REMEMBER WHEN

THERE were just five days left until a final decision was to be made on a Gold Coast monorail but there was no clear favourite for the company to deliver the $200 million people mover.

Frantic last-minute lobbying was under way, with Transport Minister Peter McKechie preparing a final decision to go before the Ahern cabinet.

While early speculation involved a Von Roll system similar to the Sea World monorail, the West German HBahn system became a latebreaking strong contender.

The consortium proposing the H-Bahn system planned for a fork-like route from Paradise Waters through the Australia Fair Shopping Centre to the Gold Coast Hospital.

“The field is still open and I have had several meetings with the Transport Department asking them to clarify certain issues with some companies,” Mr McKechie said.

The three companies involved were Gold Coast Monorail and Gold Coast Skyrail, which both proposed traditional monorails and Transfield Siemens, which backed the H-Bahn model.

The Ahern Government specified that the project had to be delivered at no cost to ratepayers or taxpayers.

Among those who campaigned heavily against it was future Gold Coast City Council Alderman Kerry Smith.

The project never proceeded and locals had to wait until 2014 for trams to begin rolling, though Broadbeach’s monorail launched the same year.

That day the Bulletin also ran a feature on Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to mark 100 years since the Third Reich Fuhrer’s birth in 1889.