As said before: I genuinely don’t understand why we, as a state, have to be discussing this in the first place.
In any other state the answer would be so painfully obvious and simple. Why, with all of my heart, are we having to fight for something that was already decided long ago?
Christ.
The lack of a BRT/busway is not going to result in the acceleration of a rail line extension where the political will is not there, but the presence of a BTR/busway being built on the preserved rail corridor is very likely to delay a heavy rail extension beyond what could have been expected without it.
The existence of Brisbane’s Busways are very much the reason why Brisbane hasn’t reinstalled a light rail line, or why our rubber tyred metro proposal was watered down to become a electric, bi articulated BRT instead. Politically, it is much easier to just overload existing busway infrastructure, than go to the expense and disruption of demolishing it to build a more adequate mode like light rail or heavy rail line.
If we end up with GCLR4 replaced with a busway or The Wave BRT using the rail corridor, I’m willing to bet that we likely won’t see rail to Cooly or SC Airport within our lifetime as a direct result of it.
Generally speaking we are lucky to get BRT from Birtinya. Looking at all those other lines that haven’t been touched for ages including Sunny Coast duplication to Nambour, stopping short of Redcliffe, stopping short of Ripley, stopping short of Gatton/Toowoomba, stopping short of OOL. Plus the NWTC
Metro has raised a valid point.
I’m genuinely ready to throw punches (in a metaphorical sense, obvs) because this whole thing is absolutely shambolic, and a reflection of the lack of ambition that keeps Queensland from being truly amazing.
It’s 2025 and SEQ behaves like we are still doing the whole World Expo thing in 1988.
And it’s not just this but also the lack of frequent bus services, the possible murder of GCLR4, the bungled rollout of the new translink app, etc, etc, etc.
Just… Why.
Let’s conduct an informal poll on it.
The second question should be rephrased. Build BRT to MCY to complement SCMT, while allowing for rail to be built to Maroochydore in the future.
Explain how it could be done to allow for rail to be built in the future? By ripping it up?
I also struggle to see both occuring before 2032.
The second option should be support for what is currently planned as outlined in the industry briefing, which does not include any mention of conversion to heavy rail in the future
But they haven’t said it’s not going to be built in the future.
Updated the poll to clarify the second option as such. Users who have already voted will have to revote
They haven’t said it will
They haven’t said it won’t be ripped up and turned into a canal for speedboats either
I am all for BBQ boats
I don’t disagree, however it demonstrates a sad lack of any political willpower in QLD more than anything else. Successive governments on both sides of politics at all levels of government have become accustomed to kicking the can down the road, and projects that do go ahead (like GCLR, The Wave, Brisbane Metro) all seem to get watered down at some point. That might be fine in the short term, but in the long term will arguably start posing serious issues as the population grows.
The Springfield and Redcliffe Peninsula lines as well as the busway rollout in Brisbane had their delays and issues but at least demonstrate that big PT projects can be delivered, Cross River Rail had a shaky start but is on the right track (ha!) too.
We shouldn’t be lucky to get BRT, it should be the bare minimum. 3% of passenger journeys on the Sunshine Coast are made on PT because the current network is so bad, continued underinvestment shouldn’t be tolerated. The DSCL (or the wave) and the seperate mass transit BRT project should already be delivered by now.
I was optimistic to an extent with this new government, however seeing no committed funding yesterday for The Wave or GCLR4 scares me a little bit because time is running out. Watching the industry briefing and seeing they essentially have done zero planning for the Birtinya to Maroochydore BRT section despite the Olympics getting closer and closer scares me even more.
Queensland Government Project Conception, Re-Conception, and Delivery
Historically, when the Queensland Government delivers a major project, it generally follows a non-linear path. A project may be renamed or cancelled, sometimes more than once. The benefits or features included may be changed and/or reduced. One or two reviews might occur. The delivery horizon might be extended or become undefined.
Cross River Rail (three incarnations) and the Olympic Stadium (three different locations - Woolloongabba, QSAC, Victoria Park) are examples of this. For this reason, a 20 year wait on rail extension to Maroochydore is a real possibility. It is not a certainty though, which complicates the picture.
In contrast, the Western Australian Government seems to have a different approach. In 2007, they doubled the size of the Perth rail network with their NewMetroRail Project (Perth-Mandurah, about 70 km). The entire project was built end-to-end, and delivered a high quality rail service at low cost.
Heavy Rail is the right mode
It is important to acknowledge that we all agree (myself included) that Heavy Rail is ultimately the best mode for this corridor. IIRC at least two studies have confirmed the mode choice. And in an ideal case, Heavy Rail would extend all the way to Maroochydore; no further discussion required.
We are only having this discussion about BRT stop-gap measures now because the (blue team) election promise to deliver Heavy Rail to Maroochydore as a single stage has been broken. To be fair, the prior administration (red team) also wanted staged delivery (but with no BRT connecting at the Birtinya terminus).
“The Queensland government has broken a key election promise by scrapping the final stage of the Sunshine Coast direct rail line.”
…
“But after the project was scrutinised as part of a 100-day Olympics infrastructure review the premier revealed on Tuesday the heavy rail line would stop at Birtinya, about 13 kilometres short of Maroochydore.”Queensland government breaks election promise of rail line to Maroochydore, ABC News (26/03/2025)
Hopefully this provides some context into what the situation is and why the BRT option is being discussed. It isn’t because it’s the right mode.
Despite BRT servicing the last segment, the best way forward with this is to make sure that we advocate that the busway built is rail ready for easy conversion in the future.
We shouldn’t be saying that BRT is sh*t and mocking the Government’s efforts, but we can build on what they have proposed.
I think the best way forward is to push for the SCMTP corridor to be used as the interim solution instead since it has long-term viability. It’ll be a valuable corridor even after the Heavy Rail extension is complete.
I agree with this, if you’re going to build new infrastructure and force an interchange you may as well build it for good. Significantly better use of funds that building something you’re going to have to rip up later
Agreed, if the Qld Government is going to push with the Metro-Busway from Birtinya to Maroochydore, use the SCMTP corridor as that has the greater walk up patronage and is closer to trip generators such as Kawana Shoppingworld, Mooloolaba, Alex Heads, etc, and existing routes such as 600, 602, 607, etc can also actually use it.
Whereas the rail alignment from Birtinya to Maroochydore Centre and MCY largely passes through lower populated areas/very little trip generators apart from the Mountain Creek School & TAFE district. A busway passing through the middle of nowhere will be costly in the long run despite being “cheaper to build”
If the reason for progressing BRT instead of heavy rail extension is driven by cost and construction time, then this is an impossible proposition.
To have an ‘easy conversion’ for rail then some of the following would need to be built to heavy rail standards: softer horizontal curves, shallower vertical grades, increased bridge capacities, larger tunnel/bridge clearance envelopes, wider corridor width, longer station lengths and increased platform heights, to name a few.
So in order to have an ‘easy conversion’ means all of the upfront $$$ and all of the increased construction complexities, but with none of the benefits of rail.