'Going it alone': Cross River Rail pushes ahead without federal funds
Despite no federal funding for Cross River Rail in Tuesday's federal budget, the state government is "going it alone" and has announced the companies responsible for building the new train network.
The project promises to deliver an extra 18,000 seats on Brisbane trains, take 14,000 drivers off the roads, cut travel time on existing south-east Queensland train lines and create more than 7700 jobs.
Pulse will deliver tunnel stations at Boggo Road, Woolloongabba, Albert Street and Roma Street. They will also upgrade Dutton Park station and will develop above the new stations.
UNITY consortium is responsible for the rail integration systems, the track through the tunnels, incorporating the new rail with the existing network and a major upgrade at the Ekka station.
Hitachi Rail will bring a $634 million European Train Control System to the project, which will improve the safety and service frequency in the entire city rail network upon completion.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the tunnelling work was due to begin in late 2020, a significant delay compared with the "second quarter of 2019" deadline given in February 2018.
Ms Palaszczuk also said the contracts for the endorsed bidders were signed on Wednesday, but a commercial-in-confidence market sounding materials report from August 2017 said the Rail, Integration and Systems contract was due to be awarded in October 2018 - another major delay.
"We've already seen work under way at Woolloongabba with the demolition of the GoPrint building in preparation for the brand new station ... and by the end of the year the old [Roma Street] Transit Centre will start to come down and we'll see work commence at Albert Street," she said.
"It [Cross River Rail] will mean people coming in from across south-east Queensland will get a reduction in travel times.
"They will save 15 minutes on the Gold Coast line, 15 minutes on the Beenleigh line, eight minutes on the Caboolture line, eight minutes on the Redcliffe line and 14 minutes on the Cleveland Line.
"In this week's federal budget, not one single dollar was given to this project. For the first time in 100 years, there will be a new station smack bang in the middle of the CBD - Albert Street ... we're going it alone without this federal government."
More to come