25 Jul 2013: SEQ: Gold Coast Light Rail

[ozbob]

Media release 25th July 2013



SEQ: Gold Coast Light Rail

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers has said the Minister for Transport needs to back up the claims that patronage forecasts for the Gold Coast Light Railway are not correct.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"Today in the Transport and Main Roads Budget estimates Minister Emerson said that Labor had it wrong and the daily passenger trip projection for the Gold Coast Light rail is 20,000 trips daily not the 45,000 originally projected in 2009."

"We disagree with this latest projection.  The Gold Coast Light rail will be a frequent high capacity service."

"During the weekdays service frequency will be every 7.5 minutes with 15 minutes outside the 7am to 7pm period. The trams can comfortably carry over 300 passengers (1)."

"As has been clearly shown with the BUZ network, frequency drives patronage, the Gold Coast Light Rail will be no different."

"We ask the Minister for Transport to make public the assumptions and methodology behind these latest passenger projections."

"Our estimate would be at least 50,000 passengers daily.  Road congestion is a nightmare on the Gold Coast and the light rail will be very welcome and strongly supported.  Particularly with the bus network being geared up to also support the light rail.  In fact the TransLink SEQ bus review has already positioned the Gold Coast bus system in a form to allow this to occur."

"Rather than attempt to score political points, we would expect the Transport Minister to be promoting the wonderful opportunity for improved public transport for the Gold Coast."

Reference:

1. http://goldlinq.com.au/operating-light-rail/your-journey/

Contact:

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

[ozbob]

Discussion --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=546.msg129398#msg129398

[ozbob]

Feedback received, thanks ..

I was surprised to hear on televison the other night that the Minister for Transport was talking about not funding stage two and three of the Gold Coast light rail because of passenger numbers.  It probably will not reach it's full potential for the simple reason it is not linked to the main railway line.  That needs to be stage two.  After it is  joined to  the  main railway line  the problem it would have is copeing with the number of passengers.  The existing rail bus connection can not cope with the passenger numbers now. In the future the railway line from Beenleigh to the Gold Coast will probably not be able to cope with the passenger numbers because as far as I know part of it is still single track.  People that are interested in  public transport need to get in touch with the Minister for Transport and their local Member of Parliament and tell them that the main Gold Coast Railway line needs to be linked to the Light Rail. 

[ozbob]

 

[Stillwater]

The premier muses why his government's narrative is not gaining traction and why its good news is not gaining recognition with the public.  Part of the problem is Mr Emerson's constant Labor-bashing at every opportunity -- every opportunity.

In order not to appear partisan, it should be referred to as 'previous government bashing', because the other side do it from time to time.  The message goes like this: "If you think this is bad, just image how bad it would be if the other lot were still in power."

The trouble is we do.  The perceptible difference in our material circumstances is not recognised, because Mr Emerson and his cohort keep letting us think of the 'bad'.  We perceive 'bad' and not 'good'.

Mr Emerson would also have us believe that he and the LNP are not in power, but that Labor still is.  He portrays himself as a mop, fixing Labor's mess or 'big bad debt' as though he and the LNP government, in effect, disown government.

He does not take ownership of the problems.  In his words, he portrays the fixes as negatives, because the words are delivered in a way that suggests we are still in negative territory on the scale of the misery meter.

[SurfRail]

The speechifying yesterday at the opening was suitably bipartisan.

The greatest hypocrite was Steven Ciobo, the federal MP for Moncrieff (which covers the light rail alignment) - not a red cent from the Commonwealth for any public transport from now on, but you wouldn't credit that from what he said.