u/Gazza_s_89

Yes I know it's AI slop, but it gets the point across right?

TLDR: We need more infrastructure, but making the service attractive, sexy, easy to understand, fast, frequent an reliable is an overlooked step in Brisbane at this point.
The most cost effective way to do this is to combine 3 or 4 projects so you can solve each others problems in one hit.

So folks current state of play.

1-Busway got maxxed out with the upgrade to giant E-buses. Long term they will gradually switch more and more routes to use them to add capacity, but long term it will struggle.

2-We have four tracks from the south through the CBD bottleneck (2 in the Cross River Rail tunnels, 2 on the Merivale Bridge) which will is do Brisbane well.

3-Freight still has to go through.

4-The "Logan and Gold Coast Faster Rail" project will match the 4 CBD tracks with the 4 tracks on this project, finally giving Gold Coast trains a set of "overtaking lanes"

5-The bit through Sunnybank is still 3 tracks, and trains are slooooow because it was built in the 1920s or something and has never been bypassed.

So how do we fix all this.

1-Do more to provide connections between the busway and the rail system to make it easier to use and reduce demand on bus travel to the CBD.

2-Market the shit out of CRR, Call the trains from GC to SC "Coast2Coast" or "Coastlink", not some bullshit LNP monarchist tribute name as proposed. Give the thing a chance.

3-Find a way to take pressure off the "3rd Track" on the Beenleigh line so more freight can go on it.
Do this by diverting GC lanes onto a "Fast Bypass" that follows the Gateway and Pacific Motorways overground as far as possible with a short tunnel to feed them back into the rail system at CRR Boggo Rd.

( My raving woke lefty pinko idea is that you could do it dirt cheap by making the M3 narrower lanes, at 80km/h and put the train in the median of the motorway. If it avoids an unaffordable tunnel......You could also look at putting it parallel to the motorway, like the busway, but on the opposite side,

4-Market the shit out of the time savings of the bypass track, under something like "Coast2Coast+" or "Coastlink Rapid" and get cars off the M1.

It's like, people know it sucks but wont spend money in the right areas to fix it. They can only talk about 50c fares as if its the be all and end all.

5-The old line through sunnybank just becomes an all stops "metro" style train service, so don't need any real upgrades other than removing level crossings and building a cheapo short branch to Acacia Ridge and Algester parallel to the freight lines.

$12b would enough to do the lot, making it cheaper than Campbell Newmans TransApex plan.

Expanding urban rail networks requires deep infrastructure, but high station delivery costs remain a primary industry challenge (especially with some of the deep cavern builds we've seen across the Metro network recently).

I put together a conceptual design exploring how established Australian mining and heavy civil techniques could be adapted to streamline deep station delivery.

The main access shaft employs precast segmental rings installed via sinking caisson or underpinned methods. The hollow precast units integrate three continuous, gently sloped spiral egress staircases and pre-formed mounting lugs for elevator guide rails. The gradual descent also offers an accessible alternative for commuters opting for a light walk downhill.

The main platform cavern relies on standard rock-bolting and shotcrete lining techniques. Finished in a rich "outback cave ochre," the raw geometry remains exposed. Projection-mapped Indigenous art brings high cultural and place-making value to the space, reducing the need for secondary architectural finishes.

The interior rail corridors and stacked platforms are formed using heavy precast T-sections, fitted with overhead lugs for direct mounting of rigid traction power conductor bars.

In place of full-height glass platform screen doors (PSDs), the structural precast T-sections feature cast openings fitted with mass-produced, heavy-duty, fire/gas-proof sliding doors. These can be inspected and maintained via maintenance trains during overnight work windows.

You could have fire rated windows if people still want to see out the windows when at stations, but i think it would be cheaper to just keep everything solid and focus on wifi access to keep people occupied.

For emergency scenarios, the outer spiral stair shafts function as positive-pressure fresh air supply routes, supported by an overhead gravity water tank to supply fire suppression systems with reduced reliance on active pumping equipment.

Public areas feature hard-wearing polished concrete floors, raw earth walls, and stainless steel fixtures designed for high durability and minimal long-term maintenance.

