Rail Corridor Bikeways

[andrewr]

I've been thinking lately about rail corridor bikeways and how they are such a missed opportunity in many spots.

I've heard that QR/DTMR have refused to entertain the idea in the past, but one can always dream, and advocate the idea. They would help connect people to their local train station and other local trips away from cars.

Many train stations feel far away or inconvenient to get to for local residents. Car parking is often a problem and it is very expensive for government to keep adding spots.

I hacked up these concepts pretty quickly. They could be a bikeway or a shared path, either would be fantastic in my view!

Sunnybank Bikeway

The Sunnybank bikeway would run from Boundary Road to Our Lady of Lourdes, making excellent active transport for students and for locals riding to the the train station. The path would cross over the rail line at Stones Road.

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Runcorn Bikeway

The Runcorn Bikeway would connect from Altandi Street to Beenleigh Road, and continue along that corridor. It would cross over the rail line at Nathan Road.

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Kuraby Bikeway

The Kuraby Bikeway would continue from Beenleigh Road to St Andrew Street and then Allingham Street, connecting to Compton Road. This could continue on into Woodridge.

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East Ipswich Bikeway

In a completely different area, I have long thought that Ipswich has some fantastic spaces for a bikeway (I used to live in the area). There is an existing path which runs though East Ipswich and Booval with a gap along Railway Street. The existing path is in pretty bad shape and not particularly bike-friendly.

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Bundamba Bikeway

There appears to be some existing paths through Bundamba, between Mining Street and Coal Street, although I can't remember if I've been on them. There may be some challenges between Nimmo Street and Bundamba Creek as there is an old mining site there, although local council does appear to have plans to build a road though it. The rest of the bikeway would continue between Brisbane Road and the rail line to Dinmore, where a bike route continues from there to Brisbane.

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P.S. I'm sure there was a topic here about this already, but I couldn't find it.

[Gazza]

I think bikeways along railway lines make sense because they are genuinely quite flat and reasonably direct and comfortable.

On the other hand, if the government is picking between projects, I would prefer them to build bikeways that get people from outside the walk up catchment to get to the railway station in the first place.

An example of this in action could be somewhere like Mango Hill/Griffin.

There is a very nice cycle way that runs alongside the railway line competing with it.

However, a lot of the residential areas immediately south have very disconnected cycling infrastructure:

So there is a situation where people living along the railway line have choice between several options, but people further away have to less.

[andrewr]

That makes a lot of sense, building perpendicular to the train line would have a larger reach and potentially increase the reach of public transport.

The situation we have in SEQ is that state directly builds active transport routes along its corridors (primarily motorways) and then herds councils to build active transport routes along council corridors, i.e. everywhere else.

They coordinate council bike routes via the PCNP (primary cycling network plan) and offer funding via the Cycle Network Local Government Grants Program. The first PCNP was in 2007 and the route prioritisation started in 2016, yet the SEQ councils are yet to deliver.

The attraction of the state government building the "low hanging fruit" bikeways along its corridors is that they can get in and get it done (in theory).