Will Eagle Farm Station ever re-open?

[ar_howard]

Just wondering why the Eagle Farm Station closed in the first place and if people think it is ever likely to be reopened now that a lot of industrial development is happening around the area?

Would it still be a viable passenger line?

[Gazza]

I don't think it will. Topologically, the greater demand is at Hamilton north shore, so the line will swing around to there if they ever choose to extend it. If North Shore is being served the that means Eagle Farm cant be easily.

Industrial development is going on, yes, but that tends not to be too good for generating much rail demand.

[#Metro]

I agree with Gazza - there were some models Gazza made too of it - they're buried somewhere on the forum.
Hamilton Northshore is where the line should end. Just extend BH terminators.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Nope... not for a while atleast. The station buildings, electricity, signs were finally removed in late May last year after being closed for the last..... 14 years or so years.

[Gazza]

Just to clarify too, jobs in an area doesn't necessarily imply lots of transport demand.
Consider the difference between a factory of warehouse, where its a big building, but only manned by a few people skitting around in forklifts, or operating various machines.
Versus a commercial district where lots of people are arranged in cubicles a few meters apart, on floors stacked on top of each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindha_railway_station

[Jonas Jade]

If and when the rail heads to Northshore, there should be no extension to Eagle farm etc until there is sufficient demand that would enable frequent enough services on both lines.

So probably not in the next 20 years....

[HappyTrainGuy]

If anything goes out that way it should be a better Airport line.

[Mr X]

I don't like the idea of the Airport Line linking onto the crappy slow Doomben line.. just concretes in a crappy alignment IMHO

[achiruel]

I think the Eagle Farm & areas beyond (Pinkenba/Myrtletown) are best served by buses connecting with rail at Doomben.  This is because large parts of the area are beyond the catchment of the rail line anyway and can be more effectively reached with buses, and the amount of traffic certainly doesn't justify both. 

[Jonno]

Just to clarify too, jobs in an area doesn't necessarily imply lots of transport demand.
Consider the difference between a factory of warehouse, where its a big building, but only manned by a few people skitting around in forklifts, or operating various machines.
Versus a commercial district where lots of people are arranged in cubicles a few meters apart, on floors stacked on top of each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindha_railway_station

Yet everyday there is congested traffic in and out of the area?  How many trips are being made? How many could physically be made by public transport? Please do not tell me we are using the "public transport is only 15% of all trips so therefore there is no demand" approach.

[Gazza]

To clarifly, demand, but bus levels of demand rather than heavy rail.

[SurfRail]

The bus services to that area are rubbish, and there is a lot of freight on the roads because of the virtual cessation of bulk traffic by rail, so unless you change one or both you will continue to see a lot of congestion in the area.

[achiruel]

I think there is certainly sufficient demand for an improved bus service.  I don't think passenger rail will be viable in the near future.  Increasing the amount of rail freight could be helpful to take a lot of heavy trucks off the road though - depending on the nature of the freight and its destination.

[Jonno]

We thought building more roads would solve congestion. We thought public transport was a last choice transport option.  We thought wrong!