Ah, I think they are actually townhouses which are not detached dwellings as they share walls. That is a somewhat different thing and is actually a very old style of housing in Australia, as you could really see this:
Incidentally, it makes me almost want to cry to see that new suburb 40km from the city with a train station with every fifteen minutes service and five bus routes serving it.
These are reasonable concerns. To compensate, I think things like stamp duty and rates should be significantly lower for apartments. I believe stamp duty concessions are available for new build apartments, but they should apply to all apartments due to how much more resource-efficient dense living is. I think BCC charges lower rates for apartments but they hiked them for new purchases in the inner city this past year, which seems counterproductive.
Proposal, between now and [say] 2050 “sink/cover” all train lines, within say 5km of the city, by selling off all [viable] overhead air-space for development!
Ferny Grove just looks like an absolute joke of a TOD. Does the state government really think that one high-rise and a massive car-park unit is enough to justify calling it a TOD? Ferny Grove is also such an awful place for high-density development as well, being eerily close to protected nature reserve? The only places that I see justified for TOD on the Ferny Grove line are Alderly and Mitchelton.
The toombul site will be developed at some stage, hopefully combined with expansions at skygate for big box retail (IE 24hr Kmart). A decent mid size shopping centre with medium to high density flood proofed housing would be fantastic for the area and help take the pressure off Chermside, especially for all those new residents coming to Banyo
It will need some updates, and I stand by my earlier suggestion to move eagle junctions connectivity to a new super station at Toombul, with the addition of an extra station at Skygate.
Simplifying and downgrading EJ to just a regular station and having Toombul be the major connector will go a long way to unlocking TOD benefits where it can be built. EJ is just not up to par for a key connecting station. Keep in mind that this suggestion does not duplicate toombul bus station, it relocates it closer to the rail line where you can have much better connections. Green space taken by the extra platforms on the airport line can be out back on the toombul site.
I agree with most of your post, but I actually see this part as a good thing, because having protected reserves nearby puts a hard limit on suburban sprawl, which forces further development upwards rather than outwards. Geographic barriers are sometimes the best thing for promoting denser development. In my opinion, the bigger factor in whether a place is good for TOD or not is the slope of the land, because it’s much harder for people with mobility issues to get places if they’re up a steep slope.
Eagle Junction is the express stop for the Doomden line that’s why the airport line splits there. the EJ configuration merges the Doomben and and Airportline connection.
Northgate is an inaccessible nothing station (compared to say the bus interchange and development at Carseldine) but it gets express stops because of the Shorncliffe line.
All of the express stations and timetabling are designed for rail integration with no regard for bus connectivity. but then again these railway lines have been around since before the invention of buses.
If we’re targeting bus interconnectivity then Toombul should be the express stop for the inner NE area.
There are a million reasons for a station to be or not to be (an express stop).
I would argue that the outdated reason of (Northgate example) being able to hop off a Caboolture Line train and swap to a Shorncliffe Line train, is far less important than having connections available to different transport modes.
I would like to see the missing link, a connection from the north to the Airport line built, and Toombul to become the transfer station for North Coast, Shorncliffe, and Airport lines. It needs a lot of love though. It’s not fit for its current purpose let alone that. Interesting proposal from someone else on here recently for a beefed up station at Toombul.
The other issue is that “Toombul” doesn’t refer to a current place. The station is within the suburb of Nundah. The word is thought to be associated with the Aboriginal word for place of hoop pines.
Lol @ Doomden line. Given the chat about it’s possible BRT conversion, seems relevant.
That line is a tricky one, it doesn’t attract patronage because it is slow and infrequent. Now I hate shutting down active infrastructure, but I do think the time has come for that section to be converted to BRT and you can use Toombul as the interchange.
Think gold glider, but through Hamilton it heads north to ascot and clayfield on the corridor.
You can still send a metro through airport link and onto DFO for connections.
Frees up QR rolling stock and space on the northern tracks.
At least in the outbound direction during PM peak, the GC train usually just catches up to the Beenleigh train at Altandi, enabling cross-platform transfers. From my previous experience (on the 5:xx pm services from Central), this hidden feature appears to be well used by (rail) passengers.
As much as it was sold as an improvement to align with buses, they only moved to Altandi (from Coopers Plains) to free up space for the Coopers Plains terminators when the all day 15 minute services were introduced.