Tate to woo tram funds

Charm mission to secure expansion

CITY leaders will launch a charm offensive in the new year to secure federal funding for the light rail’s third stage.

With the new stage two link to Helensvale opening on Sunday, attention is already turning to the 7km southern connection, which would take trams from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads.

With a possible early federal election on the cards, Mayor Tom Tate wants to see money on the table from Canberra to make the proposed citywide network a reality.

Cr Tate said he would make securing the funds one of his main priorities in 2018 in a bid to get construction started by 2019, and would be talking to both the Coalition and Labor.

“From a funding point of view we have to highlight it as an investment and look at the value uplift this infrastructure will create with GST, property values and other additional economic benefit,” he said.

‘The light rail is a 50-year project and if it was good enough to fund stage one and two, there is no reason why this one cannot be ticked off either.

“We are going to have it shovel-ready and then we will need to get a funding deal.”

The next tram connection, known as stage 3A, will run along the Gold Coast Highway from the Broadbeach South station at Pacific Fair and will terminate at a new station in the heart of Burleigh Heads.

There will be seven stations along the route, which is expected to cost $600 million.

The State Government and the council have already put $5 million each towards a route study and have both signalled plans to fund it.

Stage 3B, according to council plans, would run from Burleigh to the border and include Gold Coast Airport.

Gold Coast Tourism chief executive Martin Winters said the airport connection was essential. He said it “will complete the link and provide a world-leading transport connection”.

Planning has begun on extensions beyond Burleigh, including at least two western links to Nerang and Robina.

Gold Coast light rail business advisory board chairman Steve Harrison said the extension was essential to continue the “legacy’’ of the system.

“It is about connecting the Gold Coast with an efficient public transport network and not relying, as we have in the past, on services which do not have the reliability,” he said.