Labor reminds voters of Cross River Rail pledge Labor has made a last-ditch attempt to win over Brisbane voters by reminding locals only it will fund Brisbane's underground rail project, the Cross River Rail, if it wins the federal election on Saturday. It was not Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese doing the heavy pitch to voters on Thursday. It was state opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor's candidate for Brisbane Fiona McNamara who took up the fight to the LNP over the $4.8 billion project, outside Parliament House in Brisbane. "If Tony Abbott gets elected on Saturday I believe that Cross River Rail is dead and buried," Ms Palaszczuk said. Mr Abbott told reporters in Brisbane earlier this year a Coalition Government would not fund urban rail projects. Mr Abbott and opposition infrastructure spokesman Warren Truss told Fairfax Media they preferred to fund the Inland Rail Project, promised first by the Liberals then refined by Labor's Infrastructure Minister Mr Albanese. Ms Palaszczuk said the two rail projects should not be mutually exclusive. "Cross River Rail is shovel ready," she said. It could create thousands of jobs straight away. It is estimated the project will take 14,000 cars off Brisbane streets and allow an extra 17,000 people to travel on the rail network during peak hours. In the May budget federal Labor offered $715 million for the project delivered through a public-private partnership. The offer was made on the basis the funds were to be matched by the state government. A private sector consortium would fund and build the rest of the project, with federal and state governments making "availability payments" to the successful bidder. Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson said Queensland did not want federal government payments for the Cross River Rail projects to come from GST payments to Queensland. Mr Emerson said Ms Palaszczuk wanted the Federal Government to fund 75 per cent of Cross River Rail. ""The Queensland LNP is willing to go further and accept a genuine 50-50 partnership,"" he said. A letter on May 8 outlines federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese's offer to Queensland. In the letter, Mr Albanese indicated the federal and state government had agreed to a 50 per cent GST concession on project payments. Mr Emerson refused this offer, saying Queensland did not want its GST payments impacted at all by the project. He said this federal offer amounted to only 25 per cent of the cost to deliver this project. ""This is a very important project for Queensland and we'll continue to speak to the federal government to get a fair deal for all transport infrastructure." On April 30, Mr Emerson sent this letter to Mr Albanese. On Monday night, Mr Rudd told Fairfax Media that Labor's offer was fair. He accused Mr Emerson - who supports Cross River Rail - of refusing the offer on political grounds. Mr Emerson has consistently rejected this accusation saying Labor's offer would hurt Queenslanders. Ms Palaszczuk rejected a suggestion Labor had left the project in the shadows during the election campaign. "It has been discussed quite often," Ms Palaszczuk said. We have been discussing this for a year and a half. Ms McNamara - who is attempting to wrest the seat of Brisbane from Liberal National Party MP Teresa Gambaro, said the project was important for the city and for the electorate. "The Abbott alternative is to do nothing," Ms McNamara said. It is very easy for someone from Sydney like Tony Abbott to take an underground passenger rail service for granted. Someone like him, from the north shore of Sydney, clearly doesn't understand the needs of Queenslanders living in the growing southeast corner of the state and he refuses to see the importance of this project. The expensive underground rail project was conceived by Anna Bligh's state Labor government five years ago to provide a second link for Brisbane's northside trains to cross to the southside. The only cross river link - the Merivale rail bridge at South Brisbane - will be congested by 2016, rail studies show. The only alternative policy put forward by the LNP state government are changes to signals which allows trains to run closer together across the Merivale Bridge.