Curious to hear what actual experts think. How do you reckon something like this would stack up against standard subterranean station boxes in Sydney sandstone?

I am a visitor from Germany and wanted to politely note that your main station is very dirty and dated.

Only 2 dining options were available in the transfer hall facility.

In the end we ordered the fish.

For starters, set aside whether we should be having the Olympics in the first place. I think it's too far gone now and I'm not going to debate that in this thread.

So I keep reading in the media how Ekka station may not be able to be used during the Olympics to security concerns around the athlete's Village at the Ekka grounds.

personally, I think Ekka station should never have been in the discussion in the first place because it's too far away from the stadium.

EDIT: the most upvoted comment is a false claim "Suncorp is a similar distance away"....Actually Suncorp is 500m from Milton, Vic Park over 1km from Ekka. (Hopefully they go back and delete their comment)

This is a clear demonstrated example where Queensland goes back and forth with half solutions when the answer has already been done interstate.

-Optus stadium in Perth got a new rail station built next to the station.

-There's a dedicated train station at Olympic Park in Sydney.

-Adelaide Oval is next door to Adelaide station.

Yet here in Brisbane, We literally have the brand new cross river rail line running DIRECTLY BETWEEN the new stadium and the new aquatic Centre. yet nobody in government is talking about the most obvious idea putting an extra station there, so it's very likely Brisbane will ignore that and...

-They will make you pack onto buses

-They will make you walk uphill from Ekka

If they're spending billions of dollars on these new facilities, you can't tell me of a straight face. they can't afford a bit out of the transport budget for a station?

Why do Queenslanders put up with such shit decision making?

So I think in recent years the Gold Coast theme parks have done some decently bold stuff and some of the rides are quite huge. I think though there is some stuff from overseas that would do well if were brought here.

If I could have anything, I think a wing rider coaster would be my top pick for a thrill ride.

For the water parks, I want to see a big double wave or saucer slide. They keep building body slides but the big 5 person slides go harder IMO.

I'd love a Tilt Track coaster with a seesaw but you just know the first time it ever had a breakdown the media would have a field day.

Any suggestions?

Very controversial take here I know guys.

So the Coomera Connector next stage to Pimpama just got approved, and eventually it will provide a bypass of the M1 by hooking into the Logan Motorway at Eagleby.

The fucked part of this is that they have to run a road over/through the Eagleby Wetlands to do that, and yeah they're gonna say that its gonna have no impact and the birds will be fine, or they'll downgrade the status of the wetlands to make the paperwork easier.

But the reality is, any time you get birds living near the road, like what happened at Beenleigh a couple of years ago, the birds get "moved along" / skittled en-masse, so I don't believe that is a satisfactory. (Recall they temporarily set up the GC500 barriers on the road because birds were being sucked out of the trees and splattering on truck windscreens)

Truth be told I visited the wetlands only for the first time last year, and was amazed of how much it felt like being back in regional Australia. Beautiful, and very quiet.

And this I what I find a bit fucked. You have politicians on one hand demonizing transport projects in the GC proper over like 10 trees and a few front yards, meanwhile other parts of the region are now being asked to downgrade THIS so said politicians can all keep driving 70km a day.

Now, I'm a realist too, and can see the benefits of the road.

So, why not just do a tunnel for the last section, and put a toll on that part alone?
Means you dont have to touch the wetlands.
Brisbane based politicians are more than happy to fund tunnels locally to avoid surface impacts, and I think it is justified here!

For local traffic moving around the Gold Coast, yeah cool, no issue because most movement is going to be between Pimapma and Nerang anyway, so they'll never even pay a toll!

Therefore the toll only applies to long distance traffic to Brisbane, or Logan Motorway freight, and there is no reason you couldn't set up the tolling system so that trucks using the Yatala exits pay less than private vehicles using the Brisbane bound ramps.

PS, Any future stages of the Coomera connector needs to have those electronic traffic congestion signs, but they need to include the number of spare parking spaces at the rail stations parallel to the road. That way you can make a choice to drive in traffic or get on the train instead :)

I think day one went pretty smoothly but it's clear that system is going to get absolutely belted on any sunny weekend like the M1 does. Adjacent cafes seemed very full, particularly at Nobbys.

