Full steam ahead for major Southside rail project to boost services

Transport and Main Roads Minister Paul Lucas announced today that work will start this week on a new third track between Salisbury and Kuraby stations on the Beenleigh/Gold Coast line.

The Minister made the announcement while visiting the construction site for the new track at Sunnybank to inspect the official start of work.

“Construction will be underway by the end of the week for the work which will cost $195 million and is a part of $355.2 million being spent on rail upgrades in the rail corridor south of Brisbane by 2009.”

Mr Lucas said the new track was crucial to meeting growing demand on the Brisbane to Gold Coast corridor.

“This third track between Salisbury and Kuraby stations is part of a three-stage rail upgrade to provide a 50% increase in track capacity on the rapidly growing Gold Coast rail corridor,” Mr Lucas said

“However preliminary work has already been underway for some months, including the construction of the Mains Road overbridge and a footbridge linking the Sunnybank Station carpark to adjacent parklands.”

Mr Lucas also said QR is spending about $92 million on 24 new carriages (eight by three-car sets) to increase seating capacity by almost 60% for the inbound morning peak period services over the next couple of years.

“They’re being built at the EDI workshops in Maryborough and the first of the 24 extra carriages will be track tested in January, and up and running on the Gold Coast line in May next year. That means room for around 2,500 extra passengers on the Gold Coast line.”

Mr Lucas said seven stations from CoopersPlains to Kuraby will be upgraded with new station facilities, security and lighting, improved disabled access and extra parking.

“Completely new station buildings will be constructed at CoopersPlains, Banoon, Runcorn, Fruitgrove and Kuraby stations,” he said.

“Real-time information about train arrival times and platform numbers will also be available at each station, with the push of a button.”

He said commuters would begin to see construction at CoopersPlains over the next few weeks with track and station work rolling out over the next 18 months.

“QR will be talking with resident’s in the near future about night work in their area as construction progresses.”

“I want to assure people that QR will do all they can to minimise disruptions while the track construction and station upgrades take place.

“The work is planned to be completed in early 2008,” Mr Lucas said.

The Salisbury to Kuraby Third Track project is part of the larger Brisbane to Gold Coast upgrade, which includes duplication of the single track between Ormeau to Coomera and Helensvale to Robina stations.

“This project will deliver significant benefits to Queenslanders and will ensure we continue to provide quality public transport now and in the future,” Mr Lucas said.

“South East Queensland is the fastest growing region in Australia – the government is ensuring public transport keeps pace with the population growth.

“It is part of a massive $6.6 billion worth of rail infrastructure projects across South East Queensland being delivered by QR over the next 20 years.”

Mr Lucas said the civil and station works for this project were being delivered by QR through a project alliance with Abigroup Contractors Pty Ltd. QR will deliver the track, overhead and signalling component of the works.

“The benefit of this alliance is to manage the size and complexity of the project and to ensure its successful delivery in a short time period,” he said.

“This will mean that commuters get better services sooner.”

Media Contact: Roanne Johnson 0401 669 276