Transport is a key economic enabler of economic output and productivity as it allows denser land uses that businesses and people can access, generating economies of scale that make cities more productive and attractive.
A South East Queensland Fast Rail Network has the potential to fundamentally change the way people make choices about where to locate and how they access employment opportunities, enhancing both the liveability and productivity of the region.
An efficient transport network:
- Reduces the costs of commuting and trade by relieving congestion pressures
- Improves quality of life through greater accessibility
- Enables efficient land use that cannot happen without an adequate transport network, and
- Enhances connectivity between businesses and people, in turn boosting productivity.
These factors work together to reduce the costs that arise through rapid urban expansion and helps to ensure the benefits of this growth are maximised. Through the coordination of urban and transport planning, this provides the opportunity to ensure the economic benefits of urban growth are maximised.
There are a broad range of benefits that a Fast Rail network would deliver for South East Queensland. These can be categorised under the following benefit types:
Likely benefit observed | Problem addressed |
Productivity | |
Enhanced connectivity: Better access to employment, education and recreational activities outside of the immediate transport corridor. | Perceived accessibility. Road network congestion. Travel time requirements. Rail network constraints. |
Economies of scale: Greater scale and regional benefits of economic activities. | Higher paying employment opportunities and an overall increase in median incomes. Local productivity impacts in hubs surrounding key transport nodes. |
Regional economic growth: Increased economic activity both at place of residence and employment in the vicinity of new or improved transport hubs. | Improved transport accessibility to employment, recreation, goods and services. Disconnect between existing transport networks and key employment centres. |
Consolidated population growth: Population growth surrounding transport hubs encouraged through better transport network connectivity. | Lack of transport options meaning that individuals may prefer places of employment accessible by a private mode of transport. Attracting individuals to live in well-connected regions. |
Improved tourist experience: Improvement of transport network encouraging tourism across region, resulting in enhanced tourist activity. | Safe, accessible and affordable transport links. Access to attractions and tourism precincts. Positive experience of transport network. Length of stay within broader region. |
Quality of life and socioeconomic factors | |
Reducing trade-off’s: between a place of residence and places of employment. | Sub-optimal allocation of labour and under-utilisation of skills where an individual decides to forgo a certain job in order to minimise their commute. Region at risk of becoming less desirable through perception of poor connectivity. Greater accessibility to more efficient transport options. |
Satisfaction: Research suggests that lengthy commute times can result in lower overall life satisfaction. | Efficiency of transport network improved through reduction in travel time between place of residence and employment. Better connected regions mean that destinations outside of urban SEQ can be activated, and the commute to these attractions will be shorter. |
Greater choice: Increased mode of transport choice for existing and potential users, encouraging uptake of public transport and improved mode share of trips. | Perceived cost of commuting reduced. Accessibility to more efficient transport options improved. |
Urban development | |
Stimulated activity at urban hubs: Stations will attract localised activity and urban renewal, resulting in increased spending and business activity within the surrounding areas. | Reduced urban sprawl and