Rail expert details Coast & Nambour’s great train robbery
The Sunshine Coast, and Nambour in particular, was being dramatically under-serviced when it came to rail services for the region, according to Sunshine Coast Rail Upgrade Advocate Jeff Addison.
Speaking at a Nambour Chamber of Commerce meeting last week (Thursday, August 4) Mr Addison said the Sunshine Coast had been over-promised and shortchanged time and again by successive governments.
Mr Addison outlined a litany of raised expectations and inflated promises and said a duplicated track line to Nambour was an essential part of the mix to bring rail infrastructure into line with other parts of Australia.
He criticised the State Government for raising expectations of duplication to Nambour when the current funded plan for rail duplication ended 26 kilometres south of Nambour, at Beerwah. “It really is a false claim. It gives people a false impression, that rail duplication is coming to Nambour.”
Mr Addison said, in fact, the works for Nambour consisted of a park and ride facility at the back of Coles. “Nambour is going to get an extra 50 car parks,” he said.
“The closest the rail works come to Nambour will end at Beerwah. So there’s no rail duplication anywhere near.”
Duplication important to boost freight
In a broader sense, Mr Addison said rail duplication to Nambour was important as it would allow rail freight transport to free up roads. Unlike passenger transport, freight made money for the government. Passenger services were subsidized by the government by about 75 to 80 percent.
He referred to a recent Sunshine Coast Daily story which compared the allocation of funds to the Gold and Sunshine Coasts for bus and rail from 2011 to 2021.
Nine times the funding for Gold Coast
“On the Sunshine Coast, they spent $150.7 million on bus and rail projects. On the Gold Coast over the same period they spent $1.38 billion. More than nine times what they have spent here on the Sunshine Coast. And we are two-thirds the population of the Gold Coast.
“And that’s why I get so angry with this government, when they quibble and say that they’re doing a great job with rail duplication, when they’re spending $160.8 million compared to what they’re outlaying constantly on the Gold Coast.
“Whether it’s light rail, heavy rail, duplication, you name it: We seem to get the short straw every time, and that needs to end.”
Mr Addison said a single-track in and out of the Sunshine Coast was insufficient to service the needs of the third largest regional area in the nation.
“Compare us to the Redcliffe Peninsula line, for example, it was started in 2013 and opened in October 2016.
“On the day it opened, it opened with 650 train services per week. The Sunshine Coast has 250 train services per week, plus 75 rail buses, making 325 services per week. Exactly half what the Redcliffe Peninsula Line opened with.”
Mr Addison said over the years he had met with just about every state or federal MP about rail service to the Coast and all of them agreed it should be a priority.
“I met with Annastacia Palaszczuk, when she was Transport Minister in 2011. I met with Warren Truss when he was the Shadow Infrastructure and Transport Minister in 2013. I met with Campbell Newman in 2014.”
Many ‘services’ are, in fact, bus services
Remarkably, he said 23 percent of “services” on the Sunshine Coast were actually “bus” services.
“We’ve got 325 services. Of those, 75 are rail ‘buses’,” he said.
“The rail bus takes an hour and a half to go the 54 kilometres, from Nambour to Caboolture.
“There are a couple of them that are express, but generally most of them drive in and out of every single station, the 11 stations between Nambour and Caboolture.
“Why would you catch the rail ‘bus’? In fact for one or two of them, it’s actually quicker to wait for the next train, because you get to your destination at the same time.”