Yeah they were different proposals but they do serve different purposes too. Think U-Bahn vs S-Bahn.
UQ should be quarantined from any future PT development given their track record and idiotic decisions. The āregional roleā they play makes them an obstacle preventing direct PT access to to the western suburbs from the eastern & southern suburbs. Being an obstructionist on something petty as buses is counter to being an education institution.
There are existing rail stations at Toowong and Boggo Rd which are at opposite ends of UQ, which have frequent bus connections. The question is why would you need a direct underground rail line when UQ has heaps of existing connections.
Just remove a couple of road lanes on the M3 so you have room to drop a dedicated heavy rail corridor through the highway. Perth have mastered building and expanding their rail network on parts of their freeways. No better way to promote PT mode uptake using freeway corridors.
Letās not get into the realm of NIMBYs at this moment. Iām sure that the students and staff of UQ weāll definitely wish for better public transport access than a small bus station and a BUZ route that gets stuck in traffic.
Also Iām just not a huge fan of highway median rail corridors. Iām just being subjective when saying that.
UQ lack of public transport through-routes shoujd indeed be the subject of targeted Social Media campaign like the BUG groups do
I just donāt think it would make sense to basically replace the busway with a whole new railway line, the busway isnāt anywhere near capacity and for anything between Buranda to Eight mile plains the density to justify a railway just isnāt there and having a freeway as large as the m3 cutting through the middle of the urban area would mean that a lot of land around just wouldnāt be very desirable or suitable for the high density developments that would justify that.
Yeah we shouldnāt replace the busway with the rail. Rather the rail line becomes a high capacity express overlay serving only major centres. Beenleigh, Loganholme, Mt Gravatt, CBD.
If a new Perth-style railway line was built on the M3 Pacific Motorway, would it make sense for it to continue along the M2 Gateway Motorway and join the Beenleigh line at Kuraby? With LGCFR being constructed, I feel like the additional pair of track for express GC trains will merge off the Beenleigh line.
Furthermore, with the Perth-style corridor on the M2 and M3, would the portal be located at a different location at Yeerongpilly? I feel like Mt Gravatt would be a more appropriate portal for the tunnel; the M3 would be a bit steep at Mt Gravatt, and the railway can enter the tunnel portal, and the tunnel can go under Tarragindi.
Edit: After the GC trains have been diverted onto M3 from the Beenleigh line, the Middle track could be used by peak-hour, peak-direction Beenleigh trains that run express from Boggo Road to Kuraby, stopping only at Yeerongpilly, Salisbury, and Altandi.