RAIL CALL KEY FOR OUR BIG TICKET PROJECTS

THE Gold Coast Airport’s upgrades to its retail and dining precinct are forging ahead – delivering a tourist and traveller experience that our region truly deserves. Looking at the new bar and the incredible list of shops that are coming to the airport as part of management’s $500m masterplan you can see that they are committed to creating facilities that are the pride of any regional centre across the country.

And with that in mind, airport management deserve certainty around Stage 4 of the light rail.

After the week we have already had on the Gold Coast with federal Member for McPherson Karen Andrews taking a forthright stance against the Palm Beach route for the light rail – airport bosses are wondering just where they stand.

Make no mistake, these retail and dining upgrades and future works to the terminal have all been planned out with the view that trams to the airport were a done deal.

And while it seems that’s what the vast majority of the city still want, the events of this week have only served to cause confusion.

And that’s largely because if the route to the airport does not go down the coast through Palm Beach then where does it go?

Even days after Ms Andrews’ bombshell decision, there still seems to be a complete lack of an alternative being offered up by those who oppose the coastal line.

And the longer that situation drags out – attempting to find a different route – the longer that will drag out timelines for other key projects, such as the airport, which need to be moving at pace ahead of the 2032 Olympics in southeast Queensland.