We must get city on move

PUBLIC transport in Cairns is beyond a joke — an outdated, busted system that visitors from overseas can hardly fathom.

I met a couple of Dutch backpackers the other day who were at their wits’ end about how to get around without blowing all of their money on Uber or taxis and having to cut their trip short.

They were not here long enough to warrant buying a car but still wanted to see the length and breadth of a magnificent city they had heard so much about.

There was no advice I could give except check the bus schedules, cross your fingers they arrive on schedule, and plan your whole visit around their sporadic timetables.

It was a foreign concept to the visitors whose home country, like much of Europe, boasted excellent public transport links both between cities and within them.

Readers tell us they are fed up with the city’s dismal public transport system and demand a change.

A considerable 69 per cent of respondents to the Cairns Post’s Your Say on the Far North Reader Survey said Cairns Regional Council should pursue light rail options.

The “green train” solution was spruiked heavily before the 2016 local government election but has since been put on the backburner, written off as too expensive (for now, at least) and watered down to now focus on electric buses.

Forgetting that light rail was what we were sold during the election cycle, we cannot even get the diluted version off the ground — a smallscale trial of shuttle buses — because it is deemed too pricey.

Better to spend some money now so we have a solution up our sleeve than to wait until the need hits new depths of gridlock desperation. Chris Calcino chris.calcino@news.com.au