Wilkie slams sloth-like progress on light rail plan

The state government has revealed whether or not a proposed light rail in Hobart will go ahead as the Transport Minister releases a new report on the infrastructure plans. LATEST >>

THE state government has ruled out building a light rail link to Hobart’s northern suburbs after releasing a report that shows the old freight line’s infrastructure would be costly to fix.

Minister Infrastructure and Transport, Minister Ferguson on Tuesday released the final engineering report on Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor that he received late last year.

In 2018, then Liberal Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding could have a light rail system running to the northern suburbs within five years and the government would “pull out all stops” to get it built.

But Mr Ferguson said the rail option was now off the table for good.

“The report concluded that the rail tracks that form the current corridor are not fit for use for a light rail solution, and that light rail would require the corridor to be completely rebuilt,” he said.

Infrastructure minister Michael Ferguson. Picture: Kenji Sato

“This reconfirms the findings in the original mode analysis report that light rail would be the most expensive public transport mode along the corridor at a cost of more than $685 million.

Hope for a light rail were raised by the inclusion of $25m to “activate” the abandoned rail corridor between Bridgewater and Macquarie Point in the 2019 Hobart City Deal.

But the vast bulk of that money remains unspent and rail was not now a viable option, Mr Ferguson said..

“Prior to these facts coming forward in the expert engineering advice, a number of people have asserted that light rail is a ‘no-brainer’ and have demanded that Government simply put a passenger train on a 150-year-old line with a little maintenance.

“The facts are now clear, despite every effort to give passenger rail thorough consideration, the infrastructure will simply not allow it.”

Engineers carried out assessments of soundness of the civil works, geotechnical, environmental, structural and rail of the corridor and associated infrastructure between Hobart and Glenorchy.

“The outcome was that the current corridor condition was found to be poor and therefore deemed currently unsuitable for either a modern light rail nor bus rapid transit service,” the report read.”

The only other option proposed to date is a trackless tramway on the corridor.

The report noted that current rail gauge was incompatible with standard gauge rail vehicles, sleeper type and condition were poor, ballast on the track was fouled and contaminated and rail bridge replacement and traffic bridge protection works are required.

Independent MP Kristie Johnston.

Independent state member for Clark Kristie Johnston has long campaigned for a light rail link.

“My initial take on it is the state government in their response has cherry-picked certain findings in order to cast the findings in a negative light,” she said.

“It’s no surprise, because they’ve always been reluctant to do much in the northern suburbs.

“The good news is that the cost estimate of around $161m for all the infrastructure to go in is quite a modest amount of money for the type of instrastructure were talking about 4,600 new homes and 1,200 new jobs and increase economic growth and development in an area which really needs it.”

She said the light rail would represent far better value than the same amount of road spending, or money spent on a Commonwealth Games bid.

The “sloth-like” progress on the proposal over the years was embarrassing, Federal MP Andrew Wilkie said.

“Back in January 2018, the State Government promised to pull out all stops to get this key transport link up and running within five years,” Mr Wilkie said. “We’re now one year out from that 2023 deadline and progress remains virtually non-existent.

“We have $25m in Hobart City Deal funds to activate the corridor but what do we have to show for it?

“Just a long-disused track, a string of expensive reports, and a recent Seek job ad for a $132,000-a-year position to head up a project that’s not even been articulated let alone finalised.

‘Sloth-like’ progress on Hobart’s light rail slammed

THE state government’s approach to the light rail proposal had been “sloth-like”, independent Federal MP Andrew Wilkie says.

Fourteen years after first being proposed and three years after $25m in funding was included in the Hobart City Deal, the federal member for Clark says the lack of progress has been embarrassing.

The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee heard on Monday that nearly three years after the cash was allocated to the Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor in the Hobart City Deal, the vast bulk of the money remains unspent and the project is going nowhere.

Hobart light rail proposal.

The committee heard a new report had found the existing freight line was “not in a state that could be used for a public transport process.”

Mr Wilkie called on the state government to release the report to the public.

“Back in January 2018, the State Government promised to pull out all stops to get this key transport link up and running within five years,” Mr Wilkie said. “We’re now one year out from that 2023 deadline and progress remains virtually non-existent.

“We have $25m in Hobart City Deal funds to activate the corridor but what do we have to show for it?

“Just a long-disused track, a string of expensive reports, and a recent Seek job ad for a $132,000-a-year position to head up a project that’s not even been articulated let alone finalised.

“Adding insult to injury, the public hasn’t even been given the opportunity to see the latest report despite the fact it’s been with the State Government since December. Instead, details have been selectively released to a Senate committee while the rest remains shrouded in secrecy.

The Mercury has requested a copy of the report and comment from Transport and Infrastructure Michael Ferguson’s office.

Parliamentary committee reveals damning light rail findings

THE rail corridor through Hobart’s northern suburbs is not suitable for light rail, a federal parliamentary committee has heard.

The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee heard the state government had been sitting on a report into the project since last year.

Nearly three years after $25m was allocated to the Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor in the Hobart City Deal, the vast bulk of the money remains unspent and the project is going nowhere.

“I think the key findings out of the report was that the existing freight line there is not in a state that could be used for a public transport process,” Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development assistant secretary Rob Bradley told the committee.

“I think there might have been some expectation or hope that perhaps that the rail line could have been used for a light rail solution.

“The finding of the report is that the won’t be the case.

“So the existing rail line would need to be removed. And in other parts of the corridor there are some sort of width issues.

The $2m “condition report” on the rail corridor has not yet been made public.

A $300,000 PwC report released in 2020 found the cost of a light rail link could be as much as $685m, $512m for a busway and $588m for trackless trams.

Graphic of proposed light rail stations from Hobart to Bridgewater

Mr Bradley said there were other issues facing the project.

“In terms of removing a rail line in Tasmania, there are a fair few legislative processes that the Tasmanian Government would need to go through in order to make that change and declare it from a rail corridor to some sort of other purpose,” he said.

“Other than rail so there’s a little bit of work that I think Tasmania need to go through to understand what the implications of condition report will be.

“I think part of the conditions report has shown that the level of remediation work required in that corridor will be sort of significantly beyond the $25 million so we need to work a little bit about what are options to stage it or identify different projects, or how we can continue to work to meet that commitment.”

“We’re working closely with Tasmania to understand what are the options for the $25m.

Senator Carol Brown has long pursued the state and federal governments over their failure to deliver value for the $25m allocated to the project.

“The State and Federal Liberal Governments have had this detailed report since December last year but have kept it hidden from the public,” she said.

“The people of Hobart want and deserve transparency and action from both the State and Federal governments.

“It is clear that after so many years of failing to act on growing congestion they are too embarrassed to be honest with Tasmanians.

“This is classic Scott Morrison – he jetted into Hobart for the announcement of the City Deal but hasn’t delivered a thing to actually fix congestion.”