Gold Coast Light Rail

[WTN]

Yay!

Hopefully they get the priorities right. Pedestrian access and bike facilities first, bus transfer areas second, and carparks last (or none)!

[frereOP]

I'm also concerned for the future of this project if - as seems likely - the Government changes at the next state election in 18 months.  Opposition Leader Paul Langbroek - who is the member for Surfers Paradise - is on the record as opposing the light rail.

How much of this is political rhetoric?  Opposing for the sake of opposing or siding with popular opinion is what oppositions do (Hansonism I think it has recently been referred to as).  The Gold Coast Light Rail project will be locked up tight under contract well and truly before then and Langbroek knows that so he wins both ways - by opposing it and by getting it because he can't stop it.

[Stillwater]

John-Paul will wring his hands, saying: 'While I remain opposed to light rail, those Labor bastards who held government before us got into bed with the unions to stitch this up such that I cannot undo it without costing the Queensland taxpayer a bucket of money, so we will all have to live with it.'  Look to camera with sincere puppy dog eyes.....  The politics around PT has to stop; people can see through it anyway.

[frereOP]

John-Paul will wring his hands, saying: 'While I remain opposed to light rail, those Labor bastards who held government before us got into bed with the unions to stitch this up such that I cannot undo it without costing the Queensland taxpayer a bucket of money, so we will all have to live with it.'  Look to camera with sincere puppy dog eyes.....  The politics around PT has to stop; people can see through it anyway.

This is a standard political ploy.  When Laurie Brereton was Minister for Public Works in NSW, he got nicknamed the "Minister for Disneyland" because of all the projects he started including Darling Harbour.  The opposition vowed to cancel many of the projects if they got into government and when they did get in, they discovered they couldn't stop them without costing the taxpayers more than the projects were worth because the contracts were as tight as the proverbial.

[#Metro]

Hmm...    http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=4722.0

[Stillwater]

Oh, they are more devious in taking politics to new heights in NSW.  In 1995, the NSW Government imported a Tilt Train from Sweden and spent a lot of money modifying station platforms to run it all over the state, telling people this would be the next generation of train intruduced in inter-regional runs.  The train came and went, as did the election, but no Tilt Train eventuated in NSW.  Clapped-out XPTs still operating there.  Credit where credit is due - at least Queensland took the Tilt Train plunge.  Go here if you want to know more about the ill-fated NSW Tilt Train experiment: http://www.tomw.net.au/atmttrn1.html

[Sunbus610]

Car spots juggled for light rail work
Matthew Killoran   |  29 October 2010   |  Gold Coast Bulletin

More than 150 car spaces will open up at the end of November to replace some of the 450 that will be lost to the light rail roadworks through Southport.

Parking limits in some areas will also be altered and free parking will be introduced for Gold Coast Hospital staff and other permit holders at the Southport Pony Club, about 1km from the hospital.

Car spaces to be lost to the roadworks include all the centre-street parking in front of the hospital.

For more on this story click HERE

[colinw]

Gold Coast Bulletin: Iridium brings renewal to Southport -> click here

The story mentions the light rail, and to me raises the question of developer contributions to projects like GCRT when they stand to make a huge windfall as a result of the urban renewal effects.

Iridium brings renewal to Southport

Matthew Killoran   |  November 10th, 2010

SUBURBAN renewal is under way in Southport with the $220 million, 45-storey residential Iridium Tower approved by the council's city planning committee yesterday.

The Scarborough Street development, from the Ingles Group, will have more than 330 units, shops, cafes, a medical centre and office space.

City planning boss Ted Shepherd said the tower, which will be 50m from a proposed light rail station, was one of the biggest Southport property developments in years and could spark more.

But the site narrowly avoided controversy after a proposal was raised by Cr Greg Betts to have two floors gifted to the council and rented out to help pay for the light rail system.

...

[#Metro]

I agree. This value is just being wasted. It should be captured! Value capture guys!

[#Metro]

It just doesn't end?
Is the GC Bulletin a division of the CM???

