Why the Gold Coast is losing its direct rail link to Brisbane Airport

Queensland’s most prominent public transport advocate has backed the state government’s decision to scrap direct services between the Brisbane Airport and the Gold Coast, saying the new Cross River Rail configurations would make such a connection dangerous.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate and the region’s peak tourism body criticised the decision, which Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey made public on Tuesday when he released the SEQ Rail Connect network plan.

The end of the line for Airtrain will be in Ipswich once Cross River Rail comes on line.

Instead, Airtrain services would continue through to the Ipswich line once they passed through the Brisbane CBD.

The plan would come into effect when Cross River Rail comes online in 2025 and was a blow to the privately run Airtrain, with Gold Coast trips accounting for nearly one in five of its passengers.

But while Gold Coast stakeholders could feel aggrieved, public transport advocate Robert Dow, from the lobby group Rail Back on Track, said network planners had little choice as there were “technical reasons” behind the change.

“Currently, trains from the Gold Coast cross the Merivale Bridge, merge onto the CBD lines, keep right on the suburban tracks through the CBD and on to the northern lines, and then peel off to the right onto the airport spur after Eagle Junction,” he said.

“But with Cross River Rail, trains from the Gold Coast will now enter the tunnel, pass through the new underground stations, including Albert Street and Roma Street in the CBD, pop up near Exhibition and merge in from the left to the northern lines.

“If you continued to run them to the airport, they still would need to peel off to the right to enter the airport spur.”

Dow said trains merging from the left, but peeling off to the right, would create a “conflicting move”.

“It’s the equivalent of weaving across several lanes of traffic, and would cause knock on delays to all other lines and reduces the capacity of the network,” he said.

Dow said the pending inconvenience for Gold Coast passengers was unlikely to elicit much sympathy from other users.

“Whilst some Gold Coast passengers might not like changing trains with luggage, it’s a fact of life that passengers on every other line have coped with this for years,” he said.

A Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesman said the new network plan was the “most effective and efficient way to benefit the largest number of customers”.

And he said the necessity of the Brisbane Airport-Gold Coast link was not as important as it once was.

“Since Airtrain opened in 2001, Gold Coast Airport has significantly expanded in terms of passengers and international destinations served, and now directly serves major Asian transit gateways including Singapore and Tokyo,” he said.

“As a result, the vast majority of Airtrain passengers travel from non-Gold Coast destinations.

“Gold Coast Airport is currently linked to key centres on the Gold Coast through high-frequency express bus services, with government actively planning the extension of light rail to the airport in the near future.”

Going forward, Dow said Cross River Rail would give the Gold Coast a direct line to the Sunshine Coast, via Brisbane.

In the long term, that line pairing could support a “Coast 2 Coast” service between Coolangatta and Maroochydore.

“Rail Back On Track supports continued upgrades to provide a fast rail service along the full length of this corridor,” he said.