News

The Queensland Government has committed $120m for three new Gold Coast railway stations at Pimpama, Helensvale North and Worongary/Merrimac, designed to boost the capacity of the corridor in conjunction with the delivery of Cross River Rail.

Better public transport is critical for the Gold Coast, with the population expected to grow by an extra 350,000 residents over the next 25 years – taking the population to almost one million people.

Patronage on the Gold Coast line has grown on average by over 5.5% each year for the past five years – with over 5.8 million trips in the past 12 months.

The full benefits of the three new stations can only be realised with Cross River Rail which creates the capacity to enable trains leaving for Brisbane as regularly as every five minutes in the morning peak on the Gold Coast Line, which would also enable an extra 3150 seats.

With increased capacity, more frequent rail services and greater connectivity to other public transport including Gold Coast Light Rail, more commuters will be encouraged out of their cars and onto public transport, easing congestion pressure on our key roads, like the M1.

The Cross River Rail Delivery Authority is working with the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Translink to develop the early planning work for the new stations.

Next month the specific locations of the station sites will be announced and a period of public consultation will kick off to hear the community’s feedback on the proposed concept station designs.

This detailed planning work will then be finalised prior to opening up tenders and a formal market bid phase to award the construction contracts.