Light rail pain a week away

BRACE yourselves Gold Coasters -- the traffic pain we are set to endure during the light rail construction period is just over a week away.

The Gold Coast Rapid Transit project team has announced dates for the start of 12 months of roadworks to widen streets in preparation for the RTS and residents have been asked to embrace the pain.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/11/11/270015_gold-coast-news.html

[colinw]

It just doesn't end?
Is the GC Bulletin a division of the CM???

Affiliated.  Both are News corporation.

The GC Bulletin appears to run anti-whatever-is-happening pieces.  When GCRT looks like it wouldn't get off the ground at all, or would be buses, they were pro light rail.

Isn't it funny the way the media only ever bangs on about "pain" if it is not a road project?  I don't see them running articles saying "road upgrade pain only a week away" or "massive freeway resumptions".

[Jonno]

If it is a road project the headline is "congestion set to be fixed" or "fix starts to traffic problems".  Funny also that they never come back and report "road upgrade made things worse".  This is why the general public think that more roads are the solution.  Their main source of information, the TV and papers, keep reminding them it is so.

[colinw]

Ministerial media statement: All systems go for Gold Coast light rail

Minister for Transport
The Honourable Rachel Nolan

Thursday, December 16, 2010

All systems go for Gold Coast light rail

The $949 million Gold Coast Rapid Transit project has reached the next milestone with bid documents to operate the light rail system received from the three shortlisted contenders.

A total of 150 boxes of proposals have been delivered by GC Connect, GoldlinQ and MoveGC, representing six months of preparation since the final shortlist was announced in May.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan, inspecting progress of the light rail project near Griffith University today, said the winner would be announced in March 2011.

"The world's best have responded to the challenge of delivering the first light rail system in Queensland,'' she said.

"Our project team has a big task ahead of it but they've rolled up their sleeves and are now pouring over the 900 folders as part of the proposals.

"This is the Gold Coast's biggest public transport project and when complete in 2014, thousands of uni students and people visiting Southport, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and the Southport medical precinct will enjoy fast, seamless access without the headache of having to drive and park."

The financing, supply of vehicles, and the infrastructure associated with the light rail system also make up the contract.

Ms Nolan said decking units on the main Gold Coast University station shell had already been installed.

"Today we see the walls and roof beginning to take shape," she said.

"Four Olympic size swimming pools or 9500 cubic metres of rubble has been removed and 390 piles constructed as part of early works on the station hall and western approach," he said.

"In the next five years this will be a busy station catering to 7000 passengers a day at the heart of the first 13-kilometre stretch of the light rail project."

Ms Nolan toured the 13-kilometre Stage One corridor inspecting work in the Gold Coast Hospital precinct and along the Gold Coast Highway in Broadbeach where 600 metres of concrete median has been removed and asphalting is set to begin.

The work is part of an early works packages to move water, gas, telecommunications and electricity services, widen and level roads, upgrade intersections and restore kerbs, paths, driveways and fences.

A total of 6300 direct and indirect jobs will be generated as part of Stage One of the Gold Coast light rail project. Of these 1000 direct and indirect jobs will be created by the three early works packages valued at around $145 million.

The three final contenders for the Operator Franchise PPP are:

GC Connect

GC Connect is made up of MTR Corporation, John Holland Pty Ltd,

ITOCHU Corporation and RBS Group (Australia) Pty. MTR Corporation is a world leader in providing public transport solutions in highly urbanised and variable environments, and in operating and maintaining these systems.

GoldlinQ

GoldlinQ is an operator led consortium that will provide a customer focused integrated light rail system for the Gold Coast. GoldLinQ members Keolis SA, Bombardier Transportation Australia Pty Ltd, McConnell Dowell Constructors Pty Ltd and Plenary Group Pty Ltd operate some of the world's largest and most complex transport networks and manufacture state of the art vehicle and rail systems.

Move GC

Move GC members Veolia, Leighton Contractors, Alstom and Macquarie bring together leaders in their fields of design, construction, funding and operating and maintaining public transport systems. The consortium will work with the Gold Coast community to deliver the GCRT project.

