Article: Light rail study cash

[Fares_Fair]

Article: Light rail study cash
Sunshine Coast Daily
by Janine Hill
27th April 2012 4:18 AM

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2012/04/27/light-rail-study-cash/

A LIGHT rail system for the Sunshine Coast is a step closer after the Federal Government announced it would put up $500,000 for a feasibility study.

The funding will go towards examining the viability of light-rail link between Caloundra and Maroochydore.

The study will look at potential locations and routes and ways to attract private sector investment.

The funding came in response to a detailed application by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.

Labor Senator Claire Moore said the funding was the first step in what would be a long-term project. She said light rail was proving its worth overseas and should be considered a real option.

"People have been talking about it and I think light rail has reached its time," she said.

Graeme Krisanski, project director with the council, said the Gold Coast's light-rail project had taken 16 years to come to fruition. He said an optimistic estimate might see light rail operating on the Sunshine Coast by 2020.

He said a pre-feasibility report was nearly ready. The new council would then have to decide whether or not to support the project.

If the project got the nod, it would take about two years and $3 million to $4 million to put together a complete business case, including community consultation, he said.

Councillors met Senator Moore at the Kawana Hospital site yesterday to discuss the funding announcement.

Cr Vivienne Griffin, who chairs various council transport committees, said the hospital precinct represented a future economic and residential hot spot and it was imperative that transport needs were addressed.

She said light rail was more viable for more densely populated areas like the coast strip but the study would look at the transport network, including connections between buses and light rail.

[#Metro]

Melbourne has a "Rail study", Brisbane has a "bus tunnel study" and Sunshine Coast has a "Light Rail" study.
Problem: They all decided the mode before doing a proper modal choice analysis.

[Golliwog]

Depending on how they do the study though, they can still come to a conclusion at the end that light rail isn't appropriate and recommend something that is. Depends on the scope the consultant doing the study is given.

[somebody]

It needs to be either/or for this or CAMCOS.  They can't co-exist.

[Arnz]

I'd rather have the CoastConnect Busway on the Nicklin Way, with CAMCOS taking the other alignment.  No to Light Rail for me.

[Golliwog]

It needs to be either/or for this or CAMCOS.  They can't co-exist.

I could concievably see that they could. Build CAMCOS with only 1 or 2 hub stations for long distance (ie: to Brisbane) trips, with light rail taking up the local service role. Pretty sure the service plans that were in the CRR documents had CAMCOS running some services all the way to BNE, but these only serviced 2 main stations, and there was a second service that only ran along CAMCOS stopping at all the stations.

Though in terms of funding, I can't see that happening, though I suppose you could drop the cost of CAMCOS if you were only building 2 stations, and maybe have some single track section (though really not a big fan of that, even if the frequency could be handled by a single track).

[#Metro]

Depending on how they do the study though, they can still come to a conclusion at the end that light rail isn't appropriate and recommend something that is. Depends on the scope the consultant doing the study is given.

When you look at the Melbourne studies, it's Rail Rail Rail.
That's going to bias the feedback and fit in with people's pre-conceived ideas about what a good PT system is - heavy rail.
Metro Rail (skytrain), monorail, BRT may well be glossed over.

They shouldn't need to call it A Light Rail Study - Rapid or Mass Transit (depending on the focus) is what it should be called. And yes, 2 systems might be a good idea - although with a busway, you can have both. There's no reason why Light Rail can't be built to the same standard- but this would require 4 tracks, 2 for all stopping locals and 2 for the rapid LRT. Unless there was a passing arrangement of some sort, and that might be more complicated.

Previous studies into the mode for the Sunshine Coast came up with results that suggest that BRT/LRT/Heavy Rail is equally good. Personally I think a heavy rapid rail for speed (130 km/hr and then direct to Brisbane), with few stops, and an on-road bus BRT system in Class B ROW that could be later upgraded to LRT would be sufficient. Indeed, this isn't all too different to what the Gold Coast will ultimately have.

[SurfRail]

I'm really struggling to see how LRT stacks up at all for the Sunshine Coast.  Give it 20 years maybe.

