Skip to main content

Brisbane to build combined road/rail tunnel

Australia’s Queensland Government has revealed concept designs for what would be the world’s first double-deck bus and rail tunnel to replace the planned Cross River Rail project. The 15 metres wide, the US$4.6 billion underground bus and train (UBAT) tunnel would be capable of accommodating a double-track railway and two bus lanes with three underground combined bus-and-rail stations. In a statement outlining the UBAT programme, Premier Campbell Newman said: “The project we are announcing today deliver
November 22, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Australia’s Queensland Government has revealed concept designs for what would be the world’s first double-deck bus and rail tunnel to replace the planned Cross River Rail project.

The 15 metres wide, the US$4.6 billion underground bus and train (UBAT) tunnel would be capable of accommodating a double-track railway and two bus lanes with three underground combined bus-and-rail stations.

In a statement outlining the UBAT programme, Premier Campbell Newman said: “The project we are announcing today delivers the public transport services needed for the next 50 years.”

Deputy Premier and State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Minister Jeff Seeney said: “This exciting, world-class public transport project demonstrated that the Newman Government is fulfilling its election promise to deliver better infrastructure.

“Queenslanders will have access to one of the most innovative public transport connections in the world through the underground bus and train project. The government is also progressing other transport priorities, including the Bruce Highway and the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.”

Queensland Government has said that work could begin as early as 2015, with construction planned for completion 2020.

Related Content

  • Making the most of Michigan
    January 9, 2018
    Michigan DoT’s Kirk Steudle takes time out from the ITS World Congress in Montreal to talk to Colin Sowman. Thirty years ago, a professional engineer named Kirk Steudle joined Michigan Department of Transportation (MDoT). Today he’s the state transportation director, responsible for more than 16,000km (10,000 miles) of state highways (including 4,000 bridges), some 2,500 employees and a budget of more than $4 billion. We caught up with Steudle during the ITS World Congress in Montreal and asked how he
  • UK puts £3bn into new bus strategy
    March 16, 2021
    Daily fare caps, plus better coordination of multimodal services, are promised
  • Transport for London launches competition to create accessibility apps
    March 14, 2013
    Transport for London (TfL) is launching a competition to create new 'Accessibility Apps', marking the first of a series of initiatives to improve the variety of accessibility apps on offer. As part of the competition developers are being invited to apply with ideas for a new travel app which will make Transport for London (TfL) real time data more accessible to a far wider audience than mainstream Apple/Android apps. The winning entries will receive development support from TfL. Making the transport network
  • Public Private Partnerships to gather pace in the US
    April 29, 2015
    Public Private Partnerships are set to play a big role in transportation funding as Andrew Bardin Williams discovers. The old joke goes that the road from New York to Chicago is paved with potholes. For decades, drivers from New York and New Jersey traveling across Pennsylvania to visit the Midwest have lambasted the Commonwealth’s roadways for their lack of smooth pavement.