Thursday, October 21, 2010

Whats going on at Ferny Grove Railway Station?

Brisbane Times is reporting on a Queensland planning conference high-lighting Transport-oriented Developments  as a key plank in a planning strategies for Queensland moving forward. This adds some perspective to the recent proposals by the Queensland State Government to combine retail and residential precincts with an upgraded rail station at the site of the current Ferny Grove Railway station.

The Keperra to Ferny Grove Rail Upgrade is already underway (if you count the establishment of site offices in the Lanita Road end of the car park), but is not due to be complete until 2012. It aims to duplicate the last 3.2 kilometers of rail line to Ferny Grove and upgrade the station and bus interchange.

On the other hand, the Ferny Grove Station Precinct project aims to create a 'vibrant, pedestrian-friendly centre'. You might have seen a vision brochure and request for comments in your letterbox if you live in the local area (I did). The brochure and site show two visions (which to my eye, are hard to distinguish apart from the inclusion of the Tavern or not). No timelines are yet available, but announcement on which vision would be followed appears to have been due in September.

The latter project is intended to compliment the former, but the exact relationship between the two is unclear from my scant research. What is interesting to me in the Brisbane Times article is that 'Transport-oriented developments' seems to be an approach being applied across the state, Brisbane and specifically in the Ferny Grove Station Precinct project. If you read the project page, you might notice that very few concrete benefits are listed. Instead, we will receive 'Transport Associated Development' outcomes. (the Queensland government provides some further information about Transit Oriented Development and what they believe the benefits are. There is even a Wikipedia page, which of course makes it true).

If you have any comments or further information, please leave them in the comments below.

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