Fares_Fair and the other guys up there will attest that there is a very strong local sense of "not being like the Gold Coast", which you see most self-evidently in Noosa.  The problem for light rail up there is that the Gold Coast has all the attributes to make LRT work - population density, built form, destinations on the way, existing public transport service intensity.  Apart from being fairly linear (which is good for any public transport), the Sunshine Coast has none of these attributes, even in the densest corridor.

CoastConnect and the Cairns Transit Network (and any other regional systems) should be bus with the ability to expand to LRT later when the investment can be justified.  The expense is just too great with so many other competing priorities (Beerburrum to Nambour most of all).

Of course in Cairns and Townsville there is also the option of running local rail services for minimal outlay, especially if the overhead ever extends that far north.  (Cairns in particular could derive some benefit from a local rail spine to compete with the Bruce Highway.)

[somebody]

When you look at the Melbourne studies, it's Rail Rail Rail.

And Sydney is the same.

Yet what has been driving PT growth in Sydney over the last decade or so?  Bus, and I don't mean STA bus.

[Stillwater]

Does this mean that CAMCOS terminates at Caloundra or Kawana?  Perhaps that is what the study will explore.  The study would make better sense if it included a Maroochydore-Nambour light rail extension via Kunda Park, possibly using some of the old cane tramway alignments, the extent to which they could be useful.

Noosa?  Probably not the density for light rail there ATM, and it is planning to not be part of the SCRC, so the current council owes no favours to a breakaway organisation to plan its long-term transport needs.  It would make sense to explore feasibility of a Maroochydore-airport connection to the Sunshine Coast Airport.

Exploration of a light rail concept for the Sunshine Coast will, however, set up an either/or conflict on the Coast.  If ever there is a big bucket of money for a 'transport thing' on the Coast, the SCRC would push for it to be spent on coastal light rail rather than duplication of the heavy rail line to Nambour.

The timing is crucial here.  Light rail won't happen before 2020 on the council's optimistic forecast.  The Nambour duplication will be needed before then, even if only for freight capacity enhancement.

The danger is everyone will be so fascinated by light rail that the essential planning for the Nambour duplication won't happen.  I was interested reading the other day that the Beerburrum-Landsborough duplication is only at the 'pre detailed construction' phase and not the construction ready 'detailed construction' phase.

It is hard to imagine light rail on the SC being a stand alone network isolated from heavy rail, with no interface or connectivity via CAMCOS in the south and to Nambour in the north.

Added to that, the SCRC needs to get its skates on and develop the Maroochydore CBD (which includes a heavy rail terminus for CAMCOS), or risk Kawana (halfway between Caloundra and Maroochydore) becoming a defacto CBD for the Sunshine Coast.

[colinw]

I am of the opinion that the order of Sunshine Coast priorities should be as follows:

Priority 1:
  a) Re-align & duplicate existing line to Landsborough, with selected improvements north of there to Nambour
  b) High quality bus services, both within the coastal strip and to feed an upgraded Landsborough rail service.

Priority 2:
  a) Build CAMCOS as far as Caloundra, and serving Caloundra South. Use high quality bus north of Caloundra to Maroochydore & Noosa.
  b) Complete realignment & duplication to Nambour, with some improvement of services BEYOND Nambour as far as about Cooroy or Pomona (plus bus links to Noosa).

Priority 3:
  a) Extend CAMCOS line from Caloundra to Maroochydore.

Low priority / do when required:
  a) Duplication beyond Nambour
  b) Extension of CAMCOS beyond Maroochydore to airport or Noosa
  c) Convert high quality bus "spine" from Caloundra to Maroochydore to LRT when buses are no longer coping.

There's no harm in considering LRT in the context of a regional high quality transit system, but it is really hard to see the internal transport needs of the Sunshine Coast requiring anything more than a high quality bus system plus bus links to both the legacy and new rail lines.

Right now I think the main game on the Sunshine Coast is decent local bus services combined with fixing the existing line and getting a start on CAMCOS.

[#Metro]

They need to decide where to have a CBD and jobs so that it is on the way. Where is the Sunshine Coast version of the CBD?
These places need to have job and business centres otherwise everyone is going to go to Brisbane for work!!

[Arnz]

The (last) state government has allocated "Maroochydore" as the defacto Sunshine Coast CBD, although most office blocks are going up in the Kawana Town Centre, which is also the location of the proposed Sunshine Coast University Hospital co-located with the Ramsays Private Hospital.

