Talk:Sunshine Coast railway line

Rail Upgrade Campaign History section
I am not sure this section is appropriate. It is poorly spelt and worded. It goes into too much detail and is not neutral. Its verging on a soap box and community advocacy. Other opinions on this? - Shiftchange (talk) 02:49, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Too detailed - not what an encyclopediac page about a railway line requires sats 10:28, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I concur. Lankiveil (speak to me) 12:36, 23 September 2013 (UTC).
 * The material has been restored by its author despite the apparent consensus here and at notability, original research and its tone, I imagine there is more that can be salvaged than the current single line, so maybe a middle ground can be reached. Euryalus (talk) 21:32, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Happy for it to be edited to comply with your encyclopedic requirements. As for too detailed, I thought that an encyclopedia is supposed to be detailed but that's just my observation. It is meant to be an accurate portrayal of the history to date of the proposed upgrade of the line. Regarding the point made about it being poorly spelt, there was one typographical error in the entire text (mweeting) of 2917 words [error rate of 0.034%] - and I have now removed the errant w. Please edit it to what you believe is required and I can proof check it for contextual correctness. Thank you. Fares Fair (talk) 10:45, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Non-encyclopediac content removed from main space
Placed here in good faith in case editor wishes to save it for elsewhere.

''The significant benefits of doing so are recorded in the Landsborough to Nambour Rail project; Coordinator-General’s report on the environmental impact statement; dated November 2011.

On p33 it states;

Although acknowledging stakeholders’ concerns about local social and economic impacts, the EIS highlighted a range of potential economic benefits of the project to the region including: �  improvements to the overall public transport network in the region �  savings in time taken to travel for commuters, local passengers, long distance tourist trips and freight

�  savings in private vehicle operation costs and a reduction in road accidents �  enhancement of local business opportunities, and employment clusters—in particular, encouraging the economic development and the economic function of Nambour as a major activity centre �  a total of $4.57 billion of output generation into the Queensland economy (including SEQ) over the entire construction period (seven years) and a total of 2786 jobs on average at any point in time.

A Queensland Rail Submission to the Productivity Commission, dated 5 July 2006, stated that for an outlay of $300 million ($2006), there would be $434 million ($2006), in savings. These savings over 20 years.

This report area includes the entire NCL from Brisbane to Cairns. It states on p94;

QR has recently undertaken a cost-benefit study of investment in the North-Coast Line (Brisbane to  Cairns). This study sought to identify the economic benefits from investment in the North-Coast Line. A similar approach is also being carried to future investment in the Central-Queensland Coal Network. Box 10 North Coast Line Study

This analysis includes an estimate of the future transport task (based on underlying market growth rate estimates) in the corridor and identification of the economic benefits for government and society associated with investment in rail.

This analysis also provides an indication of other considerations required in terms of the question of a viable and sustainable general freight rail network such as transport pricing and funding arrangements. An investment of circa. $300 million ($2006) in a number of “Below rail” projects on the NCL could result in:

•  Extraction of just over 850,000 tonnes of general freight / containerised traffic from road to rail on NCL markets

•  Road accident cost savings of Present Value (PV)  $43 million over 20 years

•  Environmental gains valued at PV $23 million over 20 years

•  Road pavement / maintenance savings of PV $94 million over 20 years from reduced heavy truck movements

•  Benefits associated with better transit times, improved service reliability and improved service availability valued at PV $127 million over 20 years

•  Benefits to rail operators and customers valued at PV $143 million over 20 years

•  Potential reductions in rail freight costs in the range of 2% to 6% across NCL  markets if gains to “above  rail” operators are passed on to the customers •  An  increase  in  GTKs  on  the  NCL  associated  with  additional  containerised  traffic  of  34%  ‘over  and  above’ underlying growth.

The Queensland State election was held on 21 March 2009, and the state seat of Glass House, in which the Caboolture to Beerburrum rail duplication works were occurring, was won by the local LNP candidate Andrew Powell. The Labor party went on to win the election and just 24 days later, on the 14 April 2009, all works stopped on this rail duplication project. The rail duplication works to Landsborough were scheduled for completion by 2012. The Hon Paul Lucas MP, then Minister for Transport and Main Roads, issued a media statement on Monday August 14, 2006:

It said; Minister for Transport and Main Roads Paul Lucas said today that plans had been approved for a new rail corridor between Beerburrum and Landsborough. Mr Lucas said that commuters were now a step closer to a high speed rail service between Brisbane, Caloundra and Maroochydore. “Construction of the $550 million rail corridor is expected to start in early 2009 and be completed by mid-2012,” the Minister told State Parliament today. On Monday 29 August 2005, Mr Lucas described the Caboolture to Landsborough section of track as "one of the weakest links in the Queensland rail network!”

