Light rail Gold Coast: Route down highway through Palm Beach to airport under fire

A group of southern Gold Coast professionals has joined forces to question the decision to send the light rail down the highway to the airport. Here’s why.

They refuse to be derailed.

An eclectic crew of professionals – from town planners, architects, economists and scientists – have joined forces to tackle the heavy issue of light rail.

The Southern Transport Alternative Routes alliance is not against the controversial transportation link, they’re not aligned with any political party and have distanced themselves from certain polarising community campaigners in an effort to be considered credible.

In fact, they don’t even want to argue but simply to ask questions … and they deserve answers.

Meeting with members including economics professor Dr Mark McGovern, STAR spokeswoman and community campaigner Lorraine Cook, STAR secretary Kath Down and former world surfing champion Andrew McKinnon – better known as Andy Mac, it’s obvious this is a truly eclectic collective.

Members of the new Southern Transport Alternative Routes alliance, Lorraine Cook, Andrew McKinnon and Kathy Down. Picture: Jerad Williams

But without doubt they are united in the mission to make their message heard.

“Light rail is a great idea, but it’s the wrong route,” says Lorraine.

“Plain and simple, STAR. is not anti-light rail, we just want it where it serves the majority of the community … isn’t that what good public transport is all about?

“The southern Gold Coast is uniquely different to the northern stretch and attracts very different tourists – they come for the surf, hinterland retreats, caravan and camping, sport and environment to name a few.

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“Residents are far less transitory – it’s a hamlet of founders and families with a definitive charm and character worth protecting, not to mention its natural wonders.

“STAR is a community group made up of a variety of qualified professionals working collectively to put forward alternative routes with far less impact on our environment and city, plus service a much broader catchment of community who want and need affordable, reliable public transport.

Gold Coast light rail stage 3B proposed coastal route to the Gold Coast Airport. Picture: Department of Transport and Main Roads.

“Due to a ground swell of discontent within the community our team have collaborated to find answers that benefits us all, including tourists.

“The obvious is an alternative route … well, we happen to have a number of them employing light rail and other technologies that seem to be overlooked by state and local governments. Our primary objective is to collaborate with government and to work with a community consultation program. Working together, with full transparency, is all we ask.

“Right now, the community feels betrayed – and they have an important role to play in the future good health of the southern Gold Coast.”

Members of the new Southern Transport Alternative Routes alliance, Andrew McKinnon. Picture: Jerad Williams

Andy Mac, who is now studying a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in ocean conservation at Griffith University, says while the alternative routes proposed are important, the ultimate point is to include the community in the conversation.

He says he is disappointed that, after standing alongside fellow champion surfer and Labor’s Burleigh candidate Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew last year, Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s message has already distinctly changed.

In the midst of last year’s election campaign, Mr Bailey said the Gold Coast community would get its say on how the light rail would get to the airport.

The new group are not anti-light rail but has brought together planners, engineers, architects, academics etc to look at alternatives to the gold coast highway route for the light rail. Picture: Jerad Williams

But Andy says he understands that the promised community consultation now seems to concern the location of tram stops along the Gold Coast Highway, rather than whether the community supports the highway as the best route.

“Once the election was over, the message changed. We just want the chance to ask questions and get answers like we were promised,” he says.

“I don’t think all of the options have really been considered. The State Government is only interested in going straight down the Highway – but at what cost to the community?

“If that’s the best route, prove it to us. We’re happy to listen, but no one will talk to us.”

Lorraine says while STAR does not have a preferred alternative route, she can see the value in taking the light rail down Burleigh Connection Road, past Stocklands shopping centre and Marymount College, before turning south at Southport-Burleigh Road/Bermuda Street.

From there the light rail would pass through the old quarry, which STAR suggests should be developed as an affordable housing/transit hub, before adjoining the M1 corridor from West Burleigh to Stewart Road at Currumbin and returning to a route on the Gold Coast Highway to the airport.

“You would avoid destroying the Burleigh Headland, Tallebudgera and Currumbin Creeks and all the amenity of our southern suburbs,” says Lorraine.

“By running the light rail through the west side of those suburbs, you would pick up schools including Elanora, shopping centres like the Pines, the Currumbin RSL, all area where residents would love better public transportation.

“Plus, by our calculations, you would cut 20 minutes off the journey time between Burleigh and the airport by avoiding all the lights and crossings of the Highway

“It also creates the opportunity to redevelop the quarry into a hub for housing and transportation, you could extend the heavy rail underneath it, while the light rail would sit at ground level.”

However, Andy admits that no route is perfect.

He says under STAR’s alternative plans, the light rail route would run on the eastern side of the M1, relegating any future heavy rail route to the west side as there is not room for both on the east.

And, of course, connecting the heavy rail from one side of the highway to the other seems an extreme feat in terms of finances and engineering.

Members of the new Southern Transport Alternative Routes alliance, Lorraine Cook. Picture: Jerad Williams

While it’s not the first time alternative routes have been proposed, Lorraine says never before have so many professionals from within the community worked on such a plan together.

This comes after a two-year study was released in March last year by international consulting firm Jacobs Engineering which found the controversial coastal route from Burleigh through Palm Beach was the preferred option.

Other routes considered in the study included a line west from Burleigh to heavy rail at Varsity Lakes and south through Palm Beach’s suburban streets. The coastal line was selected because it would be cheaper to build than other routes and deliver the most economic uplift, the Government said at the time.

But Lorraine says the State Government, as representatives of its people, owes STAR an explanation as to why they are ‘so dedicated to the Gold Coast Highway route’.

“Why can’t we see the facts and figures that made them so sure the coastal route was the best? I’m prepared to be convinced, but no one is convincing – they’re just telling.

“Why can’t the community see what other options look like? It’s not too late, especially considering that Stage 3A hasn’t even started, despite assurances it would begin early this year. Something is going on and I think we all deserve some transparency.”

Members of the new Southern Transport Alternative Routes alliance, Kathy Down. Picture: Jerad Williams

Indeed, economist Mark McGovern questions whether the entire project should be reimagined.

While not anti-light rail, he says that modality has now been superseded by new technology.

“When we’re looking at light rail, we’re looking at old technology. This mode was proposed in 2009 and we’re still sticking with it,” he says.

“Why not look at trackless trams? They are so much cheaper, you don’t need to build track for them, and we could even run them along the light rail tracks at the same time as the light rail itself.

“Just because light rail was the plan then doesn’t mean it should be the plan now.”

After all the studies, the money and the heartache caused by light rail, it’s hard to see that this project won’t happen – and that it won’t run along the preferred Gold Coast Highway route.

But maybe that’s not the point.

No matter whether the light rail route is right or wrong or whether we need or want light rail at all, the point is that if the people have questions, leaders should have answers.

Just because they have a one-track mind doesn’t mean communication shouldn’t be a two-way street.

Everyone deserves the right to a reply.

Originally published as Light rail Gold Coast: Route down highway through Palm Beach to airport under fire