Michael Ferguson,Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
It appears Labor's Craig Farrell has awoken from a slumber and hastily rushed to remind his electorate that he is still their elected member by issuing two media releases in two days after nearly six years of radio silence.
If he is indeed on a 3 day media hat-trick, his next appearance should be to outline the facts and apologise for spreading mistruths, because while he was asleep, the Liberal Government entered into a landmark 10-year City Deal that clearly sets out the agreed project timeframes for improving public transport access to Hobart using the old rail corridor.
The Tasmanian Liberal Government remains on course to activating the Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor and deliver an effective public transport solution well within the 5 to 10 year timeframe set out in the Hobart City Deal, a partnership between the Australian and State governments and the Clarence, Glenorchy, Hobart and Kingborough councils.
The Hobart City Deal implementation plan agreed with the mayors, makes it clear that the $25 million Urban Congestion Fund is intended to be used for infrastructure projects and not on planning or feasibility work.
The next stage in the process of bringing the corridor to life is commissioning an engineering assessment of the condition of the existing rail, sleepers and base or ballast. Exactly as we have been advised by actual experts.
This will tell us how much of the existing infrastructure is still usable, and will inform the project cost estimates.
While others continually use the northern suburbs corridor and the light rail proposal as a political football, it is the Liberal Government, in partnership with the Australian Government, methodically working through the challenges in activating this transit corridor. And despite the knockers we will deliver.
