The Canberra Light Rail's One Glaring Problem

[@MrClentell]

Wells Station Road stop is to service the rest of the Gungahlin Town Centre and additional residential blocks which are scheduled for construction in those paddocks in the next 5 years. since you filmed, one of those blocks has already been back filled with offices and an entertainment precinct is about to break ground directly opposite.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Ahh nice, I didn't know that!

[@MrClentell]

@@darockk sorry about that, you're right. I think I had a brain fart. Wells Station Road was also built to service the public mega school that is currently being built behind the park and ride.

[@xr6lad]

Yes. A obvious statement made by a 5 year old transit nerd that even I that doesn’t live in Canberra could see by looking in the distance why it was there.

[@electro_sykes]

@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism Whats missing is the section to Canberra Airport via Parliament House and the train station.

[@electro_sykes]

@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism they will probably never build it to Parliament house as it would be a threat to our national secruity

[@sancheeez]

Disregarding the issue of what to do at the Queanbeyan end of the line, running the LR as a tram-train from kingston to the Quang really does make a lot of sense. It avoids Hume Circle (the fyshwick roundabout) and a whole lot of potentially dangerous intersections, and would still serve Fyshwick. Crawford street with light rail would also offer a convenient pub crawl with just one transfer: bottom pub - top pub, then catch the R6 on wentworth to the Kingo. perfect

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Yep that would be a top tier pub crawl 👌

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

This channel is now exclusively for politically progressive video essays made by me, a theatre kid.

[@griffinrails]

hell yeah

[@chefgav1]

Light rail is a terrible investment for Canberra taxpayers. According to Chris’s steels own figures a 650million investment for a total average passenger rate of under 8000 passengers per day on average.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

@@chefgav1 not sure where those numbers are from - in Q1 of 2023 (the latest data I could find with a quick google, I believe it has gone up since then) the patronage was on average over 11,000 a day, 37% higher than your numbers. This is also for the first branch of an entire network where new lines will increase use of the network as a whole. That being said, I do agree that the ACT Government could probably be building the tram network for cheaper, especially with the raising of London Cct.

[@CanberraUser]

"progressive"???

[@rifkinr4660]

Woaaaa I was just looking for information about the Canberra metro, but this was very highly researched and very argumentative! I love it! Keep it up!

[@namanish450]

There is existing rail between Canberra train station and Queanbeyan station. Wonder if it would make sense to have the heavy passenger rail line terminate in Queanbeyan and convert the segment from Queanbeyan to Canberra Station to light rail. The biggest hurdle I see in this is jurisdiction as Queanbeyan is in NSW and this plan would require a lot of cooperation.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

To my knowledge given the size of the rail corridor it would be possible to do both! But yeah, that's definitely the biggest hurdle

[@TheAdventuresofRussell]

The biggest issue with this request is that Quenbeyan is in NSW, not the ACT. We both know that the NSW government will not invest in something that would encourage people to work and spend outside of NSW lol

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Very good point - I try to address that in Part 2

[@philroberts7238]

Strange! Only yesterday, I put forward a suggestion on another site that the Canberra tram line from Civic should be extended to Kingston. From there it would have to rent/beg/borrow/steal or expropriate the rail line to Queanbeyan. Queanbeyan Station would then become the new terminus for an improved NSW Trainlink Sydney to Canberra service. Meanwhile, there could be a regular, 15 minute say, connection between Canberra, Fyshwick and Qbn. And as a bonus, fair amount of unused rail yards in Kingston could be made available for other uses.

[@philroberts7238]

And perhaps an airport link could be added to the mix.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

It makes a lot of sense! Since I made this video (which is very old and cringey now), the Fyshwick Business Association suggested something similar: fyshwickbusiness.com.au/2022/11/17/media-release-eastwick-greenline-light-rail-and-active-travel-corridor-concept-revealed/

[@jacko4932]

imma guess the fyshwick line is for dfo?

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Probably! But I feel like 90% of DFO's customers are from Queanbeyan haha

[@railtransportvlogsnsw7775]

Wait would then the Queanbeyan ppl need to use a myway card instead of opal because he nsw card is different to the ACT?

