[4] In more recent times, the route for a Redcliffe railway was identified in the 1970s, and the required land was purchased and preserved as a transport corridor by the state government in the 1980s.

[citation needed] In 1999, the newly elected state government commissioned an investigative study into the transport corridor between Petrie to Kippa-Ring,[6] conducted by GHD Group.

It aimed to meet the state government's obligations to identify or forgo rights to a transport corridor running through the North Lakes residential development.

It was decided that heavy rail was the preferred mode of transport along the existing preserved corridor as it was the only option to give an acceptable level of economic efficiency.

The study found that heavy rail had a benefit-cost ratio of 1.46, and would generate the highest levels of patronage due to its integration into the existing Citytrain network, requiring no change mode.

[12] On 15 June 2004 the government announced $3 million for improving existing bus services along the corridor between Kippa-Ring (Redcliffe) and Petrie "in the short to medium term".

[19] During the 2010 federal election, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that the Kippa-Ring railway line would be fast-tracked, with the project to be complete by 2016 at a cost of $1.15 billion.

The agreement was signed by the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Moreton Bay mayor Allan Sutherland.

[21] The Department of Transport and Main Roads held an industry briefing in Brisbane on 17 August 2012 to provide an update on the Moreton Bay Rail Link Project (MBRL).

Testing indicated that the signalling system in its current configuration was unable to handle all the simultaneous rail movements at the junction, and would cause train delays right across the entire QR City Network.

The commission also reported that QR management had not told Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe or Treasurer Curtis Pitt about how bad the problem was.

Hinchliffe resigned as minister, despite the inquiry not attributing any blame to him, finding that the difficulties were a result of structural and cultural problems within Queensland Rail.