Well said, Ross Elliott. Your researched article is what should have been done- through a cost/benefit analysis by the Queensland State Government; too blinkered by old facts, political pressure and arguments. And, I agree with your centralisation of schools, offices and work offices near/around the railway terminus. It makes common sense to do this. Both for the convenience of the train commuters and the above-mentioned facilities. Congestion can be avoided by scheduling of the arrival and departure of the train commuters to meet their school and work routines. Melbourne has the problem for people in the outer suburbs of no work being available, while there is good transport into the city. This mismatch of transport to the living areas of our cities has been ignored ever since the Whitlam years, when Gough and Tom Uren tried to present answers to the poor planning of our cities.

The same sort of criticisms can be made about light rail. While light rail is cheaper than heavy rail, it usually runs at ground level and negatively affects other traffic.

The bottom line is that commuter rail is very expensive and can only be justified when it can attract very high patronage.

Of course bureaucrats think rail is a good idea, most of them work in the CBD, & we subsidise their trip to work.

Forget the school idea. Schools have a small local catchment area. No more than one station either side of a school would service it, so like most rail, would be of use to a very limited number of kids.

Look where the money is: it’s in freight. The war over freight has been lost to the inefficiencies of road transport, and roads are built with taxpayers money.

Loss is where commuter rail is servicing: that war has also been lost to the inefficiencies of road transport.

Seems to me, the logic here is to go back to fight the already lost war.

Schools:
Schools are an anachronistic money waster. The war over school students has been lost to online technology.
We should be winding expenditure down on education, including transporting students unnecessarily to Mausoleums of madness, where now children turn guns on each other in the also lost culture war!

Dan.

Rail is a long term investment; typically the numbers of people using it start off low and build up slowly over the decades. There's no reason to expect it won't be the same with this line, despite passenger numbers currently being even lower because of Covid.

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Diver,
It's not a war; the objective is to provide a service, not destroy the competition!
And have you asked the school students? I was under the impression that having experienced the home based alternative, they were eager to return to the normal school environment.

Aidan

Views always depend on perspective. In a unit with beautiful water views from the front window, out through the back window is the view of an adjacent brick wall.

Just try.

Dan