Gold Coast light rail Stage 5: Momentum builds behind unexpected route
Business and political leaders want a light rail extension in an unexpected location to be the next cab off the rank once the border link is completed. VOTE IN OUR POLL
Future Gold Coast
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BUSINESS and political leaders want a light rail extension in the city’s north to be the next cab off the rank once the border link is completed.
East-West connections are tipped to be the next direct routes, running to Robina and Nerang from the coastal strip, but no concrete plans have been decided.
Frustrated with the five-year delay between Stage 2’s completion in 2017 and Stage 3’s works beginning last month, city planning boss Councillor Cameron Caldwell called for light rail construction to become “business as usual” and urged for a link connecting the rapidly growth north.
“All the great cities in the world have great public transport and it cannot just stop at the airport but we need to see stage after stage after stage,” he said.
“(We need to) get it to Harbour Town and beyond because we need a network that actually works and it will make a huge difference to how people move around.
“Imagine right now if we did not have the light rail – the 1.1 million trips taken on the trams in October would have been through other forms of transport and could we have coped? Probably not.
“It’s not the trams causing the congestion, it’s the cars.”
The proposed route for a Harbour Town connection was a 3km spur line with stops at Southport Sharks and Central Street.
It has long been backed by state MP Sam O’Connor who touted it in his 2018 maiden speech and has discussed it frequently in subsequent years.
Another supporter of the route is Lewis Land Group, which owns Harbour Town.
The complex has long struggled with parking capacity at peak times, with company development head Michael Long saying trams would not only take cars off the road but help usher businesses towards a net-zero emissions policy.
“Obviously we would love to see it come north toe Harbour Town but the extra thing about light rail is the environmental sustainability,” he told the Bulletin’s Future Gold Coast roundtable.
‘There are a lot of business gearing up for net zero by 2030 which will dovetail with the Olympics and getting cars off the road is a big part of that.
“We need to do everything needed to get the light rail as far as it can go would be a huge benefit across the board.”
However, don’t expect to see a northern tramline until the 2030s, with city and political leaders focused on construction of Stage 3 – between Broadbeach and Burleigh – and planning for Stage 4, which will run from Burleigh Heads to the border via Gold Coast Airport.
Funding is yet to be secured for the Coolangatta route but planning is well underway, with the business case due to be delivered in mid-2023.
Mayor Tom Tate in October wrote to the federal government asking for funding to be fast-tracked to e ensure construction could begin as early as 2025 in order to complete it by the 2032 Olympics.
Cr Caldwell has previously warned of the risk of the system not be completed in time for the Games.
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