BRISBANE» MASS TRANSIT - Thread

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Originally Posted by mX

Trams may return to Brisbane's streets says John Mickel
Article from: MX

Ursula Heger of mX

August 25, 2008 12:15pm

TRAMS are set to return to Brisbane's streets under a plan hatched by Transport Minister John Mickel _ but only if you want them.

A week after revealing he was looking at a Metro-style underground rail system, Mr Mickel now says he is prepared to reintroduce a tram-style light-rail system ``if there was a huge call for it''.

"At the moment we haven't had a big call for it, and we have had the Brisbane City Council say they were opposed to it," the minister's spokesman said.

But council transport chairwoman Jane Prentice said today that while "our own study found that mass transit was quicker and less expensive than light rail, we are open to all suggestions".

Both the city's dedicated busways and the Eleanor Schonell Bridge to the University of Queensland have been built large enough to accommodate light-rail lines alongside buses.

The State Government and the council are already undertaking a study to determine whether light rail or buses would be the best option to link Newstead, Fortitude Valley, the CBD, South Bank and West End.

That network could be extended to the Inner Northern Busway at one end and on to the Southeast Busway and the Eleanor Schonell Bridge at the other.

According to the Government think tank, the Smart State Council, there is a risk that delaying development could make light rail impossible in the future.

A council report last year estimated a light-rail network would cost up to $600million to construct, compared to $100million for new train-like extra-long buses.

[SoulVision]

Originally Posted by KJBrissy

Also, you would never do 2 turns so quickly with a light rail as the streets are too narrow to facilitate the turns quickly. Turns to change direction however is ok.

I'm sure problems such as these could be easily resolved. Its not like trams are new to Brisbane. RE the adelaide st bus stops... not sure? move them to another street?

I wouldn't like to ever see the Queen Street Mall torn up for anything... its a perfect street mall which we are lucky to have.

[Marty_]

Can I ask, really and truly, what is WRONG with busways?

I ask because they're cheaper, and we already have ann extensive network we can build from, and buses are flexible in that they can integrate busway and regular road network routes.

Light rail seems to be the start and finish of everything on this forum. I understand that an underground is really the only option for the inner CBD area given that there is no space for anything else. Trams would be mayhem. (Although the busways are being built underground in many places).

But really, what is actually wrong with busways? Seems logical to me that they should imrpove and expand the network since we already have a good one underway.

[SoulVision]

I personally don't see anything wrong with buses either... hey I take them everyday. For me, buses are a suburban option. Light rail would only touch the inner city so that you can hop on after work then take a ride down to the Valley, Newstead or back to West End. Bus? god i wouldn't know where to start to catch one into the valley.

Remember its only for the inner city.

[aussieguy2001]

Originally Posted by Marty_

Can I ask, really and truly, what is WRONG with busways?

I ask because they're cheaper, and we already have ann extensive network we can build from, and buses are flexible in that they can integrate busway and regular road network routes.

Light rail seems to be the start and finish of everything on this forum. I understand that an underground is really the only option for the inner CBD area given that there is no space for anything else. Trams would be mayhem. (Although the busways are being built underground in many places).

But really, what is actually wrong with busways? Seems logical to me that they should imrpove and expand the network since we already have a good one underway.

There is nothing wrong with the busways, they work really well. The idea is to run both together at the same time, ie replace the 100s of buses running the 111/333 high freq routes with trams that run only up and down the busway to increase capacity and free up buses for poorly serviced local routes (ie non busway routes) which DESPERATELY NEED them.