business case summary<\/a> revealed the entire line would cost $12 billion and would take many years to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMr Bleijie believed it was a power play to secure a marginal electorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTheir plan for Sunshine Coast rail is only political, because they\u2019re desperate to hold the seat of Caloundra,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Sunshine Coast community has been waiting 30 years for heavy passenger rail to connect Beerwah to Caloundra to Kawana to Maroochydore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSunshine Coast heavy passenger rail is off track.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the line ending at Caloundra would only add to the rapidly growing region\u2019s traffic woes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLabor\u2019s plans will create congestion chaos and it will turn Caloundra into a car park,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Bleijie, the Member for Kawana, asked the Minister for Transport, Bart Mellish, if delays had cost the Sunshine Coast a heavy rail line to Maroochydore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the latter said the government was focused on providing for the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have committed $2.75 billion to the Direct Sunshine Coast Rail Line project: the largest investment any government has done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe extended transport plan for the Sunshine Coast, including heavy rail (in green) and bus connections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThis project is proposed to be delivered in stages, as we have done for many transport projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat the member is proposing (Beerwah to Maroochydore) costs in the order of $12 billion, as the business case has indicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Opposition want to have it both ways. They want to be able to say that they can get to Maroochydore, but they have not locked in their federal colleagues in funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c(Federal Opposition leader) Peter Dutton, when asked a couple of weeks ago, would not even comment. He would not support the Opposition\u2019s proposal to get straight to Maroochydore for $12 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Opposition need to come clean on how they propose to fund getting Sunshine Coast direct rail (to Maroochydore).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a proposal to get Sunshine Coast direct rail to Caloundra by the 2032 Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDesign plans for the station at Caloundra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe are investigating, as part of the business case, options to get to Birtinya (Kawana) and then further to Maroochydore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor those opposite to propose that they have a plan for Sunshine Coast direct rail is completely incorrect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have a $12 billion unfunded, uncosted plan for Sunshine Coast direct rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a plan on the table. The member for Caloundra is a strong supporter of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe opposition cannot be trusted to deliver Sunshine Coast Direct Rail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stage 1 of the Direct Sunshine Coast Rail Line, from Beerwah to Caloundra, is expected to cost $5.4 billion. The state government has pledged $2.75 billion. The federal government committed $1.6 billion for the project before the business case was submitted to Infrastructure Australia, for review and possible further funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The state Opposition has pilloried the state government for its \u2018off-track\u2019 plan for heavy rail on the Sunshine Coast but cannot detail its own strategy for the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":26739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,49,51,1305,986,163],"tags":[472,7465,4909,7],"class_list":["post-26738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-passenger","category-passenger-rail","category-passenger-station","category-passenger-traffic","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","tag-australian","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-rail","tag-transport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26740,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26738\/revisions\/26740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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