Look!... Brisbane TRAMS!!

[#Metro]

WARNING: This is not a serious proposal.

Every election there seems to be some tram plan floated out without fail.

Thought I would have an indulgence and pull my own ' fantasy ' tram map out of a hat!

Election coming? LOOK! TRAMS!!



Will get around to ballpark costing it in time.

[#Metro]

Brisbane Light Rail Network
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qhR-8hq2pwWoosgVjLwsDcFjW_s&usp=sharing

One of the interesting things is that the Western suburbs are not that well set up for LRT. They are too far away and it would make more sense to run buses to rail (change to trains in Priority A) than to run trams all the way out there.

I have altered the Springfield Line to go through Centenary.

Tram Lines

T1 Garden City via Ipswich Rd
T2 Garden City via Logan Rd
T3 Garden City via Cavendish Rd
T4 Carindale via Chatsworth Rd
T5 UQ Lakes - Carindale via Old Cleveland Rd
T6 Carindale via East Brisbane
T7 Tingalpa
T8 Bulimba via Story Bridge
     T8a Bulimba (Oxford St)
     T8b Bulimba (Balmoral Ferry Depot)
T9 New Farm (Oxalade Dr)
T10 Teneriffe Ferry
T11 Teneriffe Ferry
T12 Portside via Kingsford Smith Drv
T13 Skygate
T14 Chermside via Toombul
T15 Chermside via Maundrell Tce
T16 Chermside via Stafford
T17 Eatons Hill via Old Northern Rd
T18 The Gap via Waterworks Rd
T19 The Gap via Paddington
T20 Toowong Depot
T21 St Lucia

[ozbob]

I need to know.  Will the trams have free wifi and usb charge points?  #askingforafriend 

[#Metro]

Will the trams have free wifi and usb charge points?

Absolutely! Might be driverless by the time the whole thing is done and dusted!

Calculations (Approximate Values Only)

Line track - 146.2 km (approx)
Shared track (many lines running together) - 34.5 km

Total = 180.7 km track

Estimated cost @ $50 million / km = 9 billion

Hmm... maybe not as expensive as I thought???

[verbatim9]

^^^Still think that Trams/Metro would be best to Terminate at Coles Kenmore Village not Indooroopilly. May need a bit of tunnelling through Chapel Hill and between Kenmore Tavern and Coles Kenmore Village.

Plus an outer Loop that includes Redlands and Logan council areas South from Cleveland station to Vic Point then West back through Shailer Park, Logan, connecting back at Springwood at the rail or Busway maybe Metro in the future?

[ozbob]

Have you thought about ' rubber tyre trams '  could fit in rather well don't you think?

>> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=5056.msg177416#msg177416

Save a motza, only one rail ..     

[Gazza]

^^^Still think that Trams/Metro would be best to Terminate at Coles Kenmore Village not Indooroopilly. May need a bit of tunnelling through Chapel Hill and between Kenmore Tavern and Coles Kenmore Village.

Plus an outer Loop that includes Redlands and Logan council areas South from Cleveland station to Vic Point then West back through Shailer Park, Logan, connecting back at Springwood at the rail or Busway maybe Metro in the future?

What's at Coles Kenmore though? Its not like its a dense terminus.

[verbatim9]

^^Its a hub for Brookfield Pullenvale Pinjarra Hills Moggill and Karana Downs. In combination with the Bridge to Riverhills you basically have the area future proofed.

[#Metro]

To be perfectly honest, I am a bit shocked that the final estimate came to only $9 BN @ $50 million/km.

Melbourne and Sydney metros cost far more than this and serve a much narrower area.

I haven't included buying the trams, but if you had a large order you'd be able to get them more cheaply.

If we double the cost to $18 BN, it is still reasonable for a network that size.

It is essential that there be a large depot at West End to absorb all the terminating services at Cultural Centre. The Victoria Bridge

would probably need to be strengthened or demolished and rebuilt to a stronger and wider standard.

Of course, we could run this network using large buses, would have similar effect.

[SurfRail]

If we're going that extreme, there are a number of cross-suburban routes I'd like to see - for instance:

- Murrarie to Garden City (realign the T3 service to run via Wecker Rd, Ham Rd and Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Rd and let this route take over Newnham Rd)
- Mitchelton to Toombul
- One of the Bulimba routes goes via State Route 10 (so basically Morningside, Seven Hills, Camp Hill, Holland Park, Greenslopes Hospital, Annerley
- The T17 line goes to Toowong down Jubilee Terrace et al, rather than the CBD
- The T5 line would be a heavier duty service than the rest and would go as far as Chandler and Capalaba

[Otto]

The Victoria Bridge would probably need to be strengthened or demolished and rebuilt to a stronger and wider standard.

That would be like deja vu for me. In my younger years, I watched the old Victoria bridge be replaced with the new Victoria bridge. 1969 and no more trams.

So now the current Victoria bridge will be replaced by the new Victoria bridge (again) . 19LD and the trams are back ! yay..

[bcasey]

I know this is just for fun, so I'm assuming you didn't take maximum gradients into account when coming up with these lines. The T15 and T16 would have trouble traversing some of the steep slopes, on Days Road/Grange Rd, Grange, and the very steep slope on Appleby road, on the approach to the roundabout at Wilgarning Street.

On a more selfish request, I would love to see the T16 go all the way to the Aspley Hypermarket, rather than veer east towards Chermside Shopping Centre, although I understand why you did that. Of course, Appleby Rd/Maundrell Terrace is a very hilly corridor, so this wouldn't work in reality.

There is also a very noticible gap in the Chermside/Kedron/Lutwytche area, which I'm guessing is due to the busway infrastructure already in place along part of that corridor. As suggested by Surfrail, a east/west line between Mitchelton and Toombul, going via Stafford Road would be cool.

[#Metro]

I know this is just for fun, so I'm assuming you didn't take maximum gradients into account when coming up with these lines. The T15 and T16 would have trouble traversing some of the steep slopes, on Days Road/Grange Rd, Grange, and the very steep slope on Appleby road, on the approach to the roundabout at Wilgarning Street.

Thanks for the feedback. Doubt it will ever be built due to progress with DDA access meaning that it would be hard to make a tram run in Priority C and be DDA compliant.

Slopes on Days Rd I am not concerned about, I think trams used to run there in the old days. Good point about Appleby road - that is very steep and I had not taken that into account. However, one can perhaps use a rubber tyre tram (see France).

On a more selfish request, I would love to see the T16 go all the way to the Aspley Hypermarket, rather than veer east towards Chermside Shopping Centre, although I understand why you did that. Of course, Appleby Rd/Maundrell Terrace is a very hilly corridor, so this wouldn't work in reality.

Tram lines are limited to 30 minutes travel times. Outside of that parameter, commuter rail and bus would be used instead. Thus, no tram to Aspley.

There is also a very noticible gap in the Chermside/Kedron/Lutwytche area, which I'm guessing is due to the busway infrastructure already in place along part of that corridor. As suggested by Surfrail, a east/west line between Mitchelton and Toombul, going via Stafford Road would be cool.

Correct. The busway would be upgraded, so no need for tram there. Some connection on Stafford Road may be necessary, even if only to allow trams from different lines to the depot.

Surprisingly, paper calculations put the cost of the entire network at around $9-$10 billion.