00:02Good things come to those who wait.
00:05I've been hearing about it for ages and it's just bloody amazing.
00:08Light Rail Stage 3 is here.
00:11The efficiency of public transport is something that is genuinely unmatched.
00:15I mean, each car we've got going by has, what, one or two people inside?
00:19The Gorkos Light Rail vehicles hold 300 people in one small space.
00:23Four years after construction began, the 7km link to Burley Heads is away.
00:29Less petrol that I have to use, for one thing, and it's more convenient.
00:34While there's been mass disruptions for businesses along the line,
00:38the Light Rail's operator expects commuters will now embrace the tram.
00:43We anticipate that it'll be pretty quickly up to 2 million a month
00:46and that's, you know, about 1.8 million cars off the Gold Coast Highway.
00:51A massive increase in population on the Gold Coast over the next 20 to 30 years.
00:55So we really need this sort of infrastructure to manage that.
00:58The Light Rail is officially on track, but not everything has gone according to plan.
01:03The project was initially estimated to come in at $709 million.
01:08That's since blown out to more than $1.5 billion.
01:11We need to make sure our city is as connected as it possibly can be ahead of the 2032 games.
01:18But the plan to take the Light Rail to the airport was scrapped last year,
01:23with locals fearing it would open the door to over-development.
01:27The downside is gentrification and the fact that often real estate values increase,
01:32particularly around train stations.
01:33But for some, there's more than one reason to celebrate.
01:37It's my 50th birthday and I'm taking the tram home.
01:40And for some people,
01:41I'm taking the damn steps and I'm taking the ŃŠ°Ń of my house.
01:41Because of all my family members,
01:42I'm trying to make sure that there's nothing going on.
01:44So today, we're going to be seeing that what's going on.
01:45You
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