Interestingly, by early arvo they were playing announcements saying delays were occuring due to unexpectedly high passenger volumes. In reality you didn't notice other than sometimes trams would be 6 minutes apart rather than 8 due to uneven boarding times.

I reckon the decision to cancel Stage 4 will become a liability for some.

So this is why I think the cost of the whole SRL is worth it, in a roundabout way.

I'm actually an ex Victorian who knows Melbourne inside out. I guess my day job involves master planning too.

I think its a good project from an outsiders standpoint, but you need to scratch down a couple of levels to find its value compared to more normal projects (like a rail extension to the Airport) or reactionary projects (Widening the Westgate every 5 minutes)

Am I on the money with my take in this video?

So I bought an ex rental as my first home last year.

Building inspection didn't find anything obvious.

I was a bit of an arsehole to the agent and listed every single construction defect I could find in order to force the price down too 😈

That said, oh my god, the amount of cheap landlord special repairs I have come across is off the charts.

This pic is my bathroom. 3 different types of tiles were used.

Yeah fine, I can deal with fugly

A few months ago I noticed water leaking into the room below.

Turns out the shower tiles had been stuck on with dabs of cornice cement and zero waterproofing. Failing grout meant water would wick through.

This is just one thing that looked ok, but has failed in the past year.

It's like, on social they'll whinge about pinholes from picture hooks or a cosmetic carpet stain and say tenants have no care and pretend wear and tear is a massive financial burden.

Meanwhile they don't bother maintaining or doing proper repairs, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage to their own asset.

We have a tradie shortage and I often wonder how much of their time is wasted going around and fixing big problems caused by landlord negligence? (Instead of building homes)

So I'd say Kevin 07 was the point where we were free of Howard and had fed government interested in pursuing urban rail projects. Queensland Labor had been umming and ahhing, even Beattie justified not building it by saying "the running costs would be too much of a burden on Queensland tax payers"...Gee real classy saying that one whole district of the city is a burden for wanting a piece of what they subsidise on the other side of the city!

Anyway Gillard forced the hand by putting up federal funding, so did MBRC, and lo behold, it got built.

First couple of years were a shambles because QR didn't order enough trains to operate the line.

But look, it's been in regular operation for many years now and just hasn't taken off. It cost over $1b so it's unacceptable to have newly built rail lines not doing what they are supposed to do.

I use annual boardings per km to compare rail lines fairly. In effect the more people using each km of line, the more it's "soaking" up travel demand and providing something useful. How you achieve that is up to the project proponents.

Redcliffe, last place.

Why isn't it working?

-It runs at a much more inconvenient timetable compared to other modern railways in Australia.

-Insufficient land was rezoned around the stations for commercial and housing supply and a good section of the catchment radius is wetlands. In fact, land that WAS slated for housing was instead used by Labor to make the car parks bigger. Or it's all low density suburbs where a slow train is pointless against a car.

-The line stopped short of the high values real estate on the waterfront (The crack that makes G:Link go gangbusters) because they were unwilling to finance the tunnel.

There's not even a basic pretend "Metro" route trying to fill the gap along Anzac Avenue! Nor another to the actual attempted CBD at Northlakes

In short, it's a project that no things to no people.

Ready for another hot take on transport by Gazza?

Actually the most cost effective transport project Labor has ever done is not a Level Crossing Removal, or a tunnel or a rail loop, it is finally installing flying junctions on the western lines in preparation for the airport line, and nobody is giving the government credit for this.

So you know on the bit of Freeway between the Botle Bridge and the Burnley Tunnels you go through a sort of basket weave and "thread the needle" between those giant oval portals? That's basically for sorting traffic bound for different places by avoiding having vehicle weaving across each others path.

This is the rail equivalent.

Rail without flying junctions is absurdly inefficient because trains take so long to stop and start and you cannot cross trains in front of each other at full speed.

It is the equivalent of having traffic lights at a freeway interchanges instead of interchange ramps.

I kinda wish they weren't so susceptible to union fuckwittery, but I just hate to imagine a situation where the government changes and problems like this are not going to be proactively fixed.

And that's the crux of the issue.

