I’m unsure of how important the Gold Coast to Brisbane Airport connection is to be honest. Gold Coast has its own airport which will continue to grow significantly in the coming decades. The majority of major overseas/domestic destinations will likely be covered by Gold Coast soon enough. We should focus on pushing for the Gold Coast Airport rail extension to happen IMO.
There are also many other destinations in the world where the rail line to the major airport doesn’t service a tourist destination, and they seem to be doing fine.
What I’m trying to say is, I don’t think we should force the Airport back into CRR unless it is actually the most strategic option for the long term usability and effectiveness of the network.
I feel the OOL rail extension is more likely than a complete rebuild of the EJ-Toombul corridor.
After all, there is a preserved corridor all the way to OOL, while the flat junction to BNE is surrounded by housing. Don’t know if Ross Park provides enough space for a flying junction as well.
It’s clear that it won’t happen before the Olympics due to constraints in the construction industry. Despite what the Government says, it’s still up in the air whether the line to Birtyna can be constructed in time!
The advocacy from us in this regard needs to be focused on the next steps after the Olympics. The Gold Coast line extension is definitely on that list. We just need to work out the best way to go about that advocacy. That will require some discussions in the Management Committee and Working Committee, as well as taking input from forum users. Rest assured it is on the agenda.
It depends on if Airtrain would want to rebuild an entire segment of the viaduct to simply reserve more space for the flying junction.
Or alternatively, the Airport line could be duplicated by building another viaduct alongside the existing one. This would probably reduced the headache of trying to timetable the Airport line to 15min all-day frequency on a long single-track while also accounting for the 5-7.5min frequent Shorncliffe/Northgate trains.
In the paradigm I’m outlining (riffing on Lott’s plan) NWTC would be a local-only line routed via Wilston.
You only save 2.5 minutes running express Bowen Hills to Alderley without more tracks and you can get to Northgate in the same amount of time.
If you can quad track the corridor between Northgate and Petrie while also adding some third track from there to Caboolture you could easily justify a NWTC with more stations as a “local” connector using the spare capacity of Sector 3.
I’ve always had the notion that Redcliffe isn’t really a good match for CRR. Keep the service pattern simple: Beenleigh with Caboolture, Gold Coast with Sunshine Coast (and BNE).
Redcliffe can stay as the all stopper with the suburbans or deviated from Strathpine to NWTC.
Unfortunately, they do. Why there needs to be a cross-block road in a pedestrian oriented space still does my head in. Service access (all that is needed) could surely be off Leopard St.
It will also be used to provide servicing access for the Brisbane Arena (originally for the residential buildings planned for the site) - servicing access wouldn’t be allowed directly off Vulture or Main Streets.
Leopard Street does provide access, via this through-block access road (which actually pre-dates the rail station). Only a small part of Leopard Street is at an appropriate height to access the site, and the arena development site does not directly front Leopard Street, there is a big railway station in the way. The only reasonable way to provide appropriate service to that site is via a road through the larger site.
Looks extremely accessible to me from Leopard St. There is zero reason to take the road through to Ipswich Street unless you think all spaces in a city should have car access before pedestrian safety.
Yes, that provides great access for the new cross block roadway that is being built to service the developments located at the Main Street end of the block..
