Eyes wide open: the cost of commuter rail

I’m told the famous Sir Leo Hielscher, when head of Queensland Treasury, used to try hose down politicians’ enthusiasm for heavy commuter rail projects by telling them it would be cheaper by far to give every person likely to benefit a free taxi voucher, for life.

Scarily, these projects are often proposed on the assumption that they will meet a commuter demand from frustrated motorists sick of congested roads. Which they would, if most of those motorists were trying to go where the train lines take them – the inner city and CBD. But with more than eight in ten residents working in suburban locations (not typically served by rail), this math was never going to add up.

It didn’t stop the pollies though. Said acting Premier Jackie Trad at the time: “A project like this, that will see 600 new trains go from the Redcliffe Peninsula to the city CBD every week, is a fantastic initiative for workers in this area.” Even though the overwhelming majority of workers in the area don’t work in the CBD.

Opening the rail line, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also made a raft of silly comments including that “Realistically, someone could jump on a train here in Kippa Ring and use our public transport network to visit the beaches of Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast.” Memo to Malcolm – let’s buy them airfares to visit Fiji. It would be cheaper.

The same story carried this justification for the line: “The Moreton Bay region is one of the fastest-growing in Australia with the population of 375,000 tipped to reach 500,000 by 2031.” True. But this does not mean they’ll be commuting to the Brisbane city centre for work.

It added: “Over 80 per cent of people in the region (83%) use a private car to drive to work each day.” True again, but they do so because the car will take them when and where the train doesn’t.

Are there better ways around this, which could be explored? One might be to rethink the idea that suburban rail stations are mainly a place for CBD-bound commuters to board for their journey to work. Instead, why not explore options for suburban stations as the destination? A place to get off because your work in a mixed-use precinct is within a short walk of the station? There are stations that meet this potential.

Or what about locating schools next to stations? Would it not be a good idea to be able to get off the train when the station is incorporated with the school, for safety and convenience of students and staff and parents. There would seem to be ample land surrounding stations in some cases. Very large on-grade areas set aside for commuter parking aren’t always fully utilised. Like this image of Murrumba Downs station (taken on a weekday in pre-Covid July 2019, with barely a third of spaces taken). Why not a multi-deck park and ride to cater for commuters (the cost to park for the day could include your rail fare) which in turn frees up some of on-grade land for a school?

Whatever the options, it would seem sensible to evaluate future proposals for heavy commuter rail through some different lenses. If we are to add massively expensive heavy rail upgrades to meet future transport needs, it would be nice to think that we are fully informed of likely costs, realistic projected user numbers and that all options to maximise the economic and community value of the stations have been explored.