Golden Age: Views on Gold Coast Light rail’s future route and effect on the city’s south
DEBATE rages over where the Gold Coast light rail should go after Burleigh Heads and what effect it will have on the Gold Coast. Two of the Coast’s leading figures reveal what it will mean for you.
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DEBATE rages over where the Gold Coast light rail should go after Burleigh Heads and what effect it will have on the Gold Coast. Two of the Coast’s leading figures reveal what it will mean for you.
MICHAEL HART
THE key to the light rail is taking people from where they are to where they want to go.
I am happy to see it go to Burleigh but if it goes through to Palm Beach it will cause too much of a problem through the need to reclaim properties and a lack of parking.
The feeling in my electorate is that some people do not want it to come here at all.
Undoubtedly it will get people off the roads and this has been successful in the city’s north.
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Along the western route we could see increased density and the best place for this will be in the western parts of our city.
If you take the light rail west to meet the heavy rail there would be stops at Stocklands and Treetops — which would open up those shopping areas to more people — as well as Marymount College.
Michael Hart is the Member for Burleigh.
STEPHEN HARRISON
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IT has always been the case that the light rail must be located where the maximum number of users are and the maximum benefits could be provided.
By extending from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads it will pick up on the key growth areas through that area, including Nobby Beach, plus it is the most direct route along what is a wide road corridor.
This will eventually create a link down the Coast to the Gold Coast Airport to the coastal nodes before linking to heavy rail at some point in the future.
This is catalytic infrastructure and there are indirect benefits such as urban renewal.
The priority right now is getting it to Burleigh and then on to the Airport. There will then be the potential for east-west connections and ultimately from there we will have a fully functional, multi-modal public transport system.
Stephen Harrison is chairman of the Gold Coast light rail business advisory board
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