Gold Coasters angry about congestion should be asking why major projects are being long-fingered

The Gold Coast needs this major game-changing project to stop congestion getting worse. We should be angry it’s been long-fingered, writes Keith Woods

THERE’S an old Irish joke about an American tourist who stops to ask directions to Dublin.

“Well sir, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here,” comes the reply.

It’s a bit like that with transport on the Gold Coast.

We’ve allowed development to race too far ahead of infrastructure. Our roads are clogged. Now we’ve reached a point where there is a groundswell of popular opinion demanding something is done.

Finding our way to that goal will be devilishly hard from the place we’ve brought ourselves to. How wistfully we may wish we did not have to start from here.

Gold Coast councillors are feeling the pressure more than most. Division 2 councillor William Owen-Jones asked on social media at the weekend if ratepayers would be willing to tip an extra $6 a year into council’s “City Transport Improvement Charge’’.

The response was anything but positive.

The Yatala lights - and eternal symbol of wasted money. Picture: Mike Batterham

Locals quite reasonably feel they are already paying too much – and not getting results. The costly Yatala lights debacle is frequently mentioned, although it should be noted Cr Owen-Jones was one of those who opposed that project from the start.

People are also angry that money might be spent on a cruise ship terminal or hinterland cableway – ironically projects with potential to take tourist buses off the M1 or narrow mountain roads.

Someone on Cr Owen-Jones’ Facebook post even objected to the amount of money being spent by the city on children’s playgrounds, given the state of our streets.

People have a right to be angry. But they’re picking on the wrong target.

Unlike the state and federal governments, the council can’t raid the wallets of motorists through rego or fuel taxes. They can only raise rates – and would have to do so by ridiculous amounts to afford any serious infrastructure on their own.

The real power for change lies in Canberra and Brisbane.

Commuters enduring one of their 19 days lodged in traffic in the M1. Picture: Mike Batterham

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The RACQ last week revealed that commuters using the M1 to travel to Brisbane for work spend the equivalent of 19 days a year behind the wheel. That’s not going to be significantly changed by anything the council achieves with its paltry budget

Real change requires action on major projects like the duplicate M1, or “Coomera Connector’’ – something successive state governments have failed to deliver.

Campbell Newman, although obsessed with running road tunnels through every part of Brisbane, led a state government that effectively canned the alternative M1 project in 2014.

The current mob are only marginally better. Although they at least pay lip service to the need for the road and have gazetted necessary land, they are very clearly dragging their heels.

Transport and Main Roads are still unable to give any indication when the project may start, never mind when it might finish.

Eagleby resident Alf Schmidt is among those told their land will be needed for the Coomera Connector - but given little idea when.

It’s frustrating not just for commuters, but people in the Logan area who have been told their land would need to be resumed but have no idea when the project might happen.

But not to worry. Local Labor MP Melissa McMahon has assured them it won’t be happening any time soon, saying nothing would happen in the “short to medium term”.

That just leaves the long term then, which is where this government wants this project to remain.

The Coomera Connector corridor. Picture: TMR

Contrast this with the energy devoted to Cross River Rail. Like Campbell Newman, it appears the Palaszczuk Government is obsessed with delivering tunnels for Brisbane, the only difference being Labor wishes to fill them with trains rather than cars.

The Government likes to spruik the supposed benefits for the Gold Coast, but it’s clear the city is an afterthought in this Brisbane-centric plan.

Among other things, the Cross River Rail website helpfully suggests the project will ease traffic on Discovery Drive at Helensvale – which, barring the build-up around the local high school each morning, is hardly one of the city’s pinch points. But that’s not something you’d know sitting in an office in Brisbane.

If politicians were really serious about solving this city’s transport woes, the Coomera Connector would already be under construction and the debate would centre on the next steps needed. Instead we are asked to content ourselves with whatever crumbs fall from Brisbane’s table.

And Gold Coast city councillors, despite their limited room for manoeuvre, bear the brunt of a growing rage.

This city needs to take a new direction. Some clearly think it should start with the council.

But friends, we are being led astray, and we should not start from here.