Gold Coast Light rail: True story of tram network’s beginning from 1997-2021
Light rail is one of the Gold Coast’s most talked-about topics. Now, we reveal the full 24-year story of the trams, how they were created, how they beat buses and how opponents failed to stop them. READ THE FULL REPORT
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NEGOTIATIONS to get the stalled Stage 3 link between Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads back on track are underway after the Bulletin revealed contracts for the $709m project had not been signed.
While it will take longer to build and cost more, Transport Minister Mark Bailey this week said he hoped construction would begin by Christmas 2021.
It is the latest twist and turn in the near-25 years since the public transport system was first proposed.
It was July 29, 1997 – Gary Baildon was just three months into his mayoralty after defeating Ray Stevens at the March election.
The Gold Coast was a city in flux at the time with tourism and development — the city’s biggest industries — in a lull as a result of the Asia financial crisis and the cooling off of the early-1990s building boom.
The Gold Coast was preparing for the end of the 20th century and anticipation of a booming population.
Steps to address this future boom were already being taken, with the Borbidge government unveiling an expanded Pacific Motorway that would become the M1.
Cr Baildon and council transport boss Ken Deutscher unveiled the $450m state-of-the-art “supertrams”, said to be capable of 100km/h with a target start date of 2001.
The proposal, along with a ferry system, formed part of a long-term transport master plan developed by the council to “establish the Gold Coast as a world leader in transportation”.
The world-class, ultra-low-floor supertrams were to be modelled on a similar Sydney proposal and would be fitted with rubberised noise controls on the wheels.
HOW MUCH AIRPORT ROUTE WILL COST
The trams, which can carry up to 200 people, would have run on a specially dampened 30km track linking Helensvale, Southport, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Nerang. A possible later line extension would include Coolangatta and Robina.
They were to be so quiet a horn would be needed to warn pedestrians of their approach.
According to the plan they would operate similar to trains in cross-country areas, travelling between 60-80km/h, then run on streets at 20km/h where there is no dedicated corridor available.
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The project was backed by city leaders. Early supporters included councillors David Power and Jan Grew.
In a Bulletin in 2017, Cr Baildon fondly remembered the decision to pursue the tram system.
“I remember coming out of the meeting in which it was presented to us and telling someone how significant a decision it was and how glad I was it was carried unanimously.
“It was a transport plan for the future and people were initially worried there was going to be an elevated railway which would have allowed tram passengers to look into their windows.
“I am proud of this program and how it started given the significant impact it had.”
However, the 2001 start date proved to be optimistic and it was not until that year that a feasibility study was even funded, after Cr Baildon secured the support of Premier Peter Beattie and a reluctant Prime Minister John Howard.
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Mr Howard, the PM from 1996 to 2007, is remembered today as a political titan but in 2001 he was behind in the polls and facing defeat at that year’s election.
In March that year, Cr Baildon, in the early days of his third and final term as mayor, flew to Canberra and met Mr Howard to try to get $65m to fund the light rail.
The meeting was held in the Prime Minister’s office in Parliament House when the Mayor sat down to make his pitch.
However, the Coalition leader would not have a bar of it.
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“I went down there, was shown to his office and we met but I found he was not welcoming or friendly towards me at all,” Cr Baildon said.
“Howard bounced me around the office and told me that his government ‘did not fund transport infrastructure’’.
“He said a few things, so did I and I managed to keep my calm, which I normally do and I reminded Howard that I represented a city of more than 500,000 people.
“It was disappointing for me because I felt we undoubtedly had a strong case.”
Mr Baildon’s 35-minute meeting with Mr Howard made the Bulletin’s front page on March 7, 2001.
The Howard government eventually changed its tune, matching the state’s funds to allow for a $1.3m feasibility study in 2002.
The same year, the first stage was priced at $65m. It involved a link from Parkwood to Pacific Fair shopping centre.
It would take another seven years and one prime minister later for the trams to be finally funded by all three levels of government.
2002-2010: HOW TRAMS BEAT BUSES AND PEOPLE PODS
CONVINCING a city to make the switch to trams was a long and difficult process.
Today the Gold Coast light rail is hailed as a major success, carrying millions of passengers in the seven years since its launch, but it was a different story in the first decade of the new century.
In part two of a three-part series into how the light rail came to be on the Gold Coast, the Bulletin today looks at the critical decisions that turned it from a dream into being funded and built.
By 2003, it had been six years since the light rail concept was floated by the council and things had progressed only incrementally.
The state and federal governments had both put up $1.3m each for a feasibility study but there was little agreement on who should pay for it or where it should go.
Then-Transport Minister Steve Bredhauer told the Bulletin in 2003 that the concept of a light rail system had passed two key milestones in the assessment process and that it would play a role in the city’s future transport requirements.
He said the study, jointly funded by the state and federal governments, would move to the next stage – evaluating a short-list of route options and a detailed financial and economic assessment.
The consultants compared the light rail to bus, monorail, and then-new technologies such as personal rapid transit and guided buses.
Their report suggested a light rail route between Parkwood and Broadbeach would cost $300m-400m and carry 50,000 passengers a day by 2011.
“The coastal fringe nature of Gold Coast development means that light rail could have a role to play in maximising lifestyle quality, minimising environmental impacts and servicing the growing economic needs of the region,” Mr Bredhauer told the Bulletin at the time.
“Rapid population growth is projected to continue in southeast Queensland and on the Gold Coast in particular, resulting in a need to strategically review public transport needs in the area.”
