Light Rail for Hobart's future

The petition of the undersigned residents of Tasmania draws to the attention of the House:

• The Tasmanian Government is set to spend more than $1 billion on a stadium without a reliable transport plan to get people there;
• The new Macquarie Point stadium is set to bring an extra 30,000 people into the city for major events. Research has shown that the project will worsen Hobart's already- congested roads;
• Other Australian stadiums built without direct, high-capacity public transport options have underperformed, never reaching their full potential;
• Hobart has a unique opportunity to build a world-class transport link, using the disused rail corridor to run light rail from the northern suburbs to the site of the stadium;
• The Tasmanian Government is yet to properly investigate light rail as a transport option to the stadium.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to call on the State Government to:

• Work with the Federal Government to commission a full business case for light rail along the northern rail corridor, carrying it through to cost-benefit analysis;

• Immediately protect the northern rail corridor from being built over by retaining its legal protection under the Rail Infrastructure Act 2007 (TAS);

• Commission a value capture feasibility study alongside any business case on light rail to quantify the uplift potential along the corridor and at Macquarie Point;

• Commit to using the unspent 2018 Hobart City Deal funds for light rail planning.