Anti-tram campaigners slam Mark Bailey over light rail scheme

Former transport minister Mark Bailey has been slammed by anti-tram campaigners after he condemned a light rail scheme for Brisbane.

Former transport minister Mark Bailey has been slammed as “an absolute hypocrite” by Gold Coast anti-tram campaigners after he condemned a light rail scheme for Brisbane proposed by the Greens.

Greens lord mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan this week announced plans to bring trams back to Brisbane, promising a $10m study for a light-rail line from Mt Gravatt to Hamilton if his party wins control at next month’s council election.

Jonathan Sriranganathan, Greens candidate for Lord Mayor of Brisbane in the March 2024 local government elections

Mr Bailey - who as transport minister championed the controversial Gold Coast light-rail extension despite fierce opposition from many locals - took to social media this week to blast the Greens’ Brisbane tram plan.

He warned it would be “a disaster” and create “peak hour gridlock” on Brisbane’s southside because it would result in the loss of traffic lanes, including on the Story Bridge.

Mr Bailey also quoted Griffith University public transport specialist Matthew Burke who said there were “cheaper alternatives than building a fourth (transport) network introducing an old street-car style light-rail”.

“Putting up public transport policy to win votes at the council election that would grind the southside into a long-term gridlock is to be condemned as the Greens party con that is,” Mr Bailey posted on Facebook.

Mark Bailey during a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Save Our Southern Gold Coast president Kath Down said Mr Bailey’s comments were “breathlessly hypocritical”.

“We’re absolutely gobsmacked that ex-minister Bailey is such an absolute hypocrite when it comes to light-rail in his own backyard,” she said.

“He called southern Gold Coasters NIMBYs (Not in My Backyard) - well, we’re throwing it right back at him.”

Ms Down said Mr Bailey was spouting the same arguments to attack the Greens’ light-rail plan for Brisbane that Gold Coasters had used without success in their campaign to stop the light-rail extension from Broadbeach to Gold Coast Airport.

She said Gold Coast Highway traffic had been reduced to one lane through Mermaid Beach for construction of light-rail Stage 3, from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads, resulting in chronic congestion, the loss of parking spaces and business closures.

Artist impression images of a plan put forward by The Greens ahead of the Brisbane City Council election to bring trams back to Brisbane. Photo: Supplied.

Traffic flows would continue to be restricted along the extended light-rail route because it would be a shared roadway, she said.

Stage 3 of the light-rail is due for completion next year, while city leaders including Mayor Tom Tate are pushing for stage 4 to the airport to be built before the 2032 Olympics.

Ms Down said many residents wanted the heavy-rail extended from Varsity Lakes to the airport instead.

Scandal-prone Mr Bailey quit as transport minister following the shock resignation of ex-premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in December, before he was set to be dumped by new leader Steven Miles.

Mr Bailey hit back on Saturday, saying the Gold Coast and Brisbane southside where the Greens want to put light-rail were “totally different”.

“From Burleigh to Coolangatta, two lanes each way for general traffic are guaranteed as well as the proposed light rail route whereas the Greens party plan in my local electorate of Miller involves only one lane of traffic both ways on Ipswich Road which is a major freight route which will be a disaster,” he said.

“Ipswich Road and the Gold Coast Highway are totally different widths, corridors and carry different volumes of traffic.”

Mr Bailey also said he had never called Gold Coast anti-light rail campaigners “NIMBYs”.

“Sad to see Kath Down make up stuff that isn’t true,” he said.