coomera to helensvale

[Dean Quick]

Hi all,
       Im led to believe that the gold coast line between coomera and helensvale is still single track.Does anyone know if there are plans to duplicate this section?

[O_128]

yes it is single track and there are plans to duplicate it eventually.Though not until at the latest 2026 as alot of it gos over the coomera river which means another bridge must be built

[stephenk]

Interestingly the inner city rail capacity study assumes that it has already been duplicated. I have seen "by 2014" quoted by Translink for this duplication.

It will need to be duplicated when the Gold Coast Line requires a frequency better than 15mins. Given that at the moment Gold Coast trains are not particularly overcrowded, it will be a few years before this section needs to be duplicated. However it would of course be best to duplicate before the Gold Coast Line becomes overcrowded, rather than afterwards like before!

[ButFli]

yes it is single track and there are plans to duplicate it eventually.Though not until at the latest 2026 as alot of it gos over the coomera river which means another bridge must be built

Coomera to Helensvale is about 8km and the bridge is what, 800m? It would be very easy to leave 1km across the bridge single track and duplicate the rest. With a time table to suit there wouldn't be much difference between that and a complete duplication (except the price).

[mufreight]

Well Butfli you have made a good point
The South Coast line from Sydney for many years had a section of Gauntleted track over the Como river, in effect it was a single track section over the bridge the use of gauntleted track saved the need for points at each end of the bridge and simplified the needs of the signaling system,  the line carried all South coast passenger services Wooloongong Koama and Bombardary as well as the electric services to Cronulla and all the freight services to and from Wooloongong and Port Kembla so it was quite busy with trains accross the gauntleted section in either direction at intervals of less than two minutes on occasion at peaks.

[Arnz]

yes it is single track and there are plans to duplicate it eventually.Though not until at the latest 2026 as alot of it gos over the coomera river which means another bridge must be built

Coomera to Helensvale is about 8km and the bridge is what, 800m? It would be very easy to leave 1km across the bridge single track and duplicate the rest. With a time table to suit there wouldn't be much difference between that and a complete duplication (except the price).

This is the same issue with the Lawnton - Caboolture NCL triplication.  The recent inner-city study suggested that the Caboolture-Burpengary section is duplicated first, followed by Burpengary-Petrie/Lawton.  Theres already partial triplication at Narangba, where Narangba Station already has three platforms.

On a interesting but similar note, the Lawnton-Petrie bridge cost was assumably the reason why the track wasnt triplicated to Petrie as per the original works. 

[mufreight]

Logic would indicate that the bridge between Lawnton and Petrie should when built be built for double track rather than a single track thus giving room for a future fourth track which will in time be needed.

[stephenk]

Logic would indicate that the bridge between Lawnton and Petrie should when built be built for double track rather than a single track thus giving room for a future fourth track which will in time be needed.

Absolutely. Anywhere where the infrastructure is being added for triplication, should be designed for eventual quadruplication.

[O_128]

But we live in the smart state.If you build a bridge to accomodate 2 trcks it will be cheaper to build 2 tracks on it.I reckon the builders pay the goverment to stagger it so much so they get more money in the long run

[mufreight]

The costs to set up and build an additional single track bridge at a later date will probably be more than the actual cost of building a double track bridge at the present time over and above the costs of building a single track bridge now.
So much for shortsighted government wasting your money just to justify the continued employment of beauracrats in the future to rectify the shortsighted expediency of the time initally.