who previously indicated his support for stage 4 light rail,<\/a> has expressed his support for the initiative. \u00a0<\/p>\n“Time will tell if it’s the best solution for the city. As Gold Coaster’s we should remain open-minded,” he said.<\/p>\n
“All in all, it’s a good day for the Gold Coast.”<\/p>\n
Cr Tate said he had consulted on the project three months ago, and the announcement was only one portion of the Gold Coast Transport Plan.<\/p>\n
He said he would leave future announcements up to the state government, but the Burleigh Heads Library, which was being converted into a community arts hub, could “potentially” be redeveloped into a bus interchange.<\/p>\n
Costs yet to be announced<\/p>\n
The government cited enormous costs in its decision to scrap stage 4, with the project estimated to cost as much as $10 billion.<\/p>\n
The cost to deliver the Gold Coast Surfer has not yet been specified.<\/p>\n
Bond University associate professor of urban planning, Daniel O’Hare, said replacing the light rail with buses would result in “short-term budget savings for perhaps long-term budget pain”.<\/p>\n
“Palm Beach, Currumbin, Tugun \u2014 it really looks to me like it’s going to mess up those areas,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got just this wall of buses between you and crossing the street.”<\/p>\n
Dr O’Hare said it was vital that the metro-buses, which carried half the number of passengers as light rail, connected to Bond University and travelled along dedicated bus lanes.<\/p>\n
“That is the risk, that they get stuck in the traffic,” he said.<\/p>\n
Bart Mellish, the opposition’s spokesperson for transport, said ending the light rail network at Burleigh Heads had been “a sub-par solution”.<\/p>\n
“[The state government] haven’t worked out what happens to Burleigh Heads \u2014 whether it becomes a car park, whether it becomes a bus interchange,” he said.<\/p>\n
“To put a metro-style bus there, to have to turn them around every 10 minutes which is what they’re proposing, would be absolute carnage.”<\/p>\n
![\"Night](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/53ad7da39e9cf653b0aa69ef56a46ece.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
With the southern leg scrapped, the government will broaden the northern leg with new stops in several suburbs. (ABC News: Greg Nelson)<\/p>\n
David Janetzki said a record $55.9 billion would be tipped into the Transport and Main Roads budget to deliver better roads and rail for all Queenslanders.<\/p>\n
A “spur line” off the existing light rail will see the corridor in the north extended from Gold Coast University Hospital to Harbour Town at a cost yet to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Metro-style buses, coined the “Gold Coast Surfer”, will ferry passengers from Coolangatta to Burleigh Heads and west to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49865,360989,43,360987,360990,44,38238,360988,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-752559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-david-crisafulli","tag-gold-coast-transport-plan","tag-headlines","tag-light-rail-stage-four","tag-metro-style-buses","tag-news","tag-public-transport","tag-scrapped-plan","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Queensland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8cf7553fbf411c55b957b9473cc17e36.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/89e333377040e99593cf39a434f46f3d.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n