Amy and Trevor's blog: Canberra Light Rail

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Canberra Light Rail

Canberra's light rail system has been discussed for years. Various routes proposed, budgets bandied about and opposing ideas put forward (one of which included a double lane cycle track as an alternative!). Finally after years of debate and seemingly even more years of road works and detours, the light rail launched.

Initially it's on a rather limited north-south, dogleg line from Gunghalin - Canberra's 'new' sprawling northern suburbs, into the city (Civic). In total there are 13 stops along the route.

As the route currently stands we'll not have much cause to ever travel on it. This in itself has caused considerable angst as people (who seemingly forget we live in a community of 400k+ people) argue that because they don't have a stop right outside of their front door should be excluded from paying the proportion of rates that fund the network. It's obviously a ridiculous argument.

Personally, I would have looked into a trolley bus system, such as the one in Mexico City - that way we could have started with four times the network (there's no need to lay track therefore reducing costs considerably) and then 'filled in' the network with trams in busy sections. I'm not a transport expert, nor a trolley-bus buff(!) though, so perhaps I'm wrong.

Either way, now light rail is here I'm sure Canberra will embrace it. Stage two of the system DOES come near our house. Hopefully it won't be too long before it's built (there's no specific time-frame as yet).

I was lucky to be chosen (via a ballot) to be one of the first couple of hundred people to ride the train. To be honest it was fabulous. A couple of days later at the 'official' launch I travelled again, this time with the kids. It's a whole new view of Canberra - and as you look out of the window as the carriages fly past stationary cars you realise that the Bush Capital is growing up.