Call for key change to Coomera Connector
THE Coomera Connector will need dedicated bus lanes and cycleways if it is to ease traffic congestion, a council candidate warns.
Division 1 candidate Mark Hammel (pictured) has released a comprehensive traffic plan in consultation with urban planning experts with improvements to the rapid bus network to futureproof the area, which will become home to more than 65,000 new residents.
But rival candidate Pat Reynolds wants a debate on election costings in the division, which will produce a new councillor on March 28.
Mr Hammel said: “I’ve spoken to the transport experts – as well as thousands of frustrated local residents and businesses.
“I have a plan that would see dedicated bus lanes and cycleways on the Coomera Connector that connect to Ormeau, Pimpama and Yatala train and bus stations, as well as the light rail station at Helensvale
“This will give people in heavily populated suburbs in Division 1 a quick and efficient way to connect to the heavy rail, while also significantly increasing patronage on the bus and light rail network.
Mr Hammel slammed council’s seven-year-old Gold Coast City Transport Strategy 2031 labelling it “a joke that doesn’t take the far northern Gold Coast seriously”.
“How can the fastest-growing region of the Gold Coast – and southeast Queensland – barely get a mention when it comes to the city’s public transport strategy?
“It is laughable this current plan for public transport doesn’t have Division 1 being connected to the rapid bus network before 2031 – the bus network that is currently proposed ends at Coomera.
“When the public transport strategy was created, we knew that we were going to go through significant population booms in Ormeau, Pimpama and the Yatala Enterprise Area.”
Mr Reynolds said his challengers should reveal how they would pay for their promises, especially for infrastructure projects like roads so ratepayers don’t end up footing the bill.
“It’s one thing to make bold statements but council has a finite budget,” Mr Reynolds said.