Gold Coast Acting Mayor Donna Gates furious over high-speed rail snub
A CITY leader is furious the Gold Coast has be snubbed by plans for a high-speed rail network in the southeast despite stunning new figures showing how popular the light rail is.
Transport
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THE Gold Coast has not been included in plans for a multibillion-dollar fast-rail network in southeast Queensland, despite the success of the city’s light rail showing growing support for public transport.
But that should change according to the city’s Acting Mayor, who says it is essential for Australia’s tourism capital to be recognised.
The Turnbull Government is assessing a proposal to build Northern Coast Connect, a 200km fast-rail network to connect Brisbane with the Sunshine Coast and allow travel between the two in just 45 minutes.
Acting Mayor Donna Gates urged political leaders to consider making the Gold Coast part of the project.
“I would prefer to see the connection come here too because it would help address the traffic concerns on the Coast along with the light and heavy rail networks,” she said.
“I would like to see our city the focus on this public transport network rather than as an investment purely in an area which is not as prominent as Australia’s tourism capital.”
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk criticised the Federal Government for dismissing her state Labor government’s priorities, including the $5 billion Cross River Rail project it refused to fund.
“That’s the way the Federal Government works, trying to tell Queensland what’s good for Queensland,” she said.
“We will tell the Federal Government what we believe our priorities are.
“We know they have turned a blind eye to Cross River Rail. That’s our key priority, so we’re going it alone on building it.’’
The Sunshine Coast fast-rail proposal comes as new figures reveal rocketing support for public transport on the Gold Coast, with light rail patronage jumping 25 per cent in just a month since the second stage was launched in December, linking the trams with heavy rail.
The tram extension, which runs between the Gold Coast University Hospital and Helensvale train station, opened just before Christmas, with more than 40,000 people using it on its first day.
New figures show it continued to be busy over the Christmas and New Year periods, with 172,000 extra trips across the whole tram network in that time.
Of those, 78,000 trips were recorded from the three new stations built along stage 2, including at Helensvale.
Gaven MP and Assistant Tourism Minister Meaghan Scanlon welcomed the figures.
“Since stage two was launched, we’ve seen a 25 per cent increase in patronage on the Gold Coast light rail — that’s equal to 172,000 extra trips,” she said.
“We’re expecting more and more people will use the light rail service throughout the year as residents return from holidays and become familiar with their new public transport system.’’
The 7.3km, 11-minute journey along stage 2 connects the light and heavy rail systems and allows people to travel from Brisbane to the beach by rail for the first time in more than 50 years.
GoldLinQ chairman John Witheriff, one of the leading figures in securing the tram extension, said patronage was “certainly above expectations” and he expected numbers to increase significantly next month when the university semester begins.
“It’s a big figure but we have not even seen Griffith University students come back yet so we won’t see the true impact of it until then,” he said
“We are anticipating an even greater level of take-up than what we are seeing now and these figures just reflect commuters, which is great.
“I think over the coming months we will see people from Pacific Pines and Coomera start to use the park and rides and use the tram, which will also have a big impact on road usage.
“These figures have so far certainly exceeded our expectations.”
Despite reports yesterday that the LNP’s 26 federal Queensland MPs supported the Sunshine Coast rail proposal, Gold Coast-based MPs did not return calls for comment.
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