HOBART’S light rail proposal has a colourful new brand, a name and a route extension past Glenorchy to the Museum of Old and New Art.F
It is called Riverline and features a blue and green colour scheme that is meant to symbolise the river and skyline of Hobart.
Sustainable Transport Minister Nick McKim said he wanted to have a solid funding proposal for the Federal Government by next year, with a sound business case and strong community momentum behind it.
“We want to deliver a project that the Federal Government can’t say no to,” he said.
In June Mr McKim said the State Government would back a restricted 9km route ending at Glenorchy, 3km short of MONA, but yesterday he said it made sense to add one of Tasmania’s biggest tourist attractions to the route in stage one.
While the Government did not have a “definitive, precise” cost yet, it would be between $70 and $100 million for the first stage.
“That’s dirt cheap,” he said, adding that the estimate for Canberra’s light rail system was $600 million and in the Gold Coast it was $1.6 billion.
“This is a much cheaper per kilometre option because we already have the rail corridor,” Mr McKim said.
