Light rail to Movie World: Call for better public transport to improve experience for tourists

Light rail could make it to the doorstep of one of the Gold Coast’s most famous attractions under a radical proposal to improve the experience of visitors to the city. Full details.

Theme parks supremo Bikash Randhawa has called for improved public transport to help keep tourists out of traffic, including a possible extension of the light rail to Movie World.

The Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer said better connectivity was vital to ensure tourists enjoyed a “seamless experience”.

“We’ve got to make sure that visitors are not spending a lot of time on the road. They’re spending more time at attractions, at restaurants, at facilities,” he said.

“Certainly the congestion and the issues we are seeing with traffic is a huge concern.

“I think the G:Link is fabulous, it’s taken a bit of pressure, but it needs to expand and connect to more areas in my opinion.”

There have been calls for the light rail to be expanded further on the northern Gold Coast.

The light rail terminates at Helensvale station, three kilometres as the crow flies from the front door of Movie World, and closer still to Wet’n’Wild and the Australian Outback Spectacular.

But tourists using it to reach Village Roadshow’s Oxenford parks from hotels must switch onto buses at the station for the last leg of their journey, something Mr Randhawa hopes will change.

“It needs to be looked at. For us to have the G:Link connect between Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise into Oxenford will help local government, state government, in making sure that experience is seamless,” he said.

“We would love to see that. We would love to see better public transport into the theme parks.

“This is no different to any other tourism city in the world. You look at the public transport, you look at the connectivity. It happens everywhere except for here and it needs to.”

Council leaders have previously said they want extensions of the light rail in the city’s north to be the next cab off the rank after Stage Four to the airport is completed.

Then city planning boss Cameron Caldwell said last year: “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.

“(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.”

Village Roadshow Theme Parks Chief Operating Officer Bikash Randhawa at Movie World Picture: Glenn Campbell.

East-West light rail connections running to Robina and Nerang from the coastal strip have also been suggested, but no concrete plans have been decided.

Mr Randhawa said he would also like to see more direct flights to Gold Coast airport from overseas, saying with the creation of Experience Gold Coast the city was heading in the right direction, but had yet to reach its full potential.

“What’s happened with Gold Coast Airport has been tremendous. I applaud their management team. With the expansion, with the way that sits with the city, because airports are critical to our success,” he said.

“What we would like to see in a perfect world is direct flights into the Gold Coast from India.

“At the end of the day we are an island here that’s far away.

“So what we’ve got to do is to make it affordable, to get that connectivity going and we would have millions of people coming here.

“There’s no reason this city can’t be at 90 per cent occupancy all year around.”

Mr Randhawa said the G:link had been “fabulous” for the Gold Coast. Picture: Brendan Radke.

Speaking ahead of the Bulletin’s Future Gold Coast forum at the Sea World Resort Conference Centre on Friday November 17, of which Village Roadshow Theme Parks is a major partner, Mr Randhawa said the city was playing a “critical” role as the gateway to Queensland and at the heart of Australia’s tourism industry.

He said he would like to see federal and state governments acknowledge that role by appointing MPs from the city to lead their tourism strategies.

“I would like to see the next Federal Tourism Minister come from this city. I’d like to see the next tourism minister at state level come from this city,” he said.

“It is so important we get appropriate care, get appropriate subsidies, get appropriate attention at all times, because this is exactly where it all starts for Queensland. And finishes.

“People come to the Gold Coast. You look at international markets, you look at India for example, typically they would pick Sydney, Gold Coast, Cairns, or it’s Melbourne, Gold Coast and up to Cairns. The Gold Coast is always a part of the itinerary.

“It is so critical. You look at the millions of people we put through the door.

“For us to have that position, the city needs to be represented in the tourism space.

“We are number one, we are the best city in Australia, we’ve got better things than Sydney, we’ve got better things than Melbourne.

“And we deserve that attention.”

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