Brisbane Public Transport (Part II)

[joninbrisbane]

Could it be about the redlands company winning the contract to run some London bus routes?

[nathandavid88]

Most likely this! The story can be read here. They'll be carrying 111 million passengers per year, not bad when Translink transports 120 million people a year in total!

[SurfRail]

Originally Posted by nathandavid88

Most likely this! The story can be read here. They'll be carrying 111 million passengers per year, not bad when Translink transports 120 million people a year in total!

That part of the story isn't accurate - it's around 120 million by bus. It's 175-180 million in total including the trains and ferries.

[nathandavid88]

Kind of sad, albeit not surprising, how few pax are carried on train in SEQ compared to bus...

This isn't really news, no one really expects to see the GC Line extended anytime soon, or Light Rail getting all the way to Cooly, but for the record:

Train travel slipping out of reach
Andrew Potts | 12:01am June 19, 2013

THE dream of having heavy or light rail connections to the border by the 2018 Commonwealth Games is dead, with city leaders admitted the projects are simply too expensive.

An expected price tag of up to $2 billion for the heavy rail and at least a further $1 billion for the light rail system have left the council and State Governments searching for solutions to the city's fractured public transport network.

Mayor Tom Tate said high-speed buses would play a role.

"It is important to get the city transport strategy in place so we can look forward to the heavy rail," he said. "The logic would say the heavy rail should go from Robina to Coolangatta but I am not pushing it because it is an expensive solution and you cannot ask for a gold-plated project from a debt-ridden government.

"I would rather see a light rail extension to Parkwood and then the light rail go to Burleigh with buses doing the rest of the route."

South-East Queensland Council of Mayors documents from 2011 suggested a $2 billion price tag and described the project as nationally significant.

Under the 2011 plan, which was presented to the federal government and opposition by Palm Beach councillor Daphne McDonald, the railway would be duplicated from two to four tracks between Coomera and Helensvale in addition to the extension, while a third stretch of track would be built in Brisbane which would be dedicated to the Gold Coast line.

In the past year, Cr Tate has proposed a cut-price solution to linking the two forms of rail -- build a new railway station at Parkwood and create a light- rail spur link from Griffith University through to the new Smith Street facility.

No further extensions are earmarked for funding.

Cr McDonald said little progress had been made on extending the heavy rail since the late 1990s.

"By all accounts the State Government will be playing financial catch-up for the next several years and the Federal Government is not in a strong position either," she said.

Source: GC Bulletin

[SurfRail]

Tate's position is correct - the main reason to prefer LRT over HRT for going further south is the patronage gains are a lot more significant for the LRT route. Both would be nice eventually.

I expect that unless we get a whole lot richer in the near future, the HRT extension would be staged - broken in half at Elanora to enable an LRT connection, and then extended to the airport when there is enough money and a lot of other stuff has been done first.

[nathandavid88]

The bigger question is, will the GCLR extension happen? I know Goldlinq have said they would do it for a extended operating rights, but will GCCC and the State Govt accept that deal (I think they definitely should!)

[DAJAN]

Originally Posted by nathandavid88

The bigger question is, will the GCLR extension happen? I know Goldlinq have said they would do it for a extended operating rights, but will GCCC and the State Govt accept that deal (I think they definitely should!)

They were only offering to fund it to Parkwood and Miami though.

You've then got the stretch Miami-Burleigh-Elanora-Coolangatta airport that would still be unfunded.

and that's still before you consider other proposed branches like Robina, Nerang, Harbourtown etc.

(Or even funding the Parkwood heavy rail station, as I'm fairly sure Goldlinq was only offering the LR portion of that)