Celebrating railway stations as the ‘heart of the community’ – Part Two

By Jennifer Perry

To read Part One of the story click here

Australia is currently in an "evolutionary phase" of TOD, according to Professor Carey Curtis at Curtin University, who is also a partner at the Australasian Centre for Governance and Management of Urban Transport and an affiliate with the WA Planning and Transport Research Centre.
Whereas railway infrastructure planners have not traditionally thought about development around a station, instead concentrating on improving the network itself and its integration with other transport modes, things are indeed changing.
“Solid planning work is now being done on how to tie stations in with a good mix of development to create stations as destinations rather than simply the origin of a CBD based journey,” Professor Curtis said.
While she believes that that Perth is leading the way with TOD in Australia, South East Queensland (SEQ) have also established a solid platform for the future delivery of TOD, though it is yet to get development on the ground.
Professor Curtis said that TOD planning in Queensland is held up on par with the kinds of plans coming out of Perth in terms of the ability to think about transport and land-use is an integrated fashion, rather than as two separate things.
The Queensland Government, through their SEQ Regional Plan, supported by the annually updated SEQ Infrastructure Plan and Program (SEQIPP), have advocated TOD as a means of dealing with unprecedented population growth that has occurred in SEQ. The government see TOD as an important strategy for tackling climate change, reducing car dependency, achieving sustainability, and delivering improved quality of life by creating attractive, vibrant communities with good access to public transport.
In the 2007 SEQIPP, the Queensland Government committed more than $11 billion to public transport, with this investment increasing to over $32 billion in 2008 - an almost 300 per cent increase.
Along with infrastructure funding, the government supports TOD planning through the Department of Infrastructure and Planning (DIP) that works proactively with state and local government and the private sector to coordinate the state’s interests and involvement in a range of TOD projects.
“TOD will be based around frequent and high-capacity public transport systems, primarily rail and busway that will connect transit precincts of different scales and types in transit corridors across the region,” the director of Queensland's DIP's TOD Coordination Unit, Jemina Dunn said.
TOD projects due to be delivered in SEQ in the coming years include the Gold Coast University Hospital Precinct, a government led PPP; Varsity Station Village, to be delivered by the Queensland Government; a mixed-use, inner suburban precinct at Albion, anchored by private sector-led development; and Bowen Hills, an inner urban precinct delivered by the government’s Urban Land Development Authority.
Dunn told delegates at the recent Green Planning and Design summit that the Gold Coast University Hospital Precinct is exciting and unique because of the infrastructure involved and the institutional uses the TOD will have.
With construction expected to commence in 2013 and backed by a $3 billion government commitment in new infrastructure and community facilities including the Gold Coast Rapid Transit System, the project will see a new 750 bed Gold Coast hospital, a 450 bed private hospital, and expansion of the existing Griffith University campus form 15,000 to 50,000 students in the next 20 years.

To read Part 3 of this story, click here.

For more information on TOD see Professor Curtis' new publication:
Transit Oriented Development Making it Happen:
www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754673156