Paul Weston opinion: Will the Gold Coast railway station be a $40 million mistake?

The Palaszczuk Government is planning three new heavy rail stations on the Gold Coast line. But will one of them be a $40 million mistake, asks Paul Weston.

THE Palaszczuk Government is planning three new heavy rail stations on the Gold Coast line. Residents were asked for feedback. One of the locations is either going to be $40 million of taxpayers’ money well spent or a planning disaster.

At Pimpama in the far north, veteran developer Norm Rix has successfully negotiated in a land deal to move the station from east of the line to the west near his company’s shopping centre. A location where shoppers can park and ride makes sense.

Proposed rail station at the planned Pacific View estate at Worongary on the Gold Coast.

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Further south is the proposed Helensvale North Station, on Hope Island Road at the Musgrave Jack Park. This is where fans parked successfully to get to the Coomera indoor sports venue for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The only challenges there will be getting extra car spaces under the railway bridge, which Cross River Rail Minister Kate Jones is considering. The community also wants a name change. They are suggesting Hope Island station, and that is spot on.

But it is the proposed Merrimac station in Gooding Drive, about 750m east of the Pacific Motorway and Gooding Drive interchange, which requires a Government explanation of the reasons for it being the preferred location.

Developer Peter Burke has the support of area councillor Glenn Tozer in lobbying to have the station moved further north near the Elysium Road interchange and the planned Pacific View estate.

“The estate will have a minimum 15,000 residents in the next 10 years. You want them to be going on the train. You don’t want them driving. We have enough vehicles on the M1,” Mr Burke says.

Location of the planned Helensvale North Rail Station.

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This column has obtained a concept plan which incorporates a rail station in the estate project and shows the size of the development. Imagine another Pacific Pines, for example, being built on the edge of the M1.

The station is still on the eastern side of the motorway but there is bicycle and cycle access across a pedestrian bridge which links with the estate’s retail precinct.

This new pedestrian link would enable cyclists to ride from Gilston to Robina. About 500 car parking spaces at Pacific View estate’s town centre would add to the 250 at the station. The developer could be encouraged to make a monetary contribution.

As passionate as Mr Burke is about relocating the station, the Government remains as committed to its current location.

“It would have cost more than double to put it there. This will add more than 10 kilometres of track. It is a more central location to have it where it is at Merrimac. The council officers agree with that. It’s not the Government’s duty to line the pockets of a developer,” a government source says.

Pimpama heavy rail station design.

Mr Burke this week was contacting the office of Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon to arrange a meeting on her return from State Parliament.

What if the Government and council are right on keep costs down and the central location for the station? But what if the alternative, which they say costs more, takes more traffic off the M1?

The nagging thing is Mr Burke makes a final reference to the existing Robina station. If negotiations with developers decades ago had been successful, its location would have been at the Town Centre, he says.

Are we going to learn valuable lessons from past missed opportunities – in this instance, the Merrimac-Worongary station?