TBH, I'm more in favor of the CoastConnect busway, makes it a step easier to apply the CFN for the Sunshine Coast Region.  600, 610, 616, 620, 626/627.

[#Metro]

I'm currently of the opinion that the current Caloundra Airport should be shut down, the land there released for a dedicated CBD with a grid pattern of roads and then put the CAMCOS rail station right in the middle of it (leave a bit of room for expansion). Current activities at Caloundra can be transferred to Sunshine Coast Airport.

[Stillwater]

TT, that was the plan.  The state government undertook to find a new 'Caloundra' airport in the vicinity of Wild Horse Mountain, closer to the Glasshouse Mountains.  That would have allowed the current airport to be redeveloped, and it would have given certainty to businesses there that are on short leases.  At the same time, the government took away the SCRC's planning powers and allowed new suburbs to be developed directly under the flight path of planes using the Caloundra Airport.  That would not have been a problem, as the airport was to have been relocated.

However, the state government reneged on the deal.

Now it isn't going ahead: (1) airport businesses can't expand and will close, one is about to close (2) Caloundra has been denied a new bus-rail transit site (3) new residents of new housing estates will blame the council for allowing noise over their homes in circumstances where the problem is none of the council's doing.

[#Metro]

Why did the renege on the deal? There's no need for 2 airports on the Sunshine Coast and Sunshine Coast Airport is rather quiet. It could be expanded a little to accommodate things that were sited at the Calounda site.

[SurfRail]

There's no need for 2 airports on the Sunshine Coast and Sunshine Coast Airport is rather quiet. It could be expanded a little to accommodate things that were sited at the Calounda site.

Especially with GA aerodromes at Redcliffe and Caboolture as well. 

The Gold Coast gets by with one airport, and a very small airstrip near Coombabah.  Brisbane has the GA apron at Brisbane Airport and Archerfield.  By comparison, the Sunshine Coast is hardly an aviation mecca.

(I'm not too fussed about the CAMCOS alignment, keeping the old one means Pelican Beach can still have its station and the Caloundra station site will still be in the vicinity.)

[Stillwater]

The Caloundra Airport is less an airport, more an industrial park that has aviation and aviation servicing as its focus.  Rental costs at SC Airport would be too high and you would not want to block out slots for large passenger aircraft while some pimple-faced youth attempts his touch and go landings.

[Stillwater]

Check out the pilot chatter:

http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-aviation-questions/412037-d-day-caloundra-airport-ycdr.html

[#Metro]

The Caloundra Airport is less an airport, more an industrial park that has aviation and aviation servicing as its focus.  Rental costs at SC Airport would be too high and you would not want to block out slots for large passenger aircraft while some pimple-faced youth attempts his touch and go landings.

Even if rental costs at Caloundra Airport are too high, the opportunity cost of not releasing the land is EVEN HIGHER. This is not a justification for the retention of Caloundra Airport because charges at Sunshine Coast Airport can be changed and modified. In fact, it seems that Sunshine Coast Airport is owned by none other than the SC Council, so a bit of negotiation might be in order to break the deadlock here.

[HappyTrainGuy]

There is also the local air museum there. Where would it relocate too.

[Stillwater]

Wherever, if the ideologues have their way.

The information is old, but must be read in the context of circumstances as they existed in 2010.

http://www.qam.com.au/news/dont-close.htm

200 jobs?  Get rid of them, they argue.  Anything for an ideal.

The germ of an aerospace industry?  Plenty of land at SC Airport is the call. 

Problems?  They're for another day.  Live the moment.  Now, what's on Twitter?

[SurfRail]

There is also the local air museum there. Where would it relocate too.

Any other aerodrome.  Sunshine Coast Airport is not very busy, really, and would be the logical choice being owned by the council (ie somebody other than the Macquarie Bank).  Their move should be supported by government, given the importance of their collection.

Land that close to a major centre needs to be put to its best and highest use, which is not as a third-rate aerodrome when there are several other suitable locations in SEQ.

[#Metro]

$10 million dollars is nothing when you consider that 1 km of busway at Stones Corner cost $465 million.

You know what I am going to say next, don't you?

CUT!!