RiverCity Rail Tunnel Proposal - part 2 Roma St - Exhibition loop line

[ozbob]

A major deficiency of the compromised rail solution for the BaT (no acronyms) bus and train tunnel was the fact it stopped trains effectively at Roma St.

There are serious capacity issues from the north side and through CBD.  Any rail solution must address this.

It is important that the RCRT continue on to the Exhibition line, perhaps activating Exhibition station as an all year round service as well.

Consideration must also be given to a possible Trout's Road corridor enabling situation from Roma St as well.

What are your thoughts? 

[ozbob]

From RCRT thread ..

Whatever tunnel is to be built, it needs to be pushed through after Roma Street. Whether that is simply to Exhibition area and continue that way with stub tunnels left for later extention to Trouts Rd, or whatever, it doesn't matter. Either way, it MUST conncet to the north side, as it's not simply the Maryvale bridge which is at capacity, the tracks through the City are as well. No more trains can be fit in on the mains in the heart of peak and (by memory) the subs are the same.

[red dragin]

Trouts Rd seems a long way off, it didn't get any real reaction when I raised it on the tour yesterday. The public probably aren't aware of its existence - I doubt many locals even are.

My suggestion would be stub tunnels built for future connection.

Connect through to Ekka - Airport for now.

[SurfRail]

Kippa-Ring all stations to Northgate.  Cabboolture all stations to Petrie then express to Northgate stopping only at Strathpine.  Sunshine Coast all stations to Caboolture then express to Northgate stopping only at Petrie.

All 3 patterns run express to Eagle Junction, then express to Exhibition, then Roma St, CBD South, Gabba, Boggo Rd. 

What happens next depends on where your southern portal is, but the intention would be to throughroute the Kippa-Ring and Caboolture trains to cover all destinations south of Kuraby.  Sunshine Coast would turn back before getting this far. 

[Stillwater]

An activated Ekka station would support the massive redevelopment taking place there, including residential apartment complexes.  Also, it is to have a large convention centre.  How are people to get and from that facility effectively and quickly?

[nathandavid88]

Honestly, it's all of a 5 minute walk from the RNA redevelopment site to Fortitude Valley Station, and walking from the new residential buildings (The Green and The Yards) to the Exhibition Station wouldn't be that much shorter – it's about equal distance to either.

[ozbob]

Exhibition station provides rail access to a wide area.  It would be very dumb indeed not to open permanently IMHO particularly with regular passenger services running past with passengers many times a day.

The trains running through on the Exhibition line will not be passing through Fortitude Valley, bit hard to walk from there ...

But I understand, this is Queensland after all ....  place is inhabited by fukwits ...

[pandmaster]

It is a reasonable walk to the RNA from FV station, 10 minutes/750 metres according to Google. Not very pleasant in summer.

[nathandavid88]

Don't blindly trust Google, because it does sometimes get it wrong, as it is in this case. I've been photographically documenting the RNA redevelopment, so I'm very familiar with the area. By my Google calculations, it is 5 minutes and about 400m tops.

When you put RNA Showgrounds into Google, it puts the marker on Gregory Terrace next to the Main Arena. The new residential developments at the Showgrounds, on the other hand, are being built at the far Southern point of the site, just behind the Jubilee Hotel on St Pauls Terrace. For a more realistic representation, set your starting point at the Jubilee and add another 30-50m to the apartment lobby. As for the train station end, Google is picking a weird pedestrian route that I'm not sure even exists, halfway up Alfred Street towards Brunswick Street. Realistically, you'd enter via the pedestrian path into the carpark, opposite Julia Street. From there, it's probably another ~75m of undercover walk to get to the fare gates.

It's hard to make an equivalent journey to the Ekka Station because Google will only go as far as Gregory Terrace. From the lobby to Gregory Terrace I estimate as being about 4-5 minutes and ~400m when the new King Street is completed (it's currently it's 6 minutes and 500m via Costin Street), plus another minute or two and odd 100m to the Exhibition Station. As I said, it's much of a muchness. Not saying that this negates the need to open Ekka Station full time, just that geographically it's a dead heat between which is closer. Which one commuters use would largely be dependent on what line they are taking to what location rather than which is closer. Anyone wanting Central would use FV.

[SurfRail]

Remember that the proposed Ekka station was meant to be relocated north, and would also have served as the companion station to Bowen Hills for trains which would no longer be passing through there.

[nathandavid88]

^^ North as in closer to O'Connell Terrace? That would move it even further from the Showground redevelopment site. It would make it more accessible to the new apartments built on the opposite side of O'Connell Terrace (and ones to come in the future) and even somewhat accessible to the RBH/RBWH. The RNA redevelopment will see it redevelop the land along O'Connell Terrace in a later stage of the project – maybe that redevelopment could include a new rail station?

[SurfRail]

I do recall the station was to be moved a bit, but the particulars are beyond me.  I have a vague recollection access would have been through a plaza at O'Connell Tce.

Somebody (aldonius?) has the reference design and various other materials stored on a Dropbox somewhere IIRC, that should clear it up.

[aldonius]

Yeah, I've got that (and a good chunk of the public BaT and ICRCS docs). Message me for a link.

[petey3801]

I believe it was going to be around the Campbell Street area, IIRC. It was likely moved there instead of the current positioning to make it easy for traincrews to change between Bowen Hills and the new station to relive trains. Now that crews don't relieve trains at Bowen Hills anymore (apart from when sh!t hits the fan sometimes), it wouldn't be as much of an issue to leave it where it is.