It is clear that the rail duplication works were to continue on to Landsborough, and a contract had been signed with the TrackStar Alliance to build these works. No explanation was ever given for the stoppage. This was despite the fact that a Qld. Dept. of Transport and Main Roads, Ministerial Briefing Note obtained by Mr Jeff Addison, under a 8 March 2011 'Right to Information" (RTI) request and titled ‘Caboolture to Beerburrum Track Duplication Project’, dated June 2009 states; “The benefits of increased capacity will not be fully realised until the next stage (Beerburrum to Landsborough) duplication is undertaken.”

In other words, it admits that the rail duplication works that stopped suddenly at Beerburrum in April 2009, will achieve little - if anything - for increased capacity, until the remaining section to Landsborough is built. These works to date had cost $298 million.

In 2007, the Landsborough to Nambour - Initial Advice Statement by Arup Engineers, called for the rail line to be duplicated from Landsborough to Nambour, and warned of adverse socio-economic effects should the North Coast Line (NCL) between Landsborough and Nambour not be upgraded.

On 19 December 2010, Mr. Jeff Addison, a Sunshine Coast commuter advocate and prominent public campaigner for the rail duplication works wrote to the then Liberal party federal member for Fairfax, Alex Somlyay MP, to discuss the federal funding case for the North Coast Line (NCL) and to request a meeting with the ruling Labor party's, the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP, then Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and the Hon. Simon Crean MP, then Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government.

The rail line is a part of the National Land Transport Network and part of a significant shared freight artery for the east coast of Australia, from Sydney to Cairns. On the 21 March 2011, Mr Addison received a reply from Mr Albanese, inviting Mr Addison to make a submission on the 22 February 2011 draft National Freight Strategy, to Infrastructure Australia. Mr. Albanese responded that “The timing for delivery of these projects is a matter for the Queensland Government. I recommend that you raise this matter directly with the Queensland Government.”

As advised, Mr. Addison lodged a submission to Infrastructure Australia (IA) on 29 April 2011 and sought a meeting with Queensland's Transport Minister, the Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk. A subsequent follow up of this submission revealed it had not been received by the due date (end of April 2011). The submission was not received by IA due to a technical glitch in the IA email address system. It was finally confirmed as received on 9 May, 2011.

Mr Somlyay requested that Mr Addison gather together as many state MP's who would support the case for the rail duplication, to attend a meeting to be held at his Maroochydore office. On 15 March 2011, a meeting and MS PowerPoint presentation was made by Mr. Addison. Attendees were Andrew Powell MP, Fiona Simpson MP, Steve Dickson MP, Jarrod Bleijie MP and Tracy Davis MP. The meeting was hosted by Alex Somlyay MP.

The presentation was put forward highlighting the case for (part) federal funding of the rail duplication works. It was agreed that once costs and LNP policy announcements were made, then an approach could be made to Mr. Albanese. The LNP (Andrew Powell MP) put a Question on Notice (No. 405) to the then Qld Transport Minister on the costs of the duplication works and this was expected to be answered by 27 April, 2011. A specific answer to the question was not received and no further response was pursued on this matter.

On Saturday 4 December 2010, a public meeting was held to discuss amendments to the train timetables for the Caboolture and Sunshine Coast rail lines at the Nambour Community Centre. The express services that once ran from Caboolture to Bowen Hills (20 stations) were to be removed for all but the 2 (at that time) Gympie North trains, and replaced by shorter express legs from Caboolture to Northgate (14 stations) and Northgate to Petrie (9 stations). There was anger at the Nambour Community Centre meeting that these moves would create overcrowding on the Sunshine Coast line trains due to the extra passengers entering the train at the 6 to 11 extra stops now added. The claims were seemingly ignored, possibly due to the fact that there would be extra services put on between Caboolture and the City during peak times. The new timetables were rolled out on 6 June 2011. As predicted by commuters, there was massive overcrowding experienced on the new 5:18pm Roma St to Nambour train. The 5:19pm Petrie service also experienced massive overcrowding. Train carriages were packed with 140 passengers per car, around 840 people per 6 car train. This new service replacing the former 5:16pm 20 station express service.

It received widespread media attention. Stories appearing in the Sunshine Coast Daily and in the Courier-Mail. Local ABC radio station 90.3 Coast FM also airing the story.

On 4 December 2010, a letter was written and circulated to commuters, addressed to the then Transport Minister, the Hon. Rachel Nolan MP, to protest at the proposed timetable changes and warning of the crowding issues that were sure to follow. It also lamented the 15% fare hikes and their impacts on long-haul commuters. It was ignored.

A concerted public campaign was launched, including a personal invitation to the new Transport Minister, the Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk to observe the crowding herself. A letter and attached photographs having been sent to the Minister that first night. To her credit she did so, and on the afternoon of 7 June 2011 the Minister came down and observed the situation at Platform 6 Central Station, for herself.

