The results of the Courier Mail Reader Poll this eve.
The only new thing I see is the bus bays at the Ekka grounds, which may not be permanent. Regardless, the legacy doesnāt necessarily have to be in Brisbane itself. After all Brisbane has a lot compared to the Sunshine Coast, which is finally getting both a railway line to the populated areas, and a local mass transit system. Thatās a good legacy. And I imagine getting a railway line to Birtinya and the next stage of GCRL by 2032 will suck up so many resources, that trying to implement another major project in Brisbane simultaneously will call the timelines into question.
I think a good smaller legacy for Brisbane would be the introduction of bus lanes on Ann and Wickham Streets. These could initially provide extra services between the city and the Olympics precinct, and later be useful for the blue glider and the future one to Hamilton. Perhaps it would even be useful in the long term to keep a bus lane on Brunswick/Bowen Bridge Rd up to RBWH station, to provide an alternative route to the city in peak hours, preventing busway bunching.
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It looks like you could probably get the Ekka station within about an 800m walk if you expanded some of the paths and used Gilchrist Avenue. It is a bit marginal but might work. Iāve read or heard somewhere that modern crowd management theory tries to have distances like this to spread crowds out, so maybe that is part of the thinking.
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Iāve changed my mind actually, I though the Wave would take the Sunshine Coast Mass Transit alignment through regular roads, but itās going to use the railway corridor. This is a bad idea because it will prevent future rail extension. I think BTQ should be openly lobbying for a changed alignment so that the rail can be extended to Maroochydore after 2032.
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The alignment needs to be easily conversible to Heavy rail between biritanya and Suncoast Airport post 2032
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They are still going to have to do something for bus priority anyway, along Nicklin Way and the entire bit from Mooloolaba to Maroochydore. That is probably still going to attract more passengers given where and what it is than any sort of BRT running up the back along the motorway - just they will mostly be local trips rather than connecting to the railway.
There will be paths on either side of the railway track leading to Vic park, as well as to the new National Aquatic Centre.
Not necessarily. If it follows the route then build the foundation so it could run rail but runs buses instead and can be converted to rail. The testing and safety certification for rail is the time extender for rail so build the foundation for rail, run a busway on it for now and then covert after Olympics. Do the same for Varsity to Gold Coast Airport.
Hearing a few murmurings that Exhibition station is not set up for mass movement events of the magnitude that a new stadium would bring and there might be a dedicated station needing to be built that would service the stadium and aquatic centre, similar to how Sydney did it. Either that or upgrading Exhibition station further.
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I personally think a purpose built station where the current train wash is at Normanby would be preferable. I agree that you need a walk between the stadium and station to thin the crowd, but this can be achieved through the urban design of the pathways between the stadium and station and also through the design of the stadium itself (i.e. put the entrances on the side facing away from the station as an example).
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I think the train wash might need to find a new home. It doesnāt have to be where it is, and the railway is not going to get any closer to the stadium. A station in the right spot there would:
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Be substantially closer than the other railway stations, and be a lot more in keeping with the distances you see at the MCG, Sydney Olympic Park, Perth etc.
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If positioned correctly (hopefully) should not prejudice any possible link northwest in the direction of Alderley / Trouts Rd.
Might be a challenge of course - the general layout is extracted below. This layout will not work for a station (especially side platforms) and would need to be played around with, but it might still be doable.
This all depends on where you put the stadium. If itās over on the eastern side of the park near Gilchrist Avenue then itās a manageable walk to the Ekka station, in which case some money upgrading the pedestrian movements there would be money better spent.
Presumably the intention with the upgrade to the Ekka stadium along with cross river rail is to have more events there year round so making the station able to cope with large crowds would seem necessary.
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Echoing a few posters on SkyScraperCity, I think weād actually be better served with a non CRR station at the train wash.
Shuttle into platform 8/9 at Roma St.
Either with a fractional amount of track work to swap 6/7 and 4/5 into bi-di platforms.
Or go through the city on the mains and just run the rest of the network off the subs. Not like thereās a normal timetable that fortnight anyway.
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Plus we got the overpass already that need minor adjustment for lifts & stairs
So yeah not sure if aea needs realignment on one of the tracks to fit in platforms.
Thereās a lot of ātalkā that the stadium will be to the east closer to Bowen Bridge Rd. Not over the road way but near the Herston Busway Stop
If itās at the northern tip or western side, my gut feel was a new high volume station near the site of the train wash facility might be appropriate; co-location to the swimming venue is also an advantage.
If itās at the eastern end, I would have thought a significant redesign of Ekka Station would be on the cards to facilitate high passenger volumes. The two busway stations might also need a re-design for higher passenger volumes too. As a former QUT KG student during my postgrad (this was a few years ago now), I can attest firsthand that I donāt think that KG busway station in its current layout is suitable to feed a 60,000+ seat stadium and possibly the university at the same time.
How you want to break up the way people arrive and depart from the stadium across 3 (potentially 4) public transport points of access seems like a really important question, too. Itās a bit of a unique opportunity in that you could channel (for example) your Chermside/northern suburbs passengers through Herston, your Shorncliffe/Moreton Bay/Sunshine Coast passengers through the Ekka station, your south-east and eastern busway passengers through Kelvin Grove, and your western suburbs/Beenleigh/Gold Coast passengers through a shuttle from Roma Street through a new station around the Normanby train wash shed, and careful design could effectively distribute crowds. Please forgive my lack of use of the term āBrisbane Metroā; old habits about what the infrastructure is/was called dies hard in us oldies 
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They are upgrading Exhibition station now to accommodate for 9 car sets come 2032.
If the stadium is going to be closer to the RBWH then Ekka would be the solution, absolutely. As it stands the linkages between Ekka and anything west of Bowen Bridge Road already wonāt be great, so a lot needs to be done to make that work for a stadium.
āThe stadium is intended to be positioned in one of the natural ābowlsā on the site to minimise earthworkā ā [from GIICA 100-day Review 25/3/2025].
What the QLD Government are saying the next day ā ābUt We DoNāt KnOw WhErE tO pUt ThE sTaDiUm?ā
From the Arcadis 'Victoria Park Strategic Business Case Discussion Paper, it is rendered to be rimming the ICB next to the Barrambin Spring Hill Green Bridge. As far away from the RBWH, but closest to the bridge, and closest to the QUT KG busway station, without affecting the driving range.
