TRAMS TO HARBOUR TOWN AND ROBINA
THE light rail will extend north to Harbour Town and west from the coast to Robina under planning ticked off by the Gold Coast City Council.
Councillors at a transport and infrastructure committee meeting have backed the Gold Coast Public Transport Plan 2018-28 which sets out the city’s planning to beat traffic congestion in the next decade.
It envisages tracks from the Gold Coast University Hospital to Harbour Town and Nobby Beach to Robina.
THE light rail will extend north to Harbour Town and west from the coast to Robina under planning ticked off by the Gold Coast City Council.
Councillors at a transport and infrastructure committee meeting have backed the Gold Coast Public Transport Plan 2018-28 which sets out the city’s planning to beat traffic congestion in the next decade.
A report on the public transport plan reveals the next stage of light rail — Stage 3A between Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads — will be delivered within five years.
Planning for Stage 3B — Burleigh Heads to Coolangatta via the Gold Coast Airport — will take place at the same time.
But the report also outlines further “land use and transport planning activities” with the State Government to consider northern and western light rail extensions with the focus on Robina and Biggera Waters.
The investigations for a light rail track from the Gold Coast University Hospital to Harbour Town and Nobby Beach to Robina will be completed in the next five to ten years.
A summary of the latest round of community feedback said: “In response to where the light rail should be extended to next (following Stage 3 to Coolangatta), the next preferred extension was from Gold Coast University Hospital to Biggera Waters (Harbour Town). Nobby Beach to Robina was the second most popular response.”
The response mirrors the results from the Gold Coast Bulletin’s Golden Age survey which found 82 per cent of people support a light rail extension and 79 per cent want it extended to Gold Coast Airport.
A feeder line out to Robina via Cbus Stadium was most popular with 42 per cent saying it should be the priority, 33 per cent wanted a line out to Nerang past Carrara and 24 per cent said the priority was to HarbourTown.
Officers had amended the city’s transport plan to include a focus on the new spur lines.
Transport and infrastructure committee chairperson Pauline Young said the council had received 4300 responses to its survey, which was an outstanding result.
“We are taking the information on board there. We need to work diligently with the State Government to ensure that we are supplying enough public transport at the right time of day and frequently enough for our residents to move around the city,” she said.
The feedback revealed that the main barrier to residents using more public transport was the amount of time of travel compared to being in their car and how close the service was to their homes.
More than 54 per cent of residents indicated they wanted more public transport services in the city’s fast growing northern suburbs.
Almost 55 per cent of residents requested more park and ride facilities for trains and trams, and half believed there could be improvement in the interchanging of those services.
Southern residents, with the support of Palm Beach councillor Daphne McDonald and Burleigh LNP MP Michael Hart, have been staging a major protest campaign about the southern light rail extension.
But light rail continued to get a strong response, Councillor Young said.
“There’s a council resolution in place. Light rail will go to Coolangatta via the airport,” Cr Young said.
“There is strong support for that out there in the community. We believe quite strongly it will change how people move throughout the city.
“We have to be improving our public transport network on the Gold Coast and northsouth is what we are working on at the moment. Then obviously east-west will follow.”
The preliminary case study on light rail Stage 3A was completed and sent to the State Government with a more detailed report likely to be finished by November.
“We will be looking to go to the State Government for funding on that at the next State Budget,” Cr Young said.
Other key findings from the Golden Age survey reveal 81 per cent of people did not support the speed limit on the M1 being reduced and motorists did not see the train as a viable option to avoid the M1 gridlock. Sixty-five per cent of respondents said they do not take the train to Brisbane to avoid driving on the M1.
A staggering 73 per cent of Gold Coasters are yet to connect to the NBN while 54 per cent of respondents did not support a cruise ship terminal on The Spit or elsewhere on the Gold Coast.