If you don't sort out bottlenecks in the rail network early, you are forced to do it in a situation when the line is reaching crush loads and you're now having to try and accommodate those crush loads onto buses.

This is why sooking about the current debt load is so stupid.

Victoria willingly sat on its hands for a decade and let Steve Bracks do nothing after Kennets prior austerity.

The LNP term under Ballieu went as well as you'd expect.

Dan Andrews arrives and says, Ok fuck we certainty need to direct spending to a rail tunnel ahead of another road bypass tunnel and get rid of rail crossings that choke out both modes of transport simultaneously.

Now Melbourne is doing the projects Sydney was doing back in the 1990s, you're going to stop again and go without because it costs you personally $4 per day, per interest.

Personally, I think you guys should stop thinking of it as state debt interest, and start thinking of it as an infrastructure early access subscription fee.

No point having money sitting in the bank if you're also sitting in traffic or sitting in a waiting room.

Time is money and you've got to spend money to make money and all that 😜

So long story short, there's approximately an 800 M stretch of Logan River Road without pedestrian crossings unless you want to die running across at a 4 lane roundabout.

And being Logan people are pretty cruisy about stuff being built and approved here, so there's literally a new pub and an officeworks and a supermarket and a bunch of new housing either side of the road now. so naturally there are more pedestrians about.

But TMR I like no lol, you can't have that because drivers might get pissy and start running red lights.

is that really the attitude of our government? JFC!

Now I get it. cities need main roads and logically main roads are where you put stuff like shops and apartment blocks.

And the road doesn't really bother me.

But at the end of the day, I live here too, And I'm not saying shut down the road but surely at this point some aspects of the road could be designed in the favour of local residents.

I just want to be able to walk to my local supermarket/ gym/pub/ fuck me right?

Also.....

It's brake not break.

By popular demand, here's the next stage in Gazza's comprehensive plan to modernize the transport system of Adelaide

A few days ago I posted an idea to extend the O-Bahn through a CBD tunnel loop (Similar to Brisbane) via the main squares and the main coach terminal.

Lets continue the O-Bahn out the other side, first via a tunnel, or even bus priority lanes towards the Glen Osmond Toll gate. Stops at Hurtle Square, Greenhill Rd, Fullarton Rd and of course Portrush/Cross Rd to ensure you can link with other bus services on the "grid".

From there, buses run express on the SE Freeway in shared traffic through the Heysen Tunnels up to Crafers.

From there, an O-Bahn is built in the median of the freeway, with enclosed bus stations located at each interchange, since the main street of each of the villages is right next to the freeway anyway, so it wouldn't be hard to provide a covered walkway / arbors to make it all civilized.

And the civilized aspect is important. You want commuters from the hills to use it because its nice, but you also want to be able to sell the concept to daytrippers that there is a single "hop on hop off" O-Bahn direct from the Adelaide CBD up to Hanhdorf etc.

If you try and cheap out like the current bus service where the bus has to constantly loop on and off the freeway, slowing things down and making you carsick, its a waste of time. If you build stations like the trains in Perth where they are shielded in the median, you maintain speed and comfort.

Once you get to Littlehampton there is a massive park+ride next to the Freeway, and the O-bahn does a short spur into Mt Barker proper. All bus services in the Adelaide Hills funnel into the new O-Bahn.

As for the trains? Well as you can see from the map, trains take longer to climb hills than a bus and cant do it at 100km/h hence the big loop via Blackwood that exists.

Still, the tracks are there, and battery trains are a thing. I would provide a basic hourly battery train service extended at least as far as Crafters, because the railway station and a future O-Bahn station are "close enough", so in a (not ideal) pinch people can walk between the two. Something like that wouldn't really impact upon freight, would be low cost, and hey its a nice scenic train trip for visitors, and locals will find it useful too.

Ideally though, you could run the battery train a little further to Aldgate, and then when you get to Carey Gully Rd in Bridgewater, you are close enough to the Freeway that you could build a little siding and combined rail terminal/O-Bahn station across the road from the school.

So we have two modes plus an interchange point, and redesigned hills buses which makes various journey combinations possible.

