TRAM STATS PROVE VALUE

As Mayor Tom Tate says, the figures speak for themselves.

The whopping 42.1 million passenger trips on the Gold Coast’s light rail network started with 100,000 on day one bang on five years ago back in July, 2014.

If usage is an indicator of usefulness and need then surely the new patronage data revealed today in the Gold Coast Bulletin is the strongest argument yet for light rail to be extended south via Burleigh to the expanding Gold Coast Airport.

There is no need to wait for demand. There is no time for political stalemates.

Demand clearly exists and it is only going to be to the city’s ongoing detriment that its airport remains disconnected via light rail from its tourism hubs.

Valid concerns have been raised by Burleigh residents about their suburban oasis being transformed into a visitor hub more akin to Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach when the tram comes rolling through.

It is an understandable and valid concern. But the key to Broadbeach and Surfers’ special character as tourism and entertainment precincts is the glut of accommodation in those suburbs.

The extension south was considered inevitable and it should still be, but a political stalemate at federal and state level has left the tram in limbo.

It starts and finishes at Broadbeach South.

The fight to get the tram extended further north to Helensvale was a long and protracted one but the Commonwealth Games gave it the impetus required for, excuse the pun, fast tracking. The city needs the same kind of political energy behind this next extension as it received then.

Mayor Tom Tate has been agitating for it as best he can. He’s even compromised on how much more he wants Federal Government to come to the table with.

State Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey says talks are ongoing but his government seems as intransigent to compromise as the Federal politicians.

It would be unfathomable to think the city did not have a tram from the airport to its tourist heart by the 2032 Olympics if that becomes a reality. But that is how slow going things are right now.

State and Federal politicians should take note of the patronage: 42.1 million passenger trips can’t be wrong.