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Murwillumbah NSW 2484 Council Reference: Transport - Strategy
Your Reference:
3 November 2017
Transport for NSW
Via 'Future Transport 2056' Web Portal
To whom it may concern
Tweed Shire Council Submission to Transport for NSW - Draft Future Transport Strategy 2056
Tweed Shire Council welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on Future Transport, the government’s 40-year vision for transport policies, directions and investment.
Overall, Council is supportive of Future Transport, through its recognition that transport strategy is no longer simply about building infrastructure to accommodate continued growth in vehicles, but that transport and mobility is central to creating liveable, safe, sustainable, affordable and accessible communities in a rapidly changing technological world.
Tweed transport issues can be characterised as being consistent with many of the issues identified for Regional NSW in Future Transport, specifically:
• The majority of trips currently involve single private vehicles, with congestion observed during relatively short morning and afternoon peaks;
• Poor take up of public transport, due to the lack of frequent and reliable services to take customers where and when they need to go, and low population densities making traditional public transport services difficult to sustain economically;
• Continued road deaths and casualty crashes, particularly on rural roads, despite significant investment in blackspot infrastructure and road safety campaigns;
• The range of customers within Tweed communities who have problems accessing transport due to difficulties associated with age, disability, income and location. In particular, the Tweed population contains a significantly higher proportion of residents aged over 50 than the State average, with continued growth in this demographic group.
Council welcomes the various initiatives to be explored in addressing and correcting these transport trends, and the safety and sustainability goals that have been set.
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However transport in Tweed also has some specific pressures that are not
adequately addressed in Future Transport. These primarily relate to our proximity to South East Queensland rather than Greater Sydney:
• Tweed is described as a Regional City in the NSW North Coast Regional Plan, and is projected to provide the majority of growth on the North Coast over the next 30 years, compared with other Regional Cities;
• The Tweed Regional City provides a continuous urban form across the NSW- QLD State Border, with the M1 Pacific Motorway providing the main road connection;
• While Future Transport includes consideration of “Global Gateway Cities” such as Canberra, and explores the influence that their economies have on
transport for Greater Sydney, there is no recognition of the influence that South East Queensland, specifically Brisbane and the Gold Coast, has on transport planning and growth for the North Coast and the Tweed in particular;
• The Queensland Government is investing in expansion of road, light and heavy rail and other public transport modes to Gold Coast Airport in Coolangatta, situated right on the border with Tweed. This will create a multi-modal transport hub with enormous potential benefits to QLD and NSW, by providing rapid mass transport links to regional, national and international centres. The
strategic potential for Gold Coast Airport and cross-border linkages to influence NSW Future Transport is largely overlooked, although the NSW Government’s intent to investigate extension of the Gold Coast light rail service from the Airport to Tweed Heads is a welcomed initiative;
• Council’s Public Transport Strategy (available on Council’s website:
www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/knowledge:1036/PublicTransport) relies on
development of a rapid bus transit corridor plan from the Gold Coast Airport transport hub down the Tweed Coast to Pottsville, with a link west to
Murwillumbah. This is considered the only viable rapid transport option, and essential in increasing public transport participation. Given Council’s limited ability to control, plan and fund public transport services, assistance from the State Government to establish this service is requested through the Future Transport strategy.
• Differences in cross-border legislation and regulation continue to be a barrier to seamless transport integration between Tweed and Gold Coast. This impacts on services, licensing, timetables, fares and ticketing, and is another disincentive for public transport services to replace single vehicle trips on the M1. Council agrees with Future Transport’s strategy for government to create the right environment for quality service provision, by removing unnecessary regulation and adjusting policy settings. Current cross-border barriers need to be overcome as an immediate priority to both NSW and QLD governments (“A Customer Focus”);
• Significant greenfield land release areas and policies to intensify population densities in existing urban areas of Tweed place considerable pressure on Local and State road infrastructure, in order to deliver the growth goals from the North Coast Regional Plan. We acknowledge and welcome that Future Transport will integrate with the development of Regional Planning and Infrastructure documents and that road infrastructure will be a key “whole of government” consideration. For Tweed this must include requirements for upgrades to Pacific Highway interchanges and lane configurations to unlock and service these growth areas (“Supporting Successful Places”);
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• Council acknowledges Future Transport’s goal of a zero trauma road network by 2056. The strategy also recognises the disproportionate number of road fatalities in regional areas. This is a worthy but ambitious goal while many of the safety systems, road specifications, smart technologies and vehicle automation innovations may be achievable in a metropolitan setting, in rural and regional areas the extent of physical and economic constraints on
upgrading existing rural roads to “4 or 5 star” standard is currently prohibitive.
On the North Coast roads are constrained in their width and alignment by topography, road reserve boundaries, waterways, flood liability, significant flora and fauna, and other infrastructure, which can limit the application of the
measures proposed in the strategy such as roadside barriers and central medians (“Safety and Performance”);
• The Tweed currently only has access to bus services for public transport, as the North Coast Rail line was closed over a decade ago beyond Casino.
Council welcomes the initiative to preserve a corridor for a future high speed rail line between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, provided this directly services the Tweed. Given this is a 10-20 year prospect, Council requests that the Government considers measures to preserve the existing North Coast Rail corridor, as well as investigates a potential rapid transport corridor to the north to connect to Queensland – there is currently a “missing link” between
Murwillumbah and Coolangatta. As part of this preservation strategy, Council requests allowances to utilise the rail corridor for temporary uses that provide community benefits, such as community open space for events and social infrastructure, and for recreational walking and cycling trails. The State
Government has allocated funding towards a Northern Rivers Rail Trail project in Tweed, and we would welcome measures in the Future Transport Strategy or its associated documents that assist in facilitating such public uses, given the corridor connects many rural villages.
Tweed Shire Council welcomes any further opportunities to have input into the Draft Future Transport Strategy 2056.
Yours faithfully