Fixing the traffic jam to the Gold Coast border: Finding the right path for light rail to the airport

OPINION: The ‘pause button’ has been hit on light rail to the Gold Coast southern border. So what is a traffic solution which will please everyone? Here is the answer.

Light rail and whether to extend the tram route to the border has to be viewed from two sides of the tracks. There’s the citywide view - and the suburban Palm Beach front yard view.

For the Crisafulli Government, which has hit the pause button on the project, it’s a tough call.

Some LNP strategists believe they will lose southern MPs Hermann Vorster and Laura Gerber at the next poll if the trams go further south than Burleigh.

The citywide view was articulated by Central Chamber of Commerce president Laura Younger at their recent Transport Forum.

The trams were about green transport, a “seamless connection to the border” giving residents better access to jobs, education and essential services.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the Gold Coast as a truly connected city,” Ms Younger told the forum.

“Let’s be honest, well over one million people a month, and over 94 million light rail users since 2014 can’t be wrong. There has also been almost 100 per cent reliability in the more than 10 years the G: has been operating.

Burleigh MP Hermann Vorster and Central Chamber of Commerce president Laura Younger, and views on light rail Stage Four to the Gold Coast Airport.

“I find it hard to believe why stage four is still under consultation and not underway, and why one section of Gold Coast residents would have a greater say when light rail is a whole of Gold Coast transport system.”

Steve Harrison, the chair of the Light Rail Business Advisory Group chair, offered the same view at the Government light rail forum at Palm Beach.

Ms Younger backed the research from the council’s recent Citywide survey.

“The number of residents who support the ‘coastal’ extension route along the Gold Coast Highway outweighs the number of opponents by almost five to one, and the southern end of the Gold Coast 48 per cent support light rail whilst 44 per cent do not support light rail,” she said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, 98 per cent of the 430 residents, many older, were opposed.

A packed meeting at Palm Beach where the State Government hosted a forum on light rail Stage Four to the border.

Their complaints were chorus strong. Trams would wreck the environment, they were too slow and boost high rise development. The Government must look at buses and heavy rail, they said.

Earlier before the event, an older bloke spoke quietly to Mr Vorster. He admitted to not being against light rail, just trams going down the coastal route in a such a narrow corridor.

So where are we at in the city’s biggest transport debate?

The Government must explore all option alignments, not toss the meccano set out.

Clearly, Labor got its consultation wrong. Many older opponents need more information. While the LNP Government has hit the “pause button”, Labor and the City want a green light.

Map showing the route for light rail Stage Four on the Gold Coast.

If the Crisafulli Government takes the city-wide view and considers the negative tourism impact from traffic gridlock, the tram route would be progressed to the airport.

Stop light rail south - and Mr Vorster and Ms Gerber will be local heroes elected down there for life.

There’s a politically safe get out clause here, which taxpayers might agree upon, and that is the potential $7 billion-plus cost is a bridge too far — or two, at Currumbin and Tallebudgera.

But it will not solve a southern traffic jam. Stopping trams requires finding a proper alternative solution.

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Originally published as Fixing the traffic jam to the Gold Coast border: Finding the right path for light rail to the airport