WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY
It took seven years, two prime ministers and a total change of plan to make our trams a reality
CONVINCING a city to make the switch to trams was a long and difficult process.
Today, the Gold Coast light rail is hailed as a major success, carrying millions of passengers in the seven years since its launch, but it was a different story in the first decade of the new century.
In part two of a three-part series on how the light rail came to be on the Gold Coast, the Bulletin today looks at the critical decisions that turned it from a dream into a fully funded and constructed reality.
In 2003, it had been six years since the light rail concept was floated by the council and things had progressed only very incrementally.
The state and federal governments had both put up $1.3m for a feasibility study but there was little agreement on who should pay for it or where it should go.
The then Transport Minister Steve Bredhauer told the Bulletin in 2003 that the concept of a light rail system had passed two key milestones in the assessment process and that it would play a role in the city’s future transport requirements.
He said the study, jointly funded by the state and federal governments, would move to the next stage: evaluating a short-list of route options and a detailed financial and economic assessment.
The consultants compared the light rail to bus, monorail, and what were then new technologies such as personal rapid transit and guided buses.
Their report suggested a light rail route between Parkwood and Broadbeach would cost $300m to $400m and would be able to carry 50,000 passengers a day by 2011.
“The coastal fringe nature of Gold Coast development means that light rail could have a role to play in maximising lifestyle quality, minimising environmental impacts and servicing the growing economic needs of the region,” Mr Bredhauer told the Bulletin at the time.
“Rapid population growth is projected to continue in southeast Queensland, and on the Gold Coast in particular, resulting in a need to strategically review public transport needs in the area.”
In mid-2003, Dale Dickson was appointed as CEO of the Gold Coast City Council and immediately went to work to convince the then mayor Gary Baildon to fund the project.
While supportive of light rail, Cr Baildon was just months away from facing an election and baulked at the idea of City Hall taking a leading role.
In what was viewed as a major setback for the trams, he lost the 2004 election to running great Ron Clarke who had campaigned against them.
To mark his 100th day in office, Cr Clarke unveiled his plans for the elevated “peoplemover system” that was developed
by Sydney company Bishop Austrans and trialled in the NSW capital.
Initially, Cr Clarke wanted to build an overhead track from the old Gold Coast Hospital in Southport to Broadbeach, a trip he predicted would take just 12 minutes and cost $2.
Under plans released to the public, the “people pods” would be driverless and carry 18 people at a time – nine sitting and nine standing. They would arrive at a station at 15-second intervals and transport 10,000 people every hour. It was estimated the entire system would cost about $100m.
But Mr Dickson, who worked closely behind the scenes with state government
bureaucrats, was not deterred and went to work to convince Cr Clarke and his colleagues that light rail was the answer and that City Hall should take the lead on the project.
The pivotal meeting occurred in the Panorama Room of the Gold Coast Arts Centre in July 2004 when councillors sat down for an all-day workshop.
Mr Dickson successfully convinced the councillors that the city could afford to contribute at least 11 per cent of the system’s total cost. Cr Clarke was convinced, and the council threw its weight behind building the tram network.
Buses were again discussed but transport experts warned trams would deliver the better
outcome for the Coast. By 2006, the Beattie state government agreed to fund the project, and the following year it unveiled a proposed 13km route between Southport and Broadbeach that largely followed the proposed route of the 1980s-era monorail.
However, the Howard federal government, in its final days in office, declined to put up funding. Kevin Rudd led Labor to power in November 2007 and had promised in his campaign to support the light rail.
The devastating blow of the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 saw the federal government look for infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy – and it put up its funding in 2009, locking in trams as the way forward.
In May 2011, the council and state government awarded the contract for the light rail to GoldLinQ, allowing construction to finally begin.