The missing link for Brisbane’s public transport system

IT WAS a key element to a blueprint which has largely guided much of Brisbane’s development over the last 10 years. But it’s constantly been ignored despite its success elsewhere and “massive potential” to boost the city’s transport system.

LIGHT RAIL remains the missing link from Brisbane’s long-term public transport strategy, says one of the state’s leading urban visionaries.

As a member of Peter Beattie’s Smart State Council, architect Michael Rayner was largely responsible for a 2007 blueprint of the city as a series of connected “super-precincts” of urban renewal hubs and knowledge clusters which has guided much of Brisbane’s development.

But one key element of his report — proposing a light rail system through the inner-city — has been ignored in repeated state and council transport planning strategies since.

Patronage on the Gold Coast light rail has exceeded all predictions and a business case is being prepared which could see construction of the next $660m stage. Pictured above is the Helensvale stop. Picture: Jerad Williams

Under his plan, an initial route would run east-west from New Farm through Newstead, along Wickham Street, into the city centre via Adelaide St, across Victoria Bridge into South Brisbane and West End.

Possible alternative or future routes would include James St in Fortitude Valley, Bowen Hills and a circuit of the RNA Showgrounds precinct.

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Eventually, a line crossing the Eleanor Schonell green bridge linking Dutton Park to the University of Queensland campus in St Lucia would be an option, along with a bridge from New Farm/Newstead to Hawthorne/Bulimba.

Michael Rayner.

“It still has massive potential,” said Mr Rayner, whose previous work includes the Kurilpa and Goodwill bridges over the Brisbane River.

“It hasn’t been rigorously studied. It deserves a better look.”

Cross River Rail and Brisbane Metro would be effective mass transit means of getting people into the CBD but light rail would serve a different purpose, complementing a more car-free inner-city ring.

“If you are in St Paul’s Terrace or Newstead, it’s awfully hard to get anything other than an Uber and light rail would solve that.

“It’s about creating a connected subtropical city … an iconic experience,” Mr Rayner said.

Brisbane Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner said: “Light rail definitely has a place. There is a role for it in southeast Queensland and we’ve seen it work well on the Gold Coast.”

However, he said light rail could be “exorbitantly expensive” to deliver.

“We’ve seen it in Sydney, where the project has effectively doubled in cost as a result of blowouts, he said.

“But there are some parts of the city where light rail would work and it’s something we should continue to explore.”

Patronage on the Gold Coast light rail has exceeded all predictions and a business case is being prepared which could see construction of the next $660m stage — a 6.4km stretch from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads — start next year, with services from 2021.

The eventual aim is to run the network all the way to the airport at Coolangatta.

“It’s the smart public transport mode and our city is leading the way,” Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson says a rapid rail link to his region is only a half solution, unless it is backed with a $1.5-2 billion light rail system.

It would run 43 kilometres from the airport to Maroochydore, south along Nicklin Way to Caloundra, through the new Aura development to link to heavy rail at Beerwah.

“The powers that be will look at the numbers and say people on the Sunshine Coast don’t use public transport and they’d be right but that’s because timetables don’t suit their needs,” he said.

SUNSHINE COAST COMMUTERS RIPPED OFF

SUNSHINE Coast commuters have been ripped off by the State and Federal Government when it comes to public transport, mayor Mark Jamieson says, but a $1.5B light rail project could get travellers out of cars and to home and work quicker.

Cr Jamieson said the coast and Queensland urgently needed the rail “choke point” between Beerwah and Nambour fixed, either with a duplication or fast rail, but they would only do half the job without a light rail connection to where people live.

The bulk of the Sunshine Coast population live to the east of the Bruce Highway, while the traditional North Coast rail route ran to the roadway’s west, Cr Jamieson said.

He said a fast rail could open up vast opportunities from the Sunshine Coast north to Bundaberg but simply installing the line and relying on “massive car parks” was not the answer.

“Fast trains by their nature don’t stop very often,’’ Cr Jamieson said.

“That’s the critical thing.

“So where they do stop there will be requirements for either massive car park that we don’t have the space for, or it needs integrate and interface with effective domestic public transport model.

Light rail on the Sunshine Coast would be cheaper than on the Gold Coast, Cr Jamieson argues. Pictured above is light rail outside the Gold Coast University Hospital. Picture Glenn Hampson

“If that was light rail people would arrive by fast train at a point on the Sunshine Coast, they would step off, walk across the platform hop on a light rail and either go south or north to their destination.

“It’s a city to city connection linking to a suburb to suburb connection.

“The Federal Government business case around fast rail specifically excluded light rail.

“I think that’s a mistake.

“There’s no sense in just dumping large numbers of people at one or two locations on the Sunshine Coast and expecting them to make their own way home from there.

“You need a much better system so people are within 800m or a 1km of where they live.”

For the bulk of the coast’s population - present and projected that is along the 43km long, 60m light rail corridor from the airport to Maroochydore, south along Nicklin Way to Caloundra, Aura then Beerwah.

“Rail is a state government responsibility. All council can do is advocate for our reason for a fair go. I don’t believe we have had a fair go,” Cr Jamieson said.

“The powers that be will look at the numbers and say people don’t on the Sunshine Coast don’t use public transport and they’d be right but that’s because timetables don’t suit their needs.

“The people of Brisbane wouldn’t put up with it.

“The light rail network depends on how much kilometres of light rail would be required to successfully

“You are talking circa $1.5 to $2B. It will be cheaper than the Gold Coast.

“We’ve got the corridors. We will have to move services but generally we are well placed.

“Ultimately it needs to be funded by the State Government and the Federal Government, as they funded the Gold Coast.”