s best to support the Olympic Games.

“I look forward to getting that recommendation in coming weeks, and we’ll make some decisions closer.”

Local advocacy group Sunshine Coast 2032 earlier this week made a submission to the review, stating that international engineers had calculated the total cost of the heavy rail to reach $20bn.

Mr Miles said the government was using the submission and the figures to justify breaking a key election promise.

“At no stage prior to the election did (Premier) David Crisafulli say that his promise to build heavy rail to Maroochydore was contingent on further reviews or on the inclusion of it on the Infrastructure Australia priority list,” he said.

“He knew he never intended to build the heavy rail to Maroochydore, but he wanted to win those seats, and so he lied.

“And we’re not going to accept that.”

The state government has so far allocated just $20m towards further planning of future stages to the rail between 2026 and 2028.

Opposition Transport Spokesman Bart Mellish said works on stage one to Caloundra would need to get underway by the end of the year.

“The project to Caloundra, which is a lot of geotechnical work underway, there’s a lot of ground surveys, a lot of environmental surveys already completed,” he said.

“Heavy construction is set to be started next year and to be honest, they’ve got to get cracking on this project if they want to be done before the 2032 Olympics.”

Originally published as Transport minister admits long-debated Sunshine Coast rail cost unknown