The recommendations come from a stage one report, which has already been given to the Queensland government, from the man given the task 13 months ago to completely change Queensland Rail.

The ulimate shape of the new model was yet to be determined, but the German public transport consultants from firm DB Engineering reported a "general lack of trust and partnership between QR and TransLink/TMR".

That, the consultants said, could be addressed as part of the Strachan Inquiry, which they saw as an "opportunity to provide greater clarity of the respective roles and tasks, and a more effective structure, in relation to rail policy, planning and delivery on behalf of the government".

Former Rio Tinto chief executive Phillip Strachan, now Queensland Rail’s chairman, was put in charge in February 2017 after identifying major flaws with Queensland Rail after a three-month inquiry.

As part of that inquiry, experts from DB Engineering completed a six-week “root and branch” analysis of Queensland Rail for Mr Strachan’s CityTrain Response Unit.

“Significant work is required in order to bring QR up to world class standards, prior to progressing to a digital railway,” the analysis found.

A CityTrain Response Unit spokeswoman said: "The CRU is currently consulting with government stakeholders regarding the recommendation, prior to finalising advice and submitting to the government for its consideration."

One of 36 recommendations was improved communication and in the December report from the Fixing the Trains newsletter it reports it has completed stage one of “a new, world class public transport model for Queensland.”

That stage one report has been given to the Queensland government for consideration.

Mr Strachan’s Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Rail included detailed studies of two public transport models considered superior to Queensland’s system, Transport for London and Transport Sydney.

The UK’s Transport for London model is chaired by London’s mayor. Three separate businesses (underground, crossrail and surface transport) receive the fares, whereas in Queensland, state government body TransLink collects all revenue.

In both models, there is a provider of metropolitan trains, a provider of long-distance trains and a separate provider of big capital projects. Here, Queensland Rail does all three.

The concept of a new public transport system in Queensland comes as organisations respond to urban planner Phil Heywood’s call on Thursday for transport planning change in Queensland.

Professor Heywood said in the past decade “short-term politics” had poorly influenced long-term public transport planning, with stage two of the Gold Coast light rail a solitary exception.

He suggested a new cross-government taskforce or delivery authority to manage new bridges and new transport plans in general, rather than individual levels of government.

In the four days since Professor Heywood's comments, the federal government promoted a fast train link between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast using Queensland government resources, while Brisbane City Council still waits on the state government to sell land for its Brisbane Metro "superbus" network.

Bicycle Queensland spokeswoman Anne Savage said obvious political decisions had led to many voters becoming “confused and distrusting” of governments.

However, she said improvements had been made since the state and local government elections.

“We support the work currently underway on Brisbane City Council’s draft transport plan for Brisbane and the state government’s South Brisbane transport and mobility study," she said.

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects called for infrastructure decision-making bodies to be “as independent as they possible can from the government of the day”, Queensland chapter manager Georgina Scriha said.

“This would help ensure that longer term planning can take place which would be free from short term political decision making,” she said

Rail Back on Track’s Robert Dow said Queensland had three major players in public transport: Queensland Rail, the council and the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

“They are fairly discrete organisations and history would show that they don’t co-operate that well in terms of advancing major infrastructure,” he said.

Rail Back on Track backs the formation of a new public transport body similar to the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia, where TransPerth runs buses, trains and ferries and TransWA runs coaches and regional trains.

“We think that is the best model working in Australia at the moment,” Mr Dow said.

“We would call it Public Transport Queensland.

“We think heavy rail needs to be removed out of DTMR and sit under a heavy rail division of the new body we call Public Transport Queensland, or PTQ, modeled on that West Australia example.

“We think it is very difficult for an organisation which is roads-focused to properly deliver for the future rail needs.”

RACQ advocacy general manager Paul Turner said short-term politics had hindered network improvements and highlighted simplistic funding arguments over the M1, the Bruce Highway, the Cross River Rail and duplicating the Nambour line.

"We haven't really benefited from three levels of government all having a different idea of what's best," he said.

Mr Turner said Queensland's infrastructure priority body, Building Queensland, and the federal government's equivalent, Infrastructure Australia, needed to lift their games.

"I think we were all hoping that Building Queensland or Infrastructure Australia would provide that clear priority list that we all agreed would be funded appropriately," he said.

"So whether it is a beefed-up Building Queensland, or a combination of Building Queensland and Infrastructure Australia, we're not quite sure."

A spokesman for Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said a new 10-year transport co-ordination plan was adopted by the Palaszczuk government last October.

"The TCP provides a strategic framework for the planning and management of transport resources in Queensland over a 10-year time frame.," the spokesman said.

And the spokesman defended the role Building Queensland played in the process.

"BQ works closely with all departments, government-owned corporations and statutory authorities to guide better infrastructure decision-making," he said.

Comment was sought from Brisbane City Council.