I’m thinking more long term here but here is a concept for an Automated Railway. It combines the long Planned Brisbane Subway with planned rail to Flagstone. I don’t think Beaudesert warrants the demand for it though.
Long term, an extension will send this line to the Airport and another line will be built connecting Capalaba to the City. In addition a third circular line connecting Darra, Inala, Altandi, Mt Gravatt, Carindale, Cannon Hill, Hamilton, Eagle Junction, Chermside, Aspley and Albany Creek/Eatons hill would also get built but this is long term so in dream territory.
The problem I have with this is, like Sydney Metro, it’s trying to be both inner-city rapid transit and a suburban commuter line, two things that sometimes work at cross purposes.
While it’s not impossible to square that circle, it’d take decades worth of TODs that may never come to fruition. After all, this isn’t Japan or Europe where people are happy to live relatively densely even in outer suburbs. In our culture, if people are moving to places like Flagstone, it’s because they want the Australian Dream of a freestanding family home with a big backyard and a Hills Hoist (but have been priced out of getting it any closer to the CBD or the coast). And that sort of low density development just isn’t going to provide the passenger numbers to sustain a service like what you envision.
It’s much simpler, and probably cheaper, to just have different modes for different purposes: rapid transit where the density can sustain it, and commuter rail for the outer suburbs.
Well no one can afford the Australian dream of owning a home so many will have to accept living in Apartments. Another issue with TOD is zoning doesn’t allow for 3 or more bed apartments. It only allows for 1 bedders mostly and occasionally 2 bedders. Hence why many think you can’t raise families in them. But in other countries including New York, London, Singapore and other European and Asian cities, three or more bed apartments are the norm. And they are great for raising families. As for the whole backyard argument, well all the new developments, the backyards are too small for kids to run around in and considering lot of new homes are so stupidly close to each other, you might as well just live in an apartment and then have a large communal green space within walking distance. There’s a reason we build parks, sports fields and playgrounds. It’s for the kids!. I’m afraid as much as we all want to own our own single family home, that option has passed and now we only have one of three options: either move regional where you may have enough for your own house, or save aggressively and buy an apartment here. The only alternative is to trade in stability and rent for life if you want to live in a single family house here. It sucks, it really does but unfortunately it’s the new reality, not just here but everywhere.
This is my honest message to those who want single family homes in today’s world.
Edit: Back to Flagstone Argument though, it would be good for outer areas to also have more apartments and offices because we can create a network of Suburban Business Districts which can allow for decentralisation through polycentric communities.
Look I agree with you, people should consider moving to the regions if they want the freestanding house with the big backyard. But it’ll take at least a generation, if not longer, for that thinking to permeate. Most people in Australia intending to have children don’t plan to raise them in apartments. One day they might, but cultural change usually takes time.
Even if people did envision raising children in an apartment, they certainly don’t plan to raise them in apartments on the very edge of the urban area. That mentality also takes time to change.
Speaking as an apartment dweller myself, I wouldn’t have bothered with an apartment more than about 12km away from Brisbane CBD. If I had to move to a less convenient location than that, in return I would have wanted an increase in the space available. That’s the trade-off I would be willing to make, space vs convenience. For a place 50km out like Flagstone, an apartment simply doesn’t provide the amount of space that would make up for the inconvenience.
Your idea is fine in theory but the suburban business districts have to be picked carefully and allow easy access to services and other business districts. Melbourne is building the Suburban Rail Loop, and they have taken a lot of care in picking their hubs, putting them in middle ring rather than outer suburbs, and leveraging existing infrastructure like the airport, universities, hospitals and interchange stations.
Flagstone doesn’t fit any of these criteria. It’s been built around cars, has no high street with easy access to services, is a long way from any other business district, has no airport, university or hospital and doesn’t interchange with any other major public transport. It’s a 50 year project to try and turn it into the sort of place that reasonably sustains apartments and a suburban business district. And that’s fine, but there are a lot of other things that need to be built in those 50 years that I’d give greater priority to.
