North West Queensland mayors have welcomed the Queensland Government's confirmation of its new five-year regional transport service contracts for four of North West Queensland's essential air and coach services.
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The Palaszczuk Government announced earlier this week the successful tenders for regulated coach and air routes with its new five-year contracts.
The North West will see Regional Express (Rex) Airlines continue to service the Cairns-Normanton-Mornington Island (Gununa)-Burketown-Doomadgee-Mount Isa, and the Townsville-Hughenden-Richmond-Julia Creek-Mount Isa air routes, with the Cairns to Karumba coach services being retained by Trans North, and Greyhound taking over the Brisbane to Mount Isa coach service.
North West Qld Regional Organisation of Councils chair and Carpentaria mayor Jack Bawden said the new five-year tenure would add certainty for local communities on essential travel services.
"Rex continues as the service provider on the important Gulf and Northern two routes, and we congratulate them on being awarded the contract for another five years," Cr Bawden said.
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"We have built a good relationship with the airline and look forward to working with them as they continue to deliver services and support for the region and securing the best possible pricing arrangements under the community fare scheme."
However Cr Bawden warned there were still big issues on air services they needed to tackle to grow the prosperity of the region.
"This includes the high cost of airfares particularly on unregulated routes which limits our remote and vulnerable communities from accessing essential health and community services," he said.
"It also gets in the way of essential family travel, and business and tourism potential. "These issues are still on NWQROC's agenda, and we will continue to push for the North West to have affordable, as well as fair and equitable services."
The new air contracts start January 1 while the bus contract begins December 10.
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