Engineering, Passenger Rail

Splitting third Gold Coast stage will be cheaper: Mayor

Tram leaving Broadwater Parklands on the Gold Coast Light Rail

Gold Coast City Council has put out the tender for a business case for the first half of the third stage of the Gold Coast Light Rail line.

A Request for Tender appeared on Queensland’s local government website on March 18.

The plan would extend the existing line south from its existing terminus at Broadbeach South.

The council says it wants to prepare “a robust Preliminary Business Case for Stage 3A of the Gold Coast Light Rail and Urban Corridor project from Broadbeach South to an interim terminus at Burleigh Heads town centre”.

Stage 1 of the Gold Coast Light Rail line was opened on July 20, 2014, and connects Gold Coast University Hospital, in the north, to Broadbeach, in the south.

Stage 2 of the line, which is currently under construction, will extend the line from the Hospital to the heavy rail line at Helensvale station.

Stage 3A would be the first half of the third stage of the project, with Stage 3B to eventually extend the line all the way to the Gold Coast Airport at Coolangatta.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate reportedly believes a two-part plan for Stage 3 of the project will prove cost-efficient.

“I believe the Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads option is the most viable and affordable route,” Tate was quoted as saying by the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“At Burleigh the mode of transport will change and people will take the bus down to the airport before they too are eventually replaced by the future stage.

“At Burleigh Heads I also anticipate having a multi-level council carpark so people can go there, park and hop on to the rail which will be able to take them all the way to Helensvale or down to Burleigh by bus.”

The Council’s Request for Tender is open until April 11.