Precisely! And LIGHT RAIL IS BACK!!!
Trams back in Brisbane
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Emma Chalmers and Margaret Wenham 
July 16, 2007 12:00am
TRAMS will return to Brisbane streets as part of the biggest overhaul of the city and its transport network yet.
The city council and State Government have agreed light rail will be the key to managing Brisbane's predicted massive growth over the next 15 years.
They have committed to the Smart City overhaul, which also will see five new river crossings, office developments in suburban areas and the revitalisation of urban areas.
The combined approval means the plan can proceed without the political interference that dogged previous attempts to modernise the city and manage population growth.
Premier Peter Beattie last night told The Courier-Mail the State Government was committed to both the scheme and its cost.
Mr Beattie said a combination of State Government funds and private sector investment would be needed over the next 10 to 15 years.
"If we don't do this now then the quality of life we enjoy will be diminished and we believe we can actually improve it," Mr Beattie said.
"We're guiding this over 10 to 15 years so we have time to fund this, we have time to budget for this."
The plan follows intensive infrastructure changes made over the past five years including traffic tunnels; plans for a duplication of the Gateway Bridge; new hospital precincts at Woolloongabba and Buranda; Kelvin Grove's urban village; the Portside residential and cruise ship development; the water pipeline from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba; and the Goodna bypass.
A Federal Government plan to audit available Commonwealth land for residential release also could see a new housing development at Bulimba.
Announcing the details of the new transport links yesterday, Mr Beattie said about three years of planning would be needed but one section of the plan – the Tank Street Bridge – already was under way.
City Hall estimates the light-rail system will cost $250 million but Mr Beattie said the total figure would not be known until the route was chosen.
The light-rail network – likely to be the biggest in Australia after Melbourne – will link South Brisbane to New Farm and possibly Bowen Hills.
It could be extended because Brisbane's Southeast Busway, the under-construction Inner Northern Busway and the Eleanor Schonell Bridge, linking Dutton Park to St Lucia, can all take light rail.
At the centre of the Smart City plan is the goal to link the University of Queensland with South Bank, the Queensland University of Technology's Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove campuses and the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
Three pedestrian "spines" running through the city will join four new pedestrian and cycling bridges – in addition to the Tank Street bridge – linking West End, Woolloongabba, Kangaroo Point and Bulimba with the CBD.
The pedestrian bridge attached to the Victoria Bridge will be privately funded in the North Bank development and the Tank Street bridge has already been funded with $63.3 million.
The Government estimates the other three proposed bridges will cost $80 million each.
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said he welcomed the move, which backed the ideas put forward in Brisbane City Council's 2006 CBD masterplan.
"There's no monopoly on good ideas and I'm just pleased (Mr Beattie's) talking about funding, as I understand it, light rail in Brisbane and also some new pedestrian and cycling bridges," Cr Newman said.
"That's exactly what council wants to see happen."
Cr Newman said City Hall was conducting a mass transit study and would take the results to the State Government in September for funding.
His rival for City Hall, Labor's mayoral candidate Greg Rowell, fumbled his commentary on the plan.
"Well it's welcome isn't it. It's a great contribution to Sydney, ah to Brisbane," he told Channel 7.
State Opposition transport spokesman Tim Nicholls accused Mr Beattie of plagiarising council's masterplan to distract people from the water and health crises.
"This work has all been done before," Mr Nicholls said.
"The Premier just needs to get on and fund the plan."
Brisbane tram services ended on April 13,1969.