[mufreight]

Obviously Madam Transport Minister Nolan is in political trouble hence all the press releases of spin relating to transport infrastructure and services.

[colinw]

This is a "nothing" re-announcement of something that has been known since May: http://statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=69816

At least Anna's May 24 release had a decent level of detail in it.

Do I notice a trend toward going down the NSW Government path of constantly announcing & re-announcing the same things?

[#Metro]

The entire release can be reduced down to this single line:

"This morning a pile of boxes containing the bid documents arrived at my office"




So, when are my frequent rail services coming?

[colinw]

So, when are my frequent rail services coming?

In peak hour, if you're lucky, and don't live on the Sunshine Coast.

Or to put it in TransLink terms ... "what???!!!!".

Alternatively ... move to Perth.

[Stillwater]

150 boxes of tender documents all being 'poured' over.  Why would you want to get them wet?  Could it be that the tender evaluation team is 'poring' over the documentation?

[mufreight]

Was it poured over or pi**ed on? either way it is a wet excuse from one viewed by many/most as a drip.

[Stillwater]

When it comes to the people advising her, maybe the Minister should sort the economic wets from the economic drys.   

[mufreight]

Well it is almost a foregone conclusion that come the election they are all washed up be they wets or drys.

[Stillwater]

Well, politics is a two-way street.  The worse Labor gets in the polls, the more critical it is for the Opposition to be a strong alternative.  Hopefully, they will reveal their transport policies in the election campaign.

[O_128]

We can all be thankfull knowing that even if labor is reelected ms nolan definently wont be minister 

[#Metro]

I think there has been a lot of criticism of the current government. They are pouring a lot of money into infrastructure projects ("concrete") such as CRR, Kippa Ring, Beenleigh line improvements, Springfield Rail, Gold Coast LRT and busways. Compared to cities overseas, we are very very lucky to have something like this. I don't know of any other city, maybe Perth, that has infrastructure like this popping up everywhere like mushrooms.

However, part of this infrastructure boom is no doubt due to the backlog of projects that were put on the backburner or neglected for a very long time. Cross River Rail first made an appearance in 1970 and was to be built and operating by 2000. It was a bridge from Wooloongabba to the CBD, along with the Merivale bridge.

Kippa-Ring is another one of those projects.

So on the infrastructure front, I think they have done quite good actually. However, the key area they are failing in is service delivery right now. There are not enough BUZ routes. The trains are far too infrequent. Density and population explanations for this low service frequency don't cut it. There are cities with densities far below that of Brisbane that have more frequent heavy rail services, and Perth of course is the biggest, most obvious example showing that this can be done.

Frequency of buses connecting to train stations are far, far too low to be useful and encourage transfers. This idea that you run rail and bus feeders hourly to train stations to make them connect- people will be in their car and at their destination having a coffee break by the time the bus turns up, so it is no wonder why these services have low patronage.

Services are also mostly radial. You can get TO town and FROM town, but you can't get AROUND town. What is the point of that?

People value things now more highly than far off benefits. This is why NOW services cannot be ignored.

[somebody]

Well it is almost a foregone conclusion that come the election they are all washed up be they wets or drys.

One may have thought so before the previous election.

[#Metro]

You can get TO town and FROM town, but you can't get AROUND town. What is the point of that?

I think I might have hit upon something that will fix the "bus - what is it radial/cross-town/orbital/feeder" problem.

Radial and through-route services are "to/from services"
Cross-town and orbitals are "around" services.
Dedicated feeder services terminating at rail/bus services are "go to" services

It's pretty neat:

199: "To/From" service
200: "To/From" service
599/598: "Around" service
402: "go to" feeder

[Stillwater]

Kippa Ring came about because of a hefty federal government contribution and would not have proceeded at this time without that financial injection.  The only money that's gone into CRR is federal government funding for a feasibility study -- because when the feds called on the states for projects to fund in the latest round of infrastructure investment, Queensland wanted CRR, but had no planning, no firm costings, no engineering drawings apart from vague concepts.  Kippa Ring was the booby prize.  Much of Connecting SEQ 2031 is unfunded.  Yes, we should acknowledge what is being done, by whom, and give every encouragement to the state government to get on with the job it has mapped out.  Bring on the business plan and feasibility study for CRR.  Like Kippa Ring, it will proceed only with a hefty Commonwealth grant, but it must compete with other major projects in Sydney and Melbourne.  Let's hope Queensland's lack of preparedness won't kill CRR in the next round of federal funding handouts.

