7 January 2021

Light rail shutdown to force Gungahlin passengers on to buses

| Ian Bushnell
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Gungahlin Light Rail

The Gungahlin Place light rail station. Passengers travelling into the Gungahlin area are encouraged to transfer to a rail replacement bus service at Dickson Interchange. Photo: Region Media.

Commuters will have to swap some light rail services for buses for two weeks from Sunday as construction of the new Mitchell light rail stop continues.

Transport Canberra says the light rail network will partially shut down from Sunday, 10 January to Saturday, 23 January between the EPIC & Racecourse and Gungahlin Place stops to allow the work on the Sandford Street stop, which resumed on Thursday, to continue.

Replacement bus services operated by Qcity will run between the Dickson Interchange and Gungahlin Place, and rail replacement bus stops will be adjacent the light rail stops.

Light rail services will continue to run between Alinga Street and EPIC & Racecourse stops during this time.

READ MORE Federal Environment Minister’s decision on light rail Stage 2A due this month

Passengers are encouraged to transfer at Dickson Interchange where possible. Rail replacement buses will depart from Platform 3 at Gungahlin Place, from Platform 2 at Dickson Interchange, and operate at a higher frequency than light rail, running every three to 15 minutes.

Transport Canberra urges passengers to plan ahead and allow extra time to travel during this period, but they will not be required to tap on and off when entering and exiting the Qcity buses.

Light rail services will continue to operate at the normal frequency between EPIC & Racecourse and Alinga Street for the duration of these works, and passengers will still need to tap on and off.

Passengers travelling between Dickson Interchange, Swinden Street, Phillip Avenue and EPIC & Racecourse can continue to travel on light rail or use the rail replacement bus services if they are travelling north of EPIC.

Passengers travelling into the Gungahlin area are encouraged to transfer to a rail replacement bus service at Dickson Interchange.

The EPIC Park & Ride will stay open for the duration of the works and passengers can transfer from there on to light rail services travelling to the city.

Transport Canberra has also advised changes to traffic arrangements.

Motorists will not be able to turn right into Morisett Road from Flemington Road, and a lane will be closed in each direction on Flemington Road near the Sandford Street intersection.

READ ALSO Does the cycling community get a fair go in Canberra?

The speed limit on Flemington Road will be reduced to 40 km/h adjacent to the construction site, but access to bicycle paths and on-road cycling will be maintained during construction.

All pedestrian access will be maintained, but pedestrians will have to use the northern signalised pedestrian crossing at the Flemington Road and Sandford Street/Morisset Road intersection, instead of the southern one until mid-year 2021.

There will be additional wayfinding signage and Canberra Metro Customer Service Officers on the light rail network to assist passengers.

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Capital Retro8:15 pm 09 Jan 21

Remember when Katy Gallagher was Chief Minister and she pledged that if the cost of stage 1 exceeded a certain amount then she would not support it?

Is it possible this is the reason the Mitchell station was left off the original plan?

No.

It was all about keeping to the same off peak time as the buses as that is what was promised.

The article is irrelevant as she was not in power when the project as built was committed to.

And history has shown us that she was actually wrong anyway. Despite costing more than that figure she quoted it is exceeding what it was set out to achieve in terms of patronage. Well pre Covid anyway, but not a person on earth would have factored something like Covid into project planning anywhere in the world.

Capital Retro9:58 am 09 Jan 21

Back to the future?

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