Cross River Rail looks unlikely to happen under an elected LNP government with Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls backing the council's Brisbane Metro project as the solution for southeast Queensland's congestion.
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On Tuesday, while speaking at a Queensland Media Club lunch in Brisbane, Mr Nicholls was asked what an LNP government would do to ease congestion in the south-east Queensland rail corridor, to which he said Brisbane Metro was the solution, not Cross River Rail.
"One of the biggest things we believe will help relieve congestion is the Brisbane Metro project which [Brisbane LNP lord mayor] Graham Quirk is undertaking," he said.
"That is why we've made a $30 million commitment not only of land but of additional funding to extend the Brisbane Metro."
The commitment of $30 million, which included $20 million of land and $10 million to investigate the metro expansion, was made by the LNP in October.
The LNP has not committed a cent towards the $5.4 billion Labor-proposed Cross River Rail project, despite the Newman government pursuing its Bus and Train Tunnel when it was in power between 2012 and 2015.
Mr Nicholls said his reasoning for not committing to the multi-billion dollar project was because the LNP had not seen the full business case for the project.
"It's too important of a project in terms of the spending that's required for it to rush into without having a full understanding of things and of course it's not fully funded," he said.
"It's only funded in the budget for about half of about the total cost of it so it doesn't stack up on Infrastructure Australia's assessment of it, we haven't seen the business case and we believe it's too important to get wrong.
"We don't know what the faults are, we know Infrastructure Australia have [seen the full business case] and they have raised significant concerns around the benefits of it and so we will have a look at that business case and see what it says."
While Mr Nicholls used Infrastructure Australia's comments on the Cross River Rail project as one of the reasons for not committing money to the project, he was not as interested in taking Infrastructure Australia's advice on when a second rail crossing in the south-east corner would need to be delivered.
"We've said all along a second rail crossing across Brisbane is going to be required. Infrastructure Australia, of course, says it's not required until at least 2026 and it's a matter of prioritising where your funds go," he said.
When asked if he would deliver the Cross River Rail project by 2026, Mr Nicholls was quick to respond
"I didn't say that," he said.
"I just said that's what Infrastructure Australia said.
"We're going to need to see the business case [for Cross River Rail] to understand exactly where the problems are."
Cross River Rail was not included among the LNP's transport or infrastructure policies released throughout the campaign.