LETTER SHOCK: RESIDENTS TOLD PROPERTIES MAY BE NEEDED FOR LIGHT RAIL
In mid-2003 Dale Dickson was appointed as CEO of the Gold Coast City Council and immediately went to work to convince then-mayor Gary Baildon to fund the project.
While supportive of light rail, Cr Baildon was months away from facing an election and baulked at the idea of city hall taking a leading role.
In what was viewed as a major set back for the trams, he lost the 2004 election to running great Ron Clarke who had campaigned against them.
BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH COAST LIGHT RAIL ROLLOUT
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 the old Gold Coast Hospital in 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 $100m.
But Mr Dickson, who worked closely behind the scenes with state government bureaucrats, was not deterred and went to work to convince Cr Clarke and his colleagues that light rail was the answer and that city hall should take the lead.
The pivotal meeting occurred in the Panorama Room of the Gold Coast Arts Centre in July 2004 when councillors sat down for an all-day workshop.
Mr Dickson successfully convinced councillors that the city could afford to contribute at least 11 per cent of the system’s total cost.
Cr Clarke was convinced and the council threw its weight behind building the tram network.
Buses were again discussed but transport experts warned trams would deliver the better outcome for the Coast.
By 2006 the Beattie government agreed to fund the project and the following year unveiled a proposed 13km route between Southport and Broadbeach that largely followed the proposed route of the 1980s-era monorail.
However, the Howard government, in its final days in office, declined to put up funding.
Kevin Rudd led Labor to power in November 2007 and had promised during his campaign to support light rail.
The devastating blow of the global financial crisis in 2008 saw the federal government look for infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy and it put up its funding in 2009, locking in trams as the way forward.
In May 2011 the council and state government awarded the contract for the light rail to GoldLinQ, allowing construction to finally begin the same year.
2011-2021 HOW PROTESTERS FAILED TO STOP TRAMS
FOR many Gold Coasters, light rail only became real to them when fences went up and construction began.
By 2011, trams had been in the works for 14 years, yet the first serious objections only began the same year the first sod was turned.
In the finale of a three-part series on how the light rail came to be on the Gold Coast, the Bulletin today looks at the difficult construction of Stage 1 through the inner city and whether it has been worth it.
‘ACCELERATED’: LIGHT RAIL’S EXTENSION TO COAST AIRPORT
The beginning of major works more than a decade ago resulted in the resumption of more than 173 properties throughout Surfers Paradise and Southport.
Fury over this was largely directed at the Gold Coast City Council and the state government.
Both Ron Clarke’s mayoralty and Anna Bligh’s premiership were in their twilight, with both on the nose over controversial decisions such as asset sales and water entity Allconnex.
With both a council and state elections months away, support swung behind candidates who made vague promises of reviewing or canning either Allconnex or the light rail.
Mayoral candidate Tom Tate said he was sceptical of the trams and would review the project if elected.
The Campbell Newman-led LNP surged to power in March 2012 followed by Cr Tate a month later.
But the hoped-for halt to the project failed to eventuate, with construction too far advanced to stop.
Cr Tate and his colleagues met with council CEO Dale Dickson and were soon won over by the project’s benefits while the LNP would refuse to commit to future stages during most of their near-three years in power.
After delays and cost blowouts through 2012 and 2013, the Gold Coast light rail finally launched on Sunday, July 20, 2014 and welcomed more than 100,000 people on its first day alone.
Patronage figures proved to be far higher than expected and agitation for a second stage immediately began.
Cr Tate was among the first to come out in support of the proposal. Mr Newman threw his weight behind an extension a handful of days before the LNP lost the 2015 election.
The new Labor government under Annastacia Palaszczuk immediately began planning for the 7.3km route between Griffith University and Helensvale for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
But there was a serious roadblock — Prime Minister Tony Abbott who had declined to commit any funding despite lobbying from his own party members.
Gold Coast MPs would later cite his obstinance against funding the extension as a key reason for voting against him in the September 2015 leadership spill which installed Malcolm Turnbull as PM.
Funding for Stage 2 was approved three weeks later and construction began in early 2016.
Key players in the project cited the Bulletin’s campaign as a key reason for the project’s approval.
After 2015 the light rail has effectively enjoyed bipartisan support on a state and federal level.
Because of the need to have the tramline completed by the April 2018 Commonwealth Games, contractors worked around the clock and completed Stage 2 earlier than expected. It officially opened on December 17, 2017.
This moment brought frequent political rivals together to celebrate their achievement as planning got underway for Stage 3.
A Broadbeach to Burleigh extension had previously been considered to be Stage 2, having undergone planning in late 2009. It was put on hold because of the need to prioritise the Helensvale connection.
The re-elected Palaszczuk government and Cr Tate put their money on the table but it wasn’t until Mr Turnbull was dumped as prime minister in August 2018 that there was movement from Canberra.
Weeks after Scott Morrison became Prime Minister, it was revealed the federal government would fund the Burleigh trams as part of its 2019 election commitments. Federal Labor had also committed to the funding before unexpectedly losing that year’s poll.
Despite funding from all three levels of government being locked in by 2019 and a contractor announced in late 2020, construction is yet to begin after a contractual dispute.
After a funding boost in this week’s federal budget, work is now expected to begin late this year as planning continues to take trams from Burleigh Heads to the border via Gold Coast Airport.
Next year will mark 25 years since the tramline was first proposed on the Gold Coast.
Plenty has changed in that time but nothing has stopped its progress.
Originally published as Gold Coast Light rail: True story of tram network’s beginning from 1997-2021
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