[#Metro]

I wonder if it would make sense to extend the LRT service from Helensvale station, up into a busway-style viaduct to serve the theme parks (with busway style stations) and bus interchange to local feeder bus services serving the suburbs and then connect directly to Dreamworld and Coomera station. This section could have stations 2-4 km apart, allowing the LRT to reach very high speeds 80-100km/hour.

There are LRT services like this- for example, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGtG7BrwTqk&feature=related

[frereOP]

I wonder if it would make sense to extend the LRT service from Helensvale station, up into a busway-style viaduct to serve the theme parks (with busway style stations) and bus interchange to local feeder bus services serving the suburbs and then connect directly to Dreamworld and Coomera station. This section could have stations 2-4 km apart, allowing the LRT to reach very high speeds 80-100km/hour.

I don't see the point. This would only be justied if it could be provided as a commercially viable option because the parks are businesses and the general public shouldn't be expected to subsidise thier operation by providing a financially unviable feeder service.  It would make sense if it were part of a broader transport plan for the area (like the current bus service is) but not to just provide a shuttle to and from the station.

I'd be all for it if the park owners (or some other consortium) provided that link themselves as a commercially operated privately owned system.

[#Metro]

I do see a point. Of course PT should serve these areas, because it will attract patronage and legibility to the LRT service. No further rail stations should go on the Gold Coast line between existing stations, but this can be made up for by LRT stations.

If it makes sense to have a private operation, wouldn't that imply patronage so high to be profitable?
And if that section is profitable, why would you allow other operators or the theme parks to "cream-skim"?
That money would be better spent on cross subsiding the feeder bus services to the LRT IMHO.

The theme parks would be valuable and worthwhile stations for an LRT system and would dramatically increase the legibility of transport to these destinations.
It would allow the LRT vehicles to collect more passengers going to more destinations and thus increase vehicle utilisation on it.

[Jonno]

I believe this makes the point.

Article in Couiermail. http://www.couriermail.com.au/travel/news/holidays-jam-packed-with-traffic/story-e6freqwo-1225983213858?

AUSTRALIA'S summer holiday capital is choking on its own success.

With more than three million visitors pouring into the Gold Coast this summer, the city's roads are bursting at the seams as infrastructure struggles to cope with the huge volume of traffic crawling from one tourist attraction to the next.

The wet weather has compounded the problem as more traffic has jammed the roads on fewer fine days.

This has resulted in the roads leading to theme parks and shopping centres being transformed into rolling carparks.

While networks of bus lanes and a $949 million rapid transit system are in the pipeline in an effort to ease the traffic nightmares, some of the problems appear almost terminal.

The Gold Coast Highway, carved through the urban sprawl, has no room for expansion, while roads leading to Surfers Paradise and up to The Spit also have little scope for improvement.


Related Coverage
Cars submerged: Brisbane roads going under

RACQ spokesman Joe Fitzgerald said traffic snarls were part of life on the Gold Coast.

"It's one of the world's favourite tourism spots and unfortunately you are going to get congestion in the holidays, especially heading to the beach, to The Spit or the theme parks," he said.

Sea World arguably has the worst traffic issues, with cars and buses only able to access the theme park via one road which is notoriously busy on weekends and holidays.

On some days this week, Seaworld Drive traffic has moved at a snail's pace as cars banked up for several kilometres over the Sundale Bridge.

A Gold Coast City Council spokesman said there were no plans to upgrade Seaworld Drive in the short term and the area was not part of the first stage of the city's planned light rail network.

He said the big crowds meant motorists should aim to leave plenty of time when travelling to theme parks during the holidays – or catch public transport.

