Major Cities Projects

The Australian Government announced three major cities projects in the 2009-10 Budget with a focus on public transport links for our major cities.  The funding allocated to the projects is as follows:

Brisbane Cross River Rail (Queensland)

• $20 million in 2008-09 towards a detailed feasibility study of additional cross city capacity for the provision of a rail loop that services the major stops north and south of the Brisbane River to cater for future growth;

O-Bahn City Access (South Australia)

• $61 million over four years (including $5 million in 2008-09) towards improvements for the final 4.5 kilometres of Adelaide's high speed O-Bahn dedicated corridor.

The proposed works include provision of on-road bus priority along Hackney Road and Dequetteville Terrace by providing a single reversible lane in the median, including traffic signal improvements; a two-way dedicated corridor along Rundle Road; and two-way dedicated lanes in Grenfell and Currie Streets.

Northbridge Rail Link - the Hub (Western Australia)

• $236 million over six years (including $7 million in 2008-09) towards the sinking of the central city section of the Perth to Fremantle railway line and construction of a new rail platform.

This will make available new land to develop above the rail line and is the first stage required for the Link urban redevelopment project.

Under the new framework for federal financial relations, commencing 1 January 2009, payments to the States, with a few exceptions will be made by the Commonwealth Treasury to state treasuries.