Golden Age: Burleigh business owners looking forward to light rail option

BURLEIGH business owners are split on the route of the light rail. They say there’s a fine line between getting it right, and destroying the beachside suburb completely.

“I’M ALL for the light rail down the Gold Coast Highway — if they do it properly.”

Ryan Leader, the owner of Slice Pizzeria in Burleigh Heads, said there was a fine line between the pros and cons of the light rail.

But ultimately, he believes it will be a huge benefit to the beachside community.

“It will be good for business if it goes right down the highway,” he said.

“But they have to do it properly — that way, everyone will benefit.”

GOLDEN AGE: RAIL EXTENSION WILL ‘TRANSFORM’ COAST’S SOUTH

The light rail Picture: Jerad Williams

GOLDEN AGE: ‘SOME PEOPLE DON’T WANT LIGHT RAIL HERE AT ALL’

Mr Ryan said his popular pizza restaurant has been open for nearly five years and in that time he’s seen the Burleigh Heads landscape change significantly.

“There’s restaurants and businesses always coming and going,” he said.

“When they initially put the median barrier in, some businesses struggled — because all of a sudden people couldn’t just duck across the road.

GOLDEN AGE: COASTERS WANT MORE RAIL EXTENSIONS TO IMPROVE CITY

Slice Pizzeria's Ryan Leader is all for the Light Rail along the Gold Coast Highway. Photo Britt Ramsey

GOLDEN AGE: WHEN LIGHT RAIL WILL ARRIVE IN BURLEIGH

“They’d have to go all the way down to the lights and walk back up.

“But with the light rail, I think there’s huge potential.”

He said while many people complain there will be less parking spaces, the point of the light rail is to boost foot traffic while limiting the number of cars in the area.

“People are scared of change, but change is good. We need to move forward and adapt,” he said.

“It might change the parking situation, but it will bring people here — they’ll be coming straight through and can just jump off, and jump back on.”

Slice Pizzeria was the “first place” on the southern-direction of the highway, and appears to be going well.

“Other businesses around, they help boost us, and we them,” he said.

“People will have some drinks at the pub, then come down have a pizza and wander down to Oh My Waffle for dessert.

GET FULL DIGITAL ACCESS FOR 50C A DAY

Oh My Waffle owners Courtney Molloy-Havill and Jessica Hannagan. Photo by Richard Gosling

“Burleigh is nice, we need to bring more people here at night, and the light rail will help.”

Wellness Boutique physiotherapist Anthony Greiner said ideally he’d like to see the light rail both go down the Gold Coast Highway, and swing out west.

“I’d like to be able to get from Varsity train station out here to Burleigh,” he said.

“Bring a line along West Burleigh, then connect up to a line on the Gold Coast Highway to either head south to the airport or north into Surfers.

“Connecting the train station to Burleigh will being more people across here, they just walk to the station and come out to the beach.

“At the moment, if they don’t want to catch a bus or drive, they have to get to the station, go to Helensvale and jump on the light rail to come down.

“Especially with traffic being such an issue here on the Coast, it’d be smarter to have both.”

GOLDEN AGE: GOLD COAST NEEDS BETTER LIGHT RAIL LINKING

Local businesses are split on where the next stage of the Light Rail should go. Picture: Jerad Williams

GOLDEN AGE: HOW TRAMS CAN MOVE TO THE BORDER

Businesses along the Gold Coast Highway were split down the middle in terms of whether they’d like to see the light rail down the Gold Coast Highway, or swing west along West Burleigh Rd.

Hot Stuff Surf — Jake Noble-Ellett:

I think it should go west, all the roads are already hectic. It seems really impractical — it’ll be crap, especially while they’re building it. Nobody will be able to get product in their shops.

Burleigh is already beautiful, got the beaches, National Park — why would you want to ruin it?

The Tattoo Shop — Robbie Piggott:

This part of the Coast has always been a tourist hotspot, if the rail stays close to the coast, it’ll be the better option, bringing more business. I see no problem to keep it coming down the highway.

Oh My Waffle — Courtney Molloy-Havill:

We haven’t thought too much about it, if we’re being completely honest. But bringing it along the Gold Coast Highway will be good for tourists coming through. Building it will be difficult for us. But putting it out to West Burleigh will help the locals more out there. So there’s positives to having it in both spots.

Red Hot Cod — Jenna Mobberley:

It would be too congested if it came through the Gold Coast Highway. But Burleigh is a nice place, and people want to come here. It would be better getting more people in, but it would keep locals out, and minimise parking because they’d have to move some of these spaces to make way for it. There’s positives and negatives to it coming down the highway.

Staff member at Ray White:

Business-wise it would be good to bring more people in, but personally, because I live in the area, I would rather not see it come down this way. It would just be too congested, hard to navigate and park.

Staff from a hair salon in Burleigh:

I would love it to go around the back (of the highway) to save disruption. Burleigh is already a bottleneck, and we’d lose more parking spaces.