The final idea is that you could build a (South Australian first!) cableway to Mr Lofty.
Would be like the one in Cape Town, or Arthurs Seat.
The base station is close enough to Crafers you could offer a combined bus and cableway ticket, so again, it becomes frictionless for visitors.

People are going to yell at me about the environmental impact of this, but I'm pretty sure that far more tree clearing and earthworks were done for the Heysen Tunnels, so I don't want anyone trying to make out that 3 or 4 squares of land for cableway pylons is suddenly going to "destroy the hills".

Ready for another hot take on transport from a boy from Murray Bridge?

So one thing people sleep on about Adelaide is that the "Square Mile" is the nicest CBD in any Australian city, and it's not even close.

Parklands and quiet squares, sandstone buildings, the vines, the string of things from the main station, parliament, university, Adelaide oval and the botanic gardens and zoo in a neat row, you can 100% tell this place was inhabited by German settlers.

And the leafy inner suburbs are quite classy too, before the Stobie poles and gravel nature strips take over somewhere north of Regency Rd.

The tram network should be very good, and the legs are all pointing in the right directions but for some reason they just gave up and stopped trying to aggressively like other small cities (Canberra, Gold Coast) are doing. Which is a shame because mid sized cities like Adelaide can easily support a high quality light rail system,

So, lets work with that.
I'm branding the tram network The Southern Light, hopefully some people who understand Adelaides history pick up on the little play on words.

The N-S line extends the Glenelg tram into North Adelaide and onwards to Prospect, making the inner section bougie express. Visitors and locals can get into the main station, and then easily hop on a tram up to all the nice bits. But we push it forwards, to allow for renewal of suburbs further north (See Bowden)

And then push a final 3km to pick up the sporting facilities and business park at Gepps Cross, and then of course hook across and provide a connection with the Gawler / Barossa rail line at Dry Creek. That said, if Malinauskas is generous, you might run it a tad further through to Mawson Lakes instead.

The total north leg is 12km so could easily be done in two 6km stages, quite affordable for the SA Government.

The East West Line is probably more work, since there are probably going to be opponents to a tram long the parade, vs other green bougie types who will love the concept. The eastern leg would logically push across to get people to the uni campus and tourists to Penfolds.

Then run north to further the access to trams and provide an interchange with the O-Bahn at Paradise. Its 12km total on the eastern part. Stage 1 might go to Magill, Stage 2 to Paradise.

As for the bit out to West Lakes, there are a few ways you could do this, and you may or may not even consider converting the Grange line to tram and hooking into this!

But personally, from a planning standpoint it makes more sense to go to West Lakes, because you can elevate buildings above the acres of car parking, and provide high density housing for retail workers etc, and of course support the continued redevelopment of Football Park.

PS, for this map, just pay attention to the red and blue lines 😉

So a bit about me, by day I'm a construction designer (MaArch) , in my spare time I like to travel around Australia, by night I come up with hot takes on what Australian cities need to do to improve their public transport.

So, I hear Adelaide is sprawling along Port Wakefield Rd.

Sprawl can be managed if the transport is there from day one, and fortunately there is already a rail corridor is there.

Now, electric trains are good, but installing the wiring is time consuming and this rail line would be quiet initially so it only needs smaller trains.

Overseas, Battery trains are being used, which means you only need a short section of overhead conductor bar at the end stations to charge the train, plus a section at Dry Creek depot.

Otherwise, trains run 40km off wire, well within the 80-150km range of current battery trains.

The advantage of doing this is that you can achieve higher speeds than buses, so people in these growth areas will get into the habit of using trains early, potentially avoiding traffic growth.

The line also makes use of the cross town link through Wingfield, and at Port Adelaide, track upgrades would mean Port Dock gets put onto the new line, removing the current "branched" arrangement which actually halved the efficiency of that line.

Probably a few hundred million for some battery trains, and then say another $320m for 12 stations with car parks and some housing zoned around the stations (Like at St Clair)

Now the main compromise I've made is that you have to change trains at Salisbury interchange to reach the CBD, but the time cost of that could be compensated by making Galwer trains permanently run on a fast pattern that skips all those "dead" stations along the edge of Parafield ariport.

But, if we do my O-Ring O-Bahn extension to Salisbury, that suburb could become a nice little hub :)