On 17 March 2011 a train boycott was held in protest over savage 15% Go card fare increases and the loss of discounted weekly, monthly, 3, 6 and 12 month tickets. This was led by rail commuter Toni Carroll, and received widespread publicity on local television news, radio and print media.

On Wednesday 29 June 2011, in response to the severe overcrowding, a media release announced the changes. This was a great win for literally long-standing commuters. On Monday 11 July 2011, in response to the massive crowding, 2 new services were initiated to the Sunshine Coast. One was an extension of the 5:00pm City to Caboolture service, now going to Nambour. These new 6 car services, departing Roma St at 5:00pm and 5:24pm, were comfortably full from their very first day of operation. The Transport Minister herself travelling on the 5:24pm service from Central Station, egressing at Northgate. It was on that service that Mr Addison requested a meeting directly with the Transport Minister to raise his concerns. 2 previous requests through his local MP, Andrew Powell having been rejected.

In July 2011 a submission was put to the LNP State Conference, held in Brisbane. The original written proposal submitted was this: That this Convention of the LNP recommends that the next LNP State Government and/or the next Coalition Commonwealth Government adopts a policy to resume the rail duplication works for the North Coast Line (NCL) from Beerburrum to Nambour on the Sunshine Coast as a matter of high priority. It was passed virtually unanimously.

On Tuesday 30 August 2011, Jeff Addison met with the then Transport Minister, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to put forward the case for rail duplication. He presented 'The Sunshine Coast Case Report' highlighting the facts and quoting government documents that support the case. That report is found here, under his Rail Back on Track blog pseudonym, Fares_Fair. .

Throughout this period many major rail delays were being experienced by commuters due to problems caused by lack of maintenance, signal failures, electrical problems and regular rail crossing boom-gate crashes. The first of what would become 6 petitions and/or e-Petitions were launched to protest the ongoing regular faults and inherent rail reliability issues on the Caboolture/Sunshine Coast line. There has been no less than 6 paper and electronic petitions since February 2011, calling for the Beerburrum to Nambour rail duplication works to be brought forward. There were no less than 4 Questions on Notice, by both sides of parliament on this issue; QoN1136 (21/8/2007); QoN1484 (10/10/2007); QoN405 (24/03/2011) & QoN1320 (4/08/2010).

3 petitions were sponsored by Andrew Powell MP, LNP member for Glass House, and now Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection, whilst he was in opposition. 3 petitions were sponsored by Peter Wellington MP, the Independent member for Nicklin.

All 6 Petitions (2 paper and 4 electronic) since February 2011 have called for the same thing, that is to fast track the rail duplication works to Nambour. e-Petition 1565-10 e-Petition 1712-11 e-Petition 1795-11 Paper Petition 1897-12 e-Petition 1882-12 Paper Petition 1955-12. A response to this was tabled 20 September 2012 by the Hon. Scott Emerson MP, Minister for Transport and Main Roads.

On 9 November 2011, the then (Labor) Treasurer, the Hon. Andrew Fraser MP released the Coordinator-General’s report on the Environmental Impact Statement for the Landsborough to Nambour rail project. (see opening remarks). This document gave approval for the works to proceed, however it was highly unusual given that there was no money or timeframe allocated for these works to start. This EIS report is due to expire after 4 years and so on the 9 November 2015, it will become defunct and a new report will have to be produced.

On 22 December 2011, Jeff Addison wrote to the leader of the LNP in Queensland, Campbell Newman, requesting a meeting to discuss this issue and present the case for the rail duplication to him personally. Mr Newman's team replied on 8 February 2012, stating; "..Mr Newman would like me to make you aware that he is in contact with the Shadow Minister and looks forward to working with Mr Emerson and his policy committee regarding this issue." "Thank you again for taking the time to contact us and bring this issue to our attention." "I invite you to contact us again at a later date to discuss the progress of these issues."

On the 21 February 2012, he met with the Hon. Peter Slipper MP (Fisher) to put forward the case for federal funding of the rail duplication. Mr. Slipper was at that time Speaker of the House of Representatives, to request a meeting with the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP member for Grayndler and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport (also leader of the House), That request went unanswered - and after 16 weeks without reply, Mr. Addison wrote directly to Mr. Albanese on 25 June 2012.

After the Queensland State election of March 2012, the LNP gained power with a massive majority. On Friday 30 March 2012, they appointed the opposition spokesman on Transport, the Hon. Scott Emerson MP, as the new Transport and Main Roads Minister. 6 Sunshine Coast MP's were also rewarded with cabinet portfolios, with one, the Hon. Fiona Simpson MP, member for Maroochydore, being made Speaker.''

To be continued...