11 Oct 2007: Brisbane - Airport railway line buy back supported!

[ozbob]

RAIL Back On Track - Media Release 11 October 2007

Brisbane:  Airport railway line buy back supported!

RAIL - Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community organisation for the promotion of rail throughout Australia has backed the Community Action for Sustainable Transport?s (CAST) call for the Federal Government to fund the buy back of the underutilised railway line to Brisbane Airport.

Robert Dow said:

"CAST is right!

?If funding was provided for the State Government to buy back the railway line from Airtrain City Link Ltd, or at least subsidised the fares to normal fare structure, and services were timetabled as for the rest of the Citytrain network, the trains would be well patronised and be available for not only domestic and international passengers, but people employed in the airport precinct.

?The Airtrain to the Brisbane Airport uses leased Queensland Rail Citytrain services. The cost of the travel from the City to the Airport by the Airtrain is presently too expensive and actively discourages people from using it.  It should be brought into the same fare structure as for the rest of metropolitan railway network.

?The Airport effectively lies in Zone 3.  This equates to a normal adult fare of $3.20 from Central compared to the present $13 Airtrain fare.  It is this cost differential that results in near empty trains and because of that a decrease in train frequency and service hours, which in turn leads to fewer passengers.

?Trains need to run when actually needed.  The late start and early finish of the present Airtrain services is farcical.

?The failure to maximize the railway line to Airport as a sustainable transport solution is compounding the gridlock and road congestion to and from the Airport.

"The fortune being wasted on monuments to the automobile would not be required if the railway was made part of the Citytrain network,? said Robert Dow.


Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track

See http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=137.msg823#msg823  for the CAST Media Release

[banyoboy]

Why is it that people expect the public transport to make money but they are quite willing to spend billions of dollars on road infrastructure that will never see a return on investment.  The best way to fix the traffic to the airport (and lots of other places) is not to build more roads, but to have less traffic.  Does it matter where the money is spent, or whether a solution is provided?