Golden Age: Transport expert Cameron Gordon reveals whether lower fares will get more Gold Coasters off the M1 and onto trains

A LEADING Australian transport expert reveals why political leaders must act now to solve the Gold Coast’s traffic woes and whether lowering the cost of public transport would actually work.

THE Gold Coast and Brisbane are two major areas of population and employment density connected by a funnel — the M1 and the rail corridor.

The question is how you get people through that funnel as economically and feasibly as possible?

It must be made sure the traffic on those corridors and the development of them are managed well.

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Dr Cameron Gordon, Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Canberra.

Otherwise you can end up with a problem, which has happened to a certain degree.

You want to get on top of this now because it is too late once there is dense ­development and high travel demands. Once these are in place it is much harder to retrospectively deal with.

Many have made this mistake and hope for the best because of politics and cost but it is essential to get on top of it early.

If you are in a densely populated area with good transit alternatives to cars, the experience can be seen as an inconvenience.

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Heavy traffic on the M1 Picture Glenn Hampson

Sometimes you can find that it is more expensive to use a car in terms of both time and reliability and in this circumstance, pricing can have a real impact on what people choose.

I have taken trains from the Gold Coast to Brisbane. The city is experiencing growth, congestion and travel reliability.

When the M1 has accidents it goes down. Whereas the rail runs well. I could see people saying “give me a good price on (the trains) and I’ll take it instead”.

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New trains are now operating in the southeast. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

It should always consider how much the ride is and if you want to encourage people to use it, you will want to make the fare low, relatively speaking.

Governments have to consider the cost of the transit and make the cost of driving higher. A lot of the time people focus on doing one rather than the other but if your objective is to get people using your railway then you have to do both.

Dr Cameron Gordon is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Canberra