It may have knocked back a federal offer of $715 million for Brisbane's Cross River Rail project, but the state government is going ahead with a far less ambitious, temporary solution to the city's train congestion.
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Tuesday's state budget shows the Newman government is quietly pushing ahead with a $1.1 million plan for extra trains to cross the Merivale Bridge at South Brisbane.
The government's Brisbane Inner Rail Solution is a small-scale plan to run trains with increased frequency across the rail bridge for four years.
It did not rate as a specific line item in the Queensland budget.
The LNP plans to do this by adapting the train signals to let trains run more frequently, by removing seats and making extra standing room, and by using station platforms more effectively.
That will extend the life of the Merivale Bridge from 2016, when the Inner City Rail Capacity Study said it would be congested, out to 2020, according to Queensland Transport.
Work is already under way, a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Scott Emerson said.
"A number of measures are already complete or under way including signalling upgrades complete at Northgate and Bowen Hills to improve coordination; additional services included on the Ipswich and Gold Coast line to increase capacity and; platform management processes have been introduced to improve reliability," she said.
The work is being funded through savings found from the existing Queensland Rail budget of $1.1 billion.
The steps are not intended to replace the Cross River Rail project, Mr Emerson's spokeswoman said.
"While these measures are expected to alleviate pressure on the network to around 2020 we continue to lobby the federal Labor government and Coalition to properly fund Cross River Rail," she said.
Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said the Queensland government had formally rejected federal funding for Cross River Rail and the Gateway upgrade.
"Despite warnings that Brisbane's existing rail network will 'reach capacity by 2016' and the fact we had agreed to every one of their requests, the Newman government has today formally reneged on their written commitment to deliver the transformative Cross River Rail project," he said.
"And they have failed to match our $279 million commitment to the next stage in the upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway."