Council scopes out new Brisbane underground with suburban stations

Brisbane would get two new railway stations – at Everton Park and Bridgeman Downs – as part of a 14-kilometre underground line between Albion and Strathpine, under a proposal considered by Brisbane City Council and sent to Infrastructure Australia.

The Everton Park station would be at Leach Street beside Stafford Road and adjacent to Everton Park State School. Symbolically, it is also part of the North West Transport Corridor that Brisbane City Council this week ruled cannot support above-ground development.

New underground rail stations could be built at Everton Park and Bridgeman Down on a western underground rail line from Albion to Strathpine or at Chermside under an eastern link from Albion to Carseldine.Credit: North West Transport Corridor business case August 2022.

Alternatively, the business case proposed a shorter, 9.5-kilometre underground rail running more eastward from Albion rail yards towards Chermside and then Carseldine.

From Carseldine, the alternative line would run on above-ground from Carseldine to Strathpine requiring extra “four track rail lines” and extra bridges over the South Pine River.

Brisbane Times this week revealed a motorway tunnel, and bus upgrades, were put forward as a solution to the congestion and development issues in the city’s north-west.

It has since emerged a suite of options were proposed in an effort to prompt a debate that might lead to a workable solution.

Council on Friday said rail options were always investigated as part the $10 million North West Transport Corridor Study business case because “multimodal solutions” were needed.

New underground rail stations could be built at Everton Park and Bridgeman Down on a western underground rail line from Albion to Strathpine or at Chermside under an eastern link from Albion to Carseldine. Credit: North West Transport Corridor business case August 2022.

“The investigations show an underground rail tunnel with two new underground stations at Bridgeman Downs and Everton Park,” said infrastructure chair Cr Andrew Wines.

“The business case speaks about a 160km/hr train at 24 trains per hour.”

Wines said the faster trains would not allow for stops at McDowall and Stafford, however there would be a 750-space park-and-ride at Bridgeman Downs and another 175 spaces at Everton Park.

There would be an underground rail station at Chermside if a proposed 9.5km rail corridor from Exhibition line to Carseldine was approved. The red dotted line is the proposed underground rail line. The red full line is a new rail line on the ground from Carseldine to Strathpine.Credit: North West Transport Corridor August 2022.

Rail: Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow on Friday said the latest proposal out of the business case covered the “missing link” in the network that would also build capacity elsewhere.

“It will allow fast rail and it will allow rail services to support the new rail line from Beerwah to Maroochydore,” Dow said.

“Without it, the [rail] network doesn’t have enough capacity. It provides a way of getting trains quickly from Brisbane and up to Strathpine and on to the Sunshine Coast.”

The business case outlines the potential for “eight to 12 additional trains in the peak hour, in addition to the 24 trains per hour service pattern by 2041”.

While Transport Minister Mark Bailey initially dismissed the motorway proposal as “feeble,” Wines called on him to be more open to a rail upgrade.

However, Bailey instead repeated his criticism of the council for considering issues outside of its control, with limited consultation, and without a way to pay for any of the options.

He said by not working with the government on the business case the council had “skewed its outcomes”.

“Robert Dow has made a much more considered and balanced contribution on this matter than the Brisbane City Council who have ignored public feedback in their business case which overwhelmingly wanted better public transport not new tollways and motorways,” Bailey told Brisbane Times.

“And Mr Dow did so free of charge and didn’t waste $10 million of taxpayer’s funds as the LNP have done with this business case.”

Bailey said the state government was focussed on delivering the Cross River Rail project, and would also look at “further enhancement of rail services between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane” as part of planning for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Member for Aspley Bart Mellish welcomed the council’s decision not to develop the corridor.

“There has been a lot of local opposition to it understandably for the reasons they identified, with its environmental values, and it is now pretty well built-up,” the Labor MP said.

“People have bought these big large blocks out there and don’t want a motorway coming through their suburbs.”

Mellish agreed there should be a debate about long-term solutions to traffic congestion on Brisbane’s north-side.