"The 2010-11 Christmas holidays have been particularly wet, with few clear days," he said.

"This has resulted in greater than normal traffic volumes to popular destinations as people try to take advantage of limited fine weather."

A Queensland Transport and Main Roads spokeswoman said the impact of wet weather was placing more pressure on road networks over the holidays.

She said the department would meet with theme park operators in the coming weeks to develop improved strategies for dealing with unexpected traffic volumes during peak holiday times.

However, Mr Fitzgerald said there was a bright side to the city's traffic woes.

"Yes, there are problems with traffic during the holidays because there are so many tourists on the roads, but it's probably a good problem to have when you consider the alternative," he said.

Of course the alternative is no tourists not effective local and long distance rail transport!!!  Got to love the RACQ no solution approach!

[WTN]

Spot on Jonno. There's no shortage of trips at busy times.

North of Helensvale, it's not just theme parks - there are suburban developments too, including one across the motorway from Dreamworld.

[colinw]

The planned Coomera town centre provides a logical destination, but for now I'd be contented to see the 2nd stage to Helensvale get off the drawing board.  Stage 1 covers the busiest section of the Gold Coast's current bus network, but is of limited usefulness for through journeys to/from Brisbane.

[colinw]

Opinion piece in the Gold Coast Bulletin: Council, make history

It is also worth reading the comments.

GREAT to finally see work has started on the Rapid Transit project even if appears to be just the closure of a few roads.

After overcoming some issues in Surfers Paradise, our push for more public transport is going to be delivered.

In May, the successful tenderer will be announced and we'll know how much the public-private partner will contribute.

Then the State Government  which has promised to remain committed to the project despite the huge damage bill brought on the floods  will chip in the rest.

That means in June, the Gold Coast should expect the Bligh Government to have penned a substantial line in its budget, detailing the funds it will contribute toward the project.

If the State Government remains true to its word  remember they are politicians  we will finally see some good take place.

However, there is a nagging issue weighing on the minds of the city's power brokers: Will the whole project be completed?

Will Stage One just be a 'big toy' connecting Surfers with Parklands another `theme park', shifting tourists from one end of the strip to the other?

Those against the Rapid Transit, time to move on.

At this point in time, with our economy slowly chugging along on four cylinders, we can't knock anyone for wanting to spend on the Gold Coast and create jobs, as well as enhance the city's livability.

But what we do need to see is the finished product.

...

[ozbob]

Light Rail Mail 5 April 2011 -->  here!

[SurfRail]

So, its May 2011 - where is the announcement of the winning construct/operate consortium?

[O_128]

So, its May 2011 - where is the announcement of the winning construct/operate consortium?

As with any date that the government announces you must add 6-12 months and an extra 50% in cost

[Stillwater]

   To be fair, there's a bit more of May to go.  In government speak, May usually morphs into 'mid-year', then 'by the end of 2011' and, if they are in real trouble, the deadline becomes 'financial year 2011-2012', so whether it's September or January, they are 'on target'.

So, May eh.  By the end of July would still be about 'May'.  The state will have to wait until the federal budget is brought down (mid-May) to see what they will get from the feds for general revenue, GST and the like.  So, a slight delay is understandable.

[Zoiks]

Trust me... the consortium has been chosen.

[ozbob]

Indeed it has ..

From the Gold Coast Bulletin click here!

GoldLinQ win Rapid Transit bid

GoldLinQ win Rapid Transit bid

Sue Lappeman   |  May 6th, 2011

CONSTRUCTION of the Gold Coast Rapid Transit system will begin in earnest later this year with the long-awaited appointment of a consortium to construct and operate the $1 billion service from the new University Hospital to Broadbeach.

Premier Anna Bligh will this morning announce GoldLinQ, which includes companies Keolis, Downer EDI, McConnell Dowell, Bombardier and Plenary, is the successful bidder for the first public passenger transport project to be delivered through a public-private partnership.

Ms Bligh said each of the companies in the consortium, chosen from a short list of three, had a proven track record of transport construction within Australia and overseas.