Think big to fix transport of the future

Radical public transport options across Far North Queensland should be considered to ease heavily congested roads and improve liveability as the city’s population booms, a leading expert says.

Radical solutions are needed to make Cairns' public transport future proof, a leading expert says. Picture: Supplied

With the number of people living in and visiting Cairns set to nearly double by 2050, thinking big on public transport to ease pressure on the city’s already chockers roads has never been more important.

Only around two per cent of commuters in Cairns and the surrounding suburbs used public transport as their method of travel to work according to data from the 2021 census.

Lisa Law, an Associate Professor at James Cook University who specialises in urban studies, said she wanted to see some radical alternatives to road travel explored.

“What would it be like if we had light rail from Port Douglas down to Cardwell?” Professor Law said.

Light rail in Gold Coast - could a similar approach work in Cairns? Picture: Queensland Government

A light rail could massively relieve pressure on the region’s congested roads, but the current population of Cairns does not support a business case for one.

That was a shortsighted approach, according to Professor Law.

“Funding would have to, I think, come from the federal government and I don’t think they’re going to look at the population we have up here and say it’s worth it,” she said.

“We could make the case, and I think people are arguing we should be because if we’re going to grow, we should be planning the infrastructure for public transport.”

Sustainability is also at the forefront of efforts to future-proof the Cairns public transport network.

Kinetic, which runs the city’s buses, said it wanted to be carbon neutral in just over a decade.

“Kinetic has a goal to be net zero by 2035 for our urban networks,” Kinetic Cairns manager John O’Brien said.

“We’re working very hard towards that.”

Professor Lisa Law, chair of JCU's Tropical Design and Urbanism Lab, said she wanted ambitious plans for public transport to be considered as Cairns considered how to become a city of the future. Picture Emily Barker.

Other options Professor Law wanted to see explored were creating a series of housing and transit hubs along the existing rail line south of Cairns, and the introduction of “trackless trams”, which could follow existing road routes and carry a large number of passengers with greater frequency than the bus network.

“If you look at the rail line that does exist from Cairns Central going south, that’s a real opportunity,” she said.

“What would it look like if we actually built stations in the southern growth corridor of the city, that those stations became high density house (areas) where people could choose to live in Cairns without a car?”

In September 2023 the Perth suburb of Sterling trialled the nation’s first trackless tram, a technology which can follow existing road routes and costs around one fifth of what it would take to introduce light rail.

Brisbane is expected to roll out about 60 of the trams in time for the 2032 Olympics.

A concept design of a streetscape with a trackless tram. Picture: City of Sterling in WA.

Professor Law said encouraging a change of attitude among commuters was just as important as implementing new technology.

“I think public education is the number one priority,” she said.

“We can’t just keep building like we do and putting more cars on the road and putting a bigger road in that just fills up because that doesn’t work.”

Cairns Regional Council said it was considering a range of options as it looked to planning towards 2050.

“Identifying appropriate transport options to support the city’s growth over the next three decades is one of the components of the Towards 2050 program,” a council spokesman said.

“As part of developing the strategy, a number of technical studies are being undertaken, including a Transport Infrastructure and Network Planning Review, which among other things, will help identify potential public transport options to support anticipated growth.”

Originally published as Think big to fix transport of the future