Whichever party forms government in Queensland, the Bus and Train (BaT) tunnel project is no more, as reported by the Brisbane Times (BaT tunnel plans scrapped). I was always skeptical about the economic case for the project, and was very concerned about its unimpressive benefit-cost ratio. For example, see:
$5 billion Bus and Train Tunnel has unimpressive benefit-cost ratio
Time for Qld Govt to reconsider $5bn BaT Tunnel – my submission to the EIS process
If Labor forms government, it may consider reviving the Cross River Rail proposal which the BaT tunnel was a cheaper substitute for, but it’s hard to see how it could afford to pay for Cross River Rail given its proposed fiscal strategy. As I’ve commented before, Labor’s fiscal strategy implies relatively low levels of capital expenditure over the rest of the decade:
