Deputy Premier and Infrastructure Minister Jackie Trad has ruled out Lord Mayor Graham Quirk's plans to take over a crucial inner-city site for the Brisbane City Council's Metro project on Saturday.
The large piece of inner-city land is the former Go Print site, located on Stanley Street at Woolloongabba.
The state government's Cross River Rail would use land beneath the site and construct proposed apartments on the surface to offset costs, while the Metro project would entail an above-ground metro station on the site.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the Brisbane Metro, Cross River Rail and proposed high-rise development could all share the site, but Infrastructure Minister Jackie Trad disagreed.
"We have said since 2010 ... the old Go Print site ... which has a priority development application on it, will be used as a Cross River Rail station," Minister Trad said.
"We know that this site, being only two kilometres from the city, is a fantastic opportunity for urban renewal and also to provide Queenslanders with the necessary piece of infrastructure."
The Lord Mayor said 68 per cent of public transport commuters used buses and claimed he is a man with a plan, unlike the state government.
"We can't just keep putting more and more buses into the network, the delays are getting longer and longer and the only way we can fix that is by fixing the infrastructure for bus services."
However, after Minister Trad made it clear that would not be the case, the Labor opposition leader in council Peter Cumming said the project was "dead in the water".
"Quirk has sold Brisbane residents a pup with the Metro. This was a thought bubble put out by a panicked Lord Mayor in the heat of an election campaign," Councillor Cumming said.
"The Go Print site was always pivotal to his plan and it was never in play."
However, the Lord Mayor refused to admit the project was "dead" and said there were other options.
"The Go Print site is one option, it was a preferred option but there are other options," Lord Mayor Quirk said.
But Councillor Cumming said the Lord Mayor needed to listen to what experts had been telling him for months.
"Quirk says he will continue to proceed with this failed Metro plan, throwing ratepayer money down the drain," Cr Cumming said.
Ms Trad said she was willing to work with Brisbane City Council and hoped both projects could co-exist.
"I have said to Graham that I want to see the business case, the state government wants to work with the Brisbane City Council around how we can deliver both projects."
"Both tiers of government understand that we need to be working together to deliver the best public transport solutions for Queenslanders."
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