Brisbane Metro: Lord Mayor warns of 'financial pain'

The Brisbane Metro, which formed the centrepiece of the Liberal National Party's 2016 council election campaign, will cause "financial pain" for the city, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk told an industry briefing on Wednesday.

The seven-kilometre, rubber-tyred Brisbane Metro would run between Woolloongabba and Herston, along existing busways, the Victoria Bridge and a new inner-city tunnel.

Brisbane City Council will open the tender process to deliver the Metro's business case almost immediately, with the call going out for designers, engineers, bus network planners, along with financial and legal requirements.

The briefing on the project at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon attracted about 250 industry figures, which a council spokesman said was more than similar briefings held for the Bus and Train Tunnel (205), which has since been scrapped, and Kingsford Smith Drive (45).

The Brisbane Metro system is expected to cost $1.54 billion.

Cr Quirk told the gathering the project, which was estimated to cost $1.54 billion, would be majority funded by the council.

While that was nothing new, Cr Quirk said he was under no illusion of what that could mean to the council's budget bottom line.

"It will stretch council's resources, there's no question about that," he said.

"It comes with a bit of financial pain. It would be easy, however, for me to simply sit back and say 'well that's a state responsibility' and wash my hands of it.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has warned of 'financial pain' associated with the Brisbane Metro, but says it must be delivered.Credit: Bradley Kanaris

"I'm just not prepared to do that."

But Cr Quirk said he could yet go to the state and federal governments to seek funding, but not before the business case was completed.

"I've indicated already that, as a local authority, we will fund the majority of that," he said.

"…That doesn't mean I won't be having conversations with people, absolutely not, I will be keeping people informed at a federal and state level as we go down the track with the business case.

"Indeed, state government representatives will be involved in the development of the business case and it's essential that they are because it is within state infrastructure this project is being built."

Cr Quirk said it would require "a level of goodwill, cooperation and common sense" between the different levels of government to deliver the project.

Deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner said the Brisbane Metro would be delivered relatively cheaply because it would repurpose existing infrastructure.

"If you were starting a Brisbane Metro system from scratch, you could easily spend 10, 15 or 20 billion dollars," he said.

"But we've already had significant investment in the busway network.

"Groups like Infrastructure Australia are looking for opportunities whereby existing infrastructure can be used more efficiently and we see this project sliding into that category in particular."

But Labor opposition leader Peter Cumming said the briefing was "vague and lacking in detail" and showed it was still unclear how much it would ultimately end up costing ratepayers.

"What happens if state and federal funding can't be obtained?" he said.

"Is council going to be prepared to pay 100 per cent? I think that would be a very heavy burden on the ratepayers of this city."

Cr Cumming said he would be interested to know what people thought of the project

"It'll be interesting to see what people will make of that. It's alright for him to say it at briefings at that, but we need to make sure everyone in Brisbane hears that and can decide for themselves whether it's worthwhile."

A memo from the Department of Transport and Main Roads, leaked at the height of the council election campaign, warned the project could blow out to as much as $3 billion.

But Cr Quirk's office rubbished that suggestion, which it said had been leaked for political gain.