Gold Coast traffic: Wildest solutions to city's traffic gridlock

How to combat traffic congestion has been a bane for Gold Coasters leaders and motorists for 60 years. We’re still talking about it today.

HOW to combat traffic congestion has been a bane for Gold Coasters leaders and motorists for 60 years. We’re still talking about it today. People pods, monocabs, tunnels and cableways from Southport to Sanctuary Cove have been some of the wacky ideas to be raised – and fail.

WHAT WE HAD:

• Railway

Southport railway station opening in January 1889. Supplied.

The railway came to Southport in January 1889, connecting the township with Brisbane. The steam train helped bring more tourists and day trippers to the region which previously were forced to travel by paddle steamers opened by the Moreton Bay Oyster Company. But it call came to an end in June 1964 when the ruling National Party Government closed the railway and sold off the trains. Russ Hinze, the Albert Shire Chairman and later South Coast MP later insisted it was the worst transport decision made for the region. Trains did not travel south of Beenleigh again until 1996.

• Pacific Highway

Official opening of the Pacific Highway crossing Flat Rock Creek, Currumbin, Queensland, 27 December 1933.

The Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane was built through the Gold Coast region in the 1920s and 1930s.

Initially a two-lane road, it gradually increased in size, particularly after the closure of the railway in 1964.

By the 1990s it was beyond capacity and in desperate need of widening.

Instead of a full eight-lane revamp, the Borbidge Government would commission today’s smaller, six-lane design.

WHAT WE COULD HAVE HAD

• Monocabs

Artist impression of the Monocabs.

A bold idea patented in 2007 by Ashmore engineer David Whittaker.

A hybrid of monorail and light rail, it would have cost around $1 billion to service the entire Gold Coast, travelling both east and west.

The Monocabs would have run on tracks built in the median strip with columns spaced about 30m apart. The system was pitched to would complement the heavy rail line to Coolangatta.

• People pods

Mayor Ron Clarke inspects the Austrans People Pods in Chullora, Sydney in 2004.

Mayor Ron Clarke wanted to bring space-age people pods to the Gold Coast as a way of solving traffic issues.

In 2004, to mark his 100th day in office, Cr Clarke unveiled his plans for the elevated people-mover that was developed by Sydney company Bishop Austrans Ltd and trialled in the NSW capital.

Initially, Cr Clarke wanted to build an overhead track from Gold Coast Hospital at Southport to Broadbeach, a trip he predicted would take just 12 minutes and cost $2.

Under plans released to the public, the people pods would be driverless and carry 18 people at a time – nine sitting and nine standing.

They would arrive at a station at 15-second intervals and transport 10,000 people every hour.

It was estimated the entire system would cost about $100 million to install.

The State Government instead chose light rail.

• Surfers Paradise Tunnel

The Surfers Paradise skyline in the 1980s. Supplied by Gold Coast City Council

In mid-1990 the Gold Coast City Council, under the leadership of mayor Lex Bell, and the Department of Main Roads considered digging a tunnel under Surfers Paradise to ease traffic bank-up.

According to plans developed by PPK Consultants, the tunnel would have begun at the northern end of Ferny Ave near Higman St and gone under the Glitter Strip along the route of The Esplanade to Thornton St.

The PPK report, filed with the council at the time, suggested such a development would be a pricey endeavour.

“The cost range of naturally ventilated options is estimated to be from $111 to $133 million, and for the mechanically ventilated version costs range between $146 and $173 million with annual costs of $1.1 million and $2.3 million, respectively,” the report said.

The early 1990s recession hit the economy hard and the project never progressed.

• Gold Coast Monorail

Artist impression of proposed Gold Coast Monorail April 1986

A citywide monorail system was proposed in 1986.

The original designs showed an H-Bahn-style hanging carriage system.

The initial proposal involved the rail travelling from The Spit to Broadbeach.

By 1989, the Ahern Government had approved the project with a defined route running from Sea World to Pacific Fair, through the heavily congested Surfers Paradise corridor, with extension options.

It was shelved by the Goss Government in the early 1990s.

• Seaway tunnel

Ron Clarke hoped to build a monorail and tunnel under the Seaway.

When Ron Clarke left the mayoral office in early 2012 he ran for Parliament in the seat of Broadwater.

A key plank of his election platform was a proposal to build a monorail under the Seaway.

He wanted an electric monorail system, similar to Sea World’s, that would run underneath the Seaway to shuttle tourists and residents from The Spit to South Stradbroke Island.

• SkyLinQ

The proposed route of SkyLinQ

In early 2014 SkyLinQ, a company which claimed to have UK-based backers, unveiled plans for a $220 million, 24km-long cableway to run between Southport and Sanctuary Cove, via The Spit.

It ambitiously hoped to get the project built before the 2018 Commonwealth Games and submitted the plans to the State Government. However, the idea never progressed.

WHAT WE ACTUALLY GOT

• Light rail

Light rail went ahead where all the others did not Picture: Jerad Williams

More than $2 billion will have been spent building the first three stages of the Gold Coast’s tram system by the time the Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads link is completed in 2023.

The first stage opened in July 2014 and was quickly followed by stage two in 2017.

Construction has now begun on Stage 3.

• M1

The M1. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

The first sod was turned on the six-lane motorway in 1998 and was finally completed in early 2001.

Successive Governments have moved slowly to upgrade it, with calls to expand it to eight lanes from six ignored because of the high cost.