Winners 'n' losers

WHO’S ACTUALLY CALLING THE SHOTS ON THE LIGHT RAIL?

Federal Government? State Government? Council?

Would it surprise you to learn there is actually a fourth player?

GoldlinQ Consortium, is the fourth player in light rail. The GoldlinQ Consortium has the contract to design, build, operate and maintain light rail.

May 2011, GoldLinQ Consortium comprised of: Bombardier Transportation for the Electrical and Mechanical (E&M) system scope, McConnell Dowell for civil works, global public transport operator Keolis and Australian road and rail for the operations and maintenance, and Plenary Group, financial arranger and commercial advisor.

So, let’s take a closer look at Keolis Downer Gold Coast for instance, the maintenance contractor for light rail. Their equity investors are as follows:

• Plenary Group

• Marubeni Corporation

• Palisade Australian Social Infrastructure Funds

• International Public Partnerships (IPP) Australia, and

• Keolis SA

Google them, see who they are, who THEIR investors are, see where the trail takes you. As stated by Keolis Downer website they are part of an 18-year Public-Private Partnership between the Queensland Government and GoldlinQ Pty Ltd.

The GoldLinQ consortium was, in the words of the participating Plenary Group (financial arranger and commercial advisor) “selected by the Queensland Government to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a light rail public transportation system on the Gold Coast”.

While PPPs can be initially attractive, as PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) wrote:

“PPP contracts can be inflexible, relative to other contractual delivery models, when it comes to making changes to a project. This lack of flexibility can leave government vulnerable to private sector profiteering on the commercial terms of significant extensions”.

Well, that statement speaks volumes: “Government vulnerable to private sector profiteering”? Also, “PPP’s have been highly controversial as funding tools, largely over concerns that public return on investment is lower than returns for the private funder. (source: wikipedia.org)

This information is just a sneak peak inside the complex nature of the GoldlinQ Consortium & PPP’s. However, it does raise a lot of questions. Transport solutions that would better serve the wider community such as electric buses, hydrogen vehicles, all being ignored. That reality begs the question, why?

It has become blatantly obvious that the current light rail route down the Gold Coast Highway will cause irreversible damage to the pristine environment and character, will prove detrimental to the livability and amenities of the Southern Gold Coast forever. It begs belief why the Government has refused to put other viable light rail routes and modes on the discussion table? One would have to ask again, why?

Is it because Government is so constrained by the PPP contracts, they can’t make changes?

And if they did try to change the route/mode, are there substantial penalties to be paid by Government to PPP’s?

What contractual obligations does the Government have to the PPP’s?

Overall, as you can see, there are many entities who have a vested interest in continuing with the current light rail route down the Gold Coast Highway.

Is it a possibility that due to this fact, the Government could be putting these investors interests above what is right for the Southern Gold Coast?

Is the community expected to pay the price so these entities can profit? Everyone knows that investors are there to make money and there is big money in infrastructure.

– Author: Anonymous/Business owner

_____________________________________________________

Reference:-

G:link Light Rail QLD - Keolis Downer

Light rail - Keolis Downer

(Contractor stage 1 McConnell Dowell……Stage 2 CPB, Stage 3 John Holland?)

GoldLinQ Selected for Gold Coast Light Rail (plenarygroup.com)

GoldlinQ celebrates 10 year milestone (plenarygroup.com)

Bombardier key to GoldLinQ consortium's contract award - Intelligent Transport

Additional articles and letters ....

• "How I see it!" A heavy rail story by - author Rex Huntley

• "Can we afford it" - author Wayne Purcell/Town Planner

• "How we move" - author Colin May/Engineer