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

I think since the light rail would be an extension of the ACT's it would be myway (or transport Canberra or whatever they're calling it). The opal card never made it as far as the wild west of Queanbeyan anyway, the few buses that do exist need coins in exact change

[@peterbreis5407]

Hopefully by then Canberra uses the Opal card.

[@lenjaminbutton7239]

shocked you didn't list tuggeranong as a canberra tourist hotspot

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

I forgot about Tim the Yowie man's favourite wool shed soz

[@gnhansen29]

Could you have the railway reservation shared between trains and light rail?

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

I'd definitely say so. Even though most of the current railway is single track, if you look at the zoning map of the ACT the railway reservation's narrowest point seems to be the part in the middle of Fyshwick where it's got multiple sidings

[@noahchacos367]

You should make a Kung fu panda video essay

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

😤😤😤

[@jaydon.9674]

I double that

[@bigdude101ohyeah]

From what I understand, the Fyshwick terminus is because they're looking at moving the train station there, and the East Lake redevelopment is likely to involve tram-train operations according to the planning documents. I'd personally suggest the ACT government takes over all operations to Goulburn with tram-trains. NSW could use their trains elsewhere. It probably wouldn't be cheap, but I assume it might be cheaper than upgrading for trains. Only problems would be financing, dealing with NSW, and top speeds. Surely going through Eden-Monaro would persuade the feds to kick in. If it goes well, they could expand the tram-train network, with a combination of new and existing corridors.

[@electro_sykes]

Whats missing is the section to Canberra Airport via Parliament House and the train station.

[@kentfrederickireland]

It makes me sad to say, but surely in a city as big as Canberra (including Queanbeyan) bus services that are well connected and offer frequent service would be the most cost effective approach to getting people to actually use public transport. We just don't have the density.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Yeah, bus services are important too. They've recently increased bus services in Queanbeyan which is nice. That being said, Canberra property prices show plenty of unmet demand, and as we've seen with the Northbourne Avenue light rail, more conspicuous PT such as light rail can bring higher density - doesn't always have to be the other way around

[@shraka]

Trams are cheaper to operate and stimulate better economic multipliers. They're also more future proof in a range of ways. Planners used to put in infrastructure as density built, preempting demand. Now days they put it in after everything is already way overloaded, which is disruptive and means the service comes online well after it's needed.

[@applad3206]

Nice video with very good point.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

thank you kindly

[@rajTrondhjem10]

Amazing..

[@mrsocks8]

i live in Canberra and go to Fyshwick all the time :P

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Hmmm sounds made up :p

[@CARambolagen]

Wow, that's a lot of concrete tram...

[@darynvoss7883]

Their stated aim is to build one stage per decade so you will probably be an old man before the Fyshwick line gets built anyway.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Lol true, one can only hope they increase the rate of construction as each line proves more and more popular. Plus with zoning reforms on the table they might need to scale up public transport faster to provide for more density. Fingers crossed 🤞

[@ryanblake2126]

Q-Town stand up!

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Represent q city k-bar side yyyyyewwww

[@jerie00]

I went 9n a bus in Queanbeyan once...

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

:O

[@MrSquareart]

good video!!!

[@Nickclappo]

Oh man. Good content and well narrated, but if you want to take ur channel seriously, especially an urban planning one, then I suggest you ditch the cartoon puppet face. It's kind of annoying

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Thanks, this was the first and last video with it lol

[@RowanMangion1976]

You forget the governments not here to help the people that vote for them only who pays them to stay in power

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

There's a part two, just as juicy as this one but I quit being a v tuber and do a Face Reveal™: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIbQZoaDo5eil6c

[@shraka]

Not heavy rail? Light rail can get overwhelmed pretty easily.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Heavy rail would be ideal, especially due to capacity like you mentioned and also top speed, but Canberra's rail network is light rail so it would have to integrate with that

[@shraka]

@@ChrisTopher_Urbanism *Sigh* I remember the good old days when governments would build entire PT infrastructure networks in one go... Or the today days where Paris is basically doing that. Maybe the lack of infrastructure development scope is an Australia / America problem?

[@chefgav1]

Not in the ACT it won’t. 1st stage 650 million investment sees under 8000 passengers per day on average lol😅

[@shraka]

@@chefgav1 Maybe the ACT should focus on having more interesting places to go to.

[@wattsbelco2308]

This was difficult to watch :D I agree there should be improved public transit links to Quangers. The point of the routes is development, not public transport. Stage One, for example, is having Northbourne Avenue developed along the entire route. The argument proffered by the ACT Government at the time was the need for a light rail depot at one end, yet there is more space at the Airport than any other route. According to traffic studies, the greatest traffic congestion is east-west, from Belconnen to the Airport (and, yes, ideally Quangers), yet that will likely be the last stage because there is less to develop - particularly under the air traffic routes, despite it already having Civic, two universities, and Airport (and its shopping and office precincts), Canberra's largest district/ town centre, the Defence precinct, and a frikkin' hospital! This demonstrates the network is nothing to do with improving public transport, and everything to do with development. The biggest problem with the system is that it is an all-stops service with no option for express. That's why the proposed Stage 2B Civic to Woden link will result in a longer journey than the present express bus. All that land along Yarra Glen (a flood plain!) is slated for urban infill. This further supports the notion that the network is not about improving transport outcomes. As for carbon emissions? Everything is moving to electric, so it's not a black and white issue once you take into account all the infrastructure, plus the fact the light rail network as designed still relies on cars and buses for those commuters who don't live along the route.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Development and high-capacity public transport go hand in hand - land value uplift can help pay for the infrastructure; the infrastructure can support medium/high density walkable neighbourhoods that would be impossible with cars. There's been a great case made for a financially sensible and very useful Fyshwick/airport loop that, due to the existing rail corridor, would be super cheap to build: the-riotact.com/transformative-fyshwick-light-rail-plan-proposed-and-how-to-pay-for-it/613691 The proposal mentions potential light rail to Queanbeyan. Similar to Fyshwick, a good portion of the route could use existing railway, and Queanbeyan itself has potential for land value uplift since the CBD is currently a sea of free parking (read: council debt) that would be unnecessary with light rail running through the middle of town

[@wattsbelco2308]

@Chris Topher I have also read the textbooks, but there needs to be a proper discussion of what you just stated in relation to Canberra. In considering an existing district's town centre and its group centres, you can easily apply the joint development-transport paradigm you described. Where it becomes more difficult for Canberra is infilling all the green space between town centres, which increases the heat island effect, harms fauna and flora, and ruins the Y Plan. The approach actually creates traffic where it didn't previously exist. Finally, there is nothing wrong with development and improved transport going hand in hand. The problem is when worse transport outcomes are the result due to the inappropriate application of textbook theory. PS - the ACT Government has so far rejected the Fyshwick proposal.

[@jayfielding1333]

They really need to get moving to parliament and the south.

[@ZulcanPrime]

Maybe one politician lives in the Fishwick area so he or she can take the light rail to Parliament House.

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

That could be plausible but also idk if there are even houses in Fyshwick so they'd have to live in like the basement of seear's workwear

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

@@sancheeez I bet it is ironic. I'd ironically live in Fyshwick next to the railway line just for the meme

[@hazptmedia]

Lol okay

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

thanks you too

[@peterbreis5407]

You do know that due to really bad urban design, none of this makes the slightest sense?

[@xr6lad]

Another personal that fails to understand rail in any form and the car. I can guarantee you could put in more light rail and that traffic jam won’t be different. Because as a 5 year old like many transit nerds fails to understand, rail is only good for Point to point travel. If you require a slight deviation or across city that would require changing lines you’ve just created a barrier, that the car even if your sitting in traffic is so much better for. Door to door, all weather, cocooned, can change and stop mid trip, pick up anything and carry it travel. And until Transit nutters understand that we waste money on LR or HR. It’s not and never has been except in a few situations, build it and everyone dumps a car. That you can’t even see why they built that LR station in the middle of No where shows your inability to think outside the square

[@ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

What's your understanding of rail? Mine is that with 10 minute frequencies or more, transfers aren't a huge deal, and being outside walking or riding a bike at the start or end of a trip is pleasant and healthy. It also means that cities no longer have to be so artificially spread out to accommodate as much car parking, which makes things more walkable and vibrant as a result - something Queanbeyan desperately needs.

[@jayfielding1333]

Another person who thinks everything should be about cars.