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Watching through the industry presentation now, and really the only justification Iâm seeing for the mode shift from Rail to BRT is âit can in the future go onto other parts of the road networkâ which frankly is ridiculous as the whole point of the original DSCL is to be a high speed, grade separated interurban rail link.
They also talk about giving Metro âright of wayâ through the redeveloped Mooloolah River Interchange, however admit that none of the complex designs or investigations developed in 2023 include the metro so to put it bluntly, they have no idea where, how or when itâll integrate into the existing interchange, or whether itâll even be grade separated as opposed to just operating on the new Kawana motorway with some kind of bus priority infrastructure. It does appear that they are going to build a busway including a busway station on the northern side of the MRI at Mountain Creek on the existing DSCL corridor which is good news in terms of keeping the corridor protected, however I still have concerns that it will set back the chances of rail running through there by decades, perhaps even permanently. They also donât seem to know much about what route itâll take into Maroochydore.
Itâs somewhat painful listening to the DSCL project director speaking first and outlining plenty of great info about rail tunnelling, stabling, interchange, etc and then subsequent speakers talking about the metro basically having no idea on what route itâll take, how itâll integrate with road and other PT projects, etc. My impression from the initial BRT announcement post election was that it is a not very well thought out, rushed job that has been slapped with a fancy name and marketed as an alternative to rail, and I have to admit this industry briefing hasnât done much to alleviate that concern.
I hope itâll work out well and we get more info soon but it will be very interesting to see what kind of project we have in 2032. There is a LOT of assumption when it comes to projected timeframes and project scope for the BRT section of the network, and the timeline has completion in Q4 2031. Basically any kind of delay in the next 6 years could very quickly lead to either a reduction in project scope or the project not being delivered on time. Itâs going to be a HUGE challenge.
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Thanks for the thoughts @Beerwatcher. Weâll be putting pressure on the Government to either justify why the âMetroâ is the best fit for the preserved corridor (which I personally donât believe that it is) or modify the plan to send it along the coastal strip or via the existing Kawana Motorway.
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Just imagine the curfuffle when a packed train full of people have to de-train and cram onto some bi-articulated buses to reach Maroochydore. âSeamlessâ⌠yeah right.
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Also Metrobusing the rest of the DSCL from Birtinya to MCY is still away from most of the population, thus bus priority lanes alongside the Nicklin Way and Brisbane Road (Mooloolaba) would be the better option as the âlast mileâ transport, as well as greater walk up patronage which would compliment the existing 600/602/etc on the same corridors.
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Thank YOU for posting this Rowan. I was looking for this presentation for a wihle after the event but couldnât find it anywhere, glad to see you were able to get your hands on it.
I may have misheard, but I believe one of the senior TMR staff confirmed that the Sunshine Coast Mass Transit Project (ya know, the one that was originally meant to be light rail, then got cancelled and changed to BRT, and now has completely stalled) will still go ahead and run along the coastal strip from Maroochydore to Caloundra to complement âThe Waveâ so essentially SCMTP and The Wave will run parallel to each other on the coastal and inland arterials, connecting at Maroochydore and presumably Birtinya interchanges. I strongly suspect the two BRT networks, while technically seperate, will have the same operator (TMR, Kinetic or a new organisation like G:Link) and share depots, end of trip charging infrastructure at Maroochydore, maybe even vehicles.
I fully support the use of BRT for the SCMTP, the light rail proposal would have been better but BRT will be much quicker to deploy and at low speeds isnât too different from traditional light rail, it could also utilise existing bus lanes along NIcklin Way until permanent infrastructure is in place. Where I donât support BRT is as an alternative to high speed, high capacity interurban rail.
I suspect the selling point for BRT to replace Stage 3 of DSCL (aside from it being a political thought bubble) is that thereâs some value in using it to support the rollout of the SCMTP by establishing the necessary infrastructure early, but at what cost? In the presentation they even talk about people travelling from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast to go surfing, or to the beach, etc. I couldnât think of anything worse than having to lug a surfboard or a trolley with multiple kids in tow and transfer between a train and a metro, wait for the next service, etc. Granted the Gold Coast does it well with the interchange at Helensvale, but if a mode change isnât necessary why make people do it?
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If it ainât rail, itâs tragic! 
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A few observations based off the video:
*Why are they marketing The Wave as four different projects? Are they calling the DSCL the âWaveâ too? Is the MRI also the âWaveâ? Wasnât âThe Waveâ just supposed to be the name of their broken promise not-rail-not-metro bus service.
*For scheduling donât stages usually come after each other when the proceeding stage is completed, not concurrent or running parallel? This is slightly misleading when its actually one stage, not two. No info about the MRI or the BRT delivery schedule. It would be nice to know what will be built first - the BRT, Caloundra, or the MRI?
*The MRI is an overdesigned monstrosity catering to the wrong modes. Why would this proposal not include the rail component in its design? Seems like they are building the MRI around roads and just tacking on the rail line at the ends. I donât see the rail component in their renderings or plans. âA provision for DSCLâ implies not considered in design or someone elseâs problem in the future. All that was needed was a rail overpass only. When did the DSCL become a CRT (car-rapid-transit) project?
*What is the total cost of DSCL Stage 1, DSCL Stage 2, The MRI, and the âBRTâ? No good preaching to industry without a cost in mind.
*The projected completion time of both stages is 2031, assuming no delays. That is cutting it close. Construction to start in mid-2026. Why not start in 2025 as TMR has has four years to design this. You donât need more time to incorporate broken promises. Release the Final Design report, and Business Case so you can start building.
*The Sunshine Coast Metro - Cringe name, this ainât the BCC you are allowed to call it a bus or BRT. I guess calling it âThe Waveâ is better. Whereâs the depot, how many buses, what are the route(s)? Most importantly will the buses have a separate corridor to operate in or are they going to mix with traffic like normal buses? Will the BRT station be the same as the rail stations?
In summary:
- Buses, rail, and cars are now considered part of âThe Waveâ.
- Sketchy and incomplete scheduling estimates.
- Road project dominates and sidelines what was originally a rail-only corridor.
- No final cost estimates on all four projects.
- No Business Cases or Design reports released.
- A late starting time to 2026, and a theoretical completion time of 2031.
- No details on the bus component.
Good write up, your last point was actually addressedâŚ.
The answer from TMR wasâŚ.. we donât know yet! They donât even have a detailed route plan , just that itâll run from Birtinya to Maroochydore and somehow integrate with the MRI (which didnât include any of the seperate public transport infrastructure in its actual design scope as you pointed out). They are seeminglyâŚ. figuring it out as they go? No info on depot, no info on buses or headway, they donât even have a supplier or a preferred design for vehicles yet.
The delivery of the rail part sounds like itâs been planned very thoroughly, as I would hope so considering thereâs been at least 2 business cases and a project team working on it for years, but they are playing catch up with the BRT segment already.
I also donât see any committed funding in the state budget, Stage 1 which is the heavy rail portion from Beerwah to Caloundra just shows as âplanned investmentâ with seemingly no money allocated to it next financial year.
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@Beerwatcher has summed it up pretty well. The BRT component is a complete political/ministerial brainfart, as a way of maintain their astronomically stupid political promise to build the entire line to Maroochydore by 2032
Some genius at the upper government levels has come up with this bus idea as a way of saying theyâre continuing to Maroochydore while cutting costs and construction time, as Iâm assuming theyâre thinking whatever BRT solution they come up with will be cheaper and quicker than rail.
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(Spoilers: it probably, definitely wonât.)
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They could go with magnetic guided trackless trams rather than the Hess model in Brisbane. It will be interesting in the end what they tend to choose.
What happened to BTQ being mode neutral and focusing on the outcomes rather than being stuck on a single mode for a transport solution. If they are going to use the Wave vehicles for the coastal mass transit solation as well than thatâs a good outcome.
Being mode neutral doesnât mean not calling out the use of an inferior or unsuitable mode.
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Why is it inferior in this case? They would have done potential passenger studies and modelling as well as consulted with Council.
The only thing that I donât like about it is that they donât mention a bikeway running adjacent to the proposed busway. The train line was meant accommodate this for improved active transport connections. Another thing is that they will unlikely allow bikes on the metro buses, where on trains it is allowed.
They only mention improved active travel paths in and around stations which is a poor outcome for active travel.
It is the same reason why replacing GCLR4 with BRT is utterly stupid - instead of having the higher capacity mode run to its ultimate terminus, we are cutting it short and forcing train loads of passengers to change to a different mode that will struggle to handle the amounts of people it is expected to move.
This is not going to be trackless trams or anything fancy like that, itâs going to be the same LighTrams used for Brisbane Metro or something broadly equivalent. Thinking anything different is wishful thinking.
The only positive of The Wave proposal is that it plans to get heavy rail further before 2032 than what Labor was proposing. But if the BRT portion is done in a way that prevents further heavy rail extension to the airport, it will be disasterous.
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They could never construct it in time which was the whole reason of doing this. Have they said that the train line will never be done up to Maroochydore in the future?
They havenât said that the line will be extended. The Labor Government were very clear that the line would not stop at Caloundra, and would continue further north post 2032. The LNP have not given any such commitment, and if their plan involves using the preserved rail corridor to build a busway, that will basically kill any extension of the railway for another 50 years or so (however long it takes for growing congestion to necessitate ripping up the busway for a rail extension).
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Speculation: How could we estimate how long the wait might be?
Currently both the Gold Coast and Springfield rail lines are planned to be extended. There is no BRT service coming off the end of either rail line. Their extensions have been delayed just like any other rail project has been in QLD.
The lack of BRT does not seem to have accelerated the completion of either the Gold Coast or Springfield rail lines. And the Gold Coast is much larger in population and much more built out than the Sunshine Coast is.
Letâs consider when the terminal stations on each line were opened:
Varsity Lakes on the GC Line opened in 2009, 16 years ago.
Springfield on the Springfield line opened in 2013, 12 years ago.
These above timelines imply that the wait period the Queensland Government is contemplating for the DSCRL project to Maroochydore is >15-20 years.
Given the above history with the Gold Coast and Springfield lines, it is reasonable to expect complete rail extension to Maroochydore to take many decades.
This is not suggesting a delay to rail extension is good or bad, it is simply setting out the most probable outcome of what will happen.
With a potential 20 year wait, it does seem to explain why a BRT on the corridor is planned. Thoughts?
Then why delay starting the DSCL to 2026 when the designs have been finalised? Doesnât connecting people to the Sunshine Coast by rail before 2032 supposed to be a super high-priority project that it was lying about outdoing red team on the project is the actual cause of the delay.
What will be DSCL team need to do for another year that has already been done already in four years?
I can add piss-poor active and cycling connections to the list.
It will most likely kill blue teams re-election chances and embarrass the country as petty political interference and utter incompetence over building a new rail line is exposed.
Panicking over the 2032 Olympics timeline and an unnatural desire to do shit on the cheap would allow such a bad option to be even be considered. Over four years was spent designing the DSCL for rail. Why is it the now the wrong mode or option compared to BRT, or even light rail from Beerwah?
Another reason that the may have realised that they cannot complete the DSCL to even Caloundra by 2032, and would want to extend a âBRTâ to Caloundra as âcoverâ.
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