Australia's fictional on-screen expert on all things infrastructure and "nation building" has weighed in on Brisbane's Cross River Rail, and it's not good news.
Comedic luminary Rob Sitch plays permanently frustrated Nation Building Authority head Tony Woodward on the ABC's hit comedy Utopia, which has been lauded for its depressingly accurate portrayal of the public service.
In the first two seasons he was regularly called upon to hose down enthusiasm for hyped but completely unfeasible projects such as the Very Fast Train.
On Wednesday morning, he gave a dire prognosis for Queensland's biggest proposed infrastructure project, the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail.
"You're currently, on the ladder of projects that will never get done, that's number one," he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
The massive project, to add a second rail crossing over the Brisbane River, has been at the centre of a funding stoush, with the federal government refusing to commit funding.
It was expected to come under further attention in Queensland estimates hearings on Wednesday.
The Labor government, which has committed to fully funding the project, has argued it is needed to combat a predicted capacity crunch on the Merivale Bridge rail route after 2021.
But Mr Sitch had a slightly longer timeframe in mind.
"That's like the poster child project of Australia, and I've got this theory is that if something like that doesn't get built in its first 10 years, like the airport link to Melbourne's airport, I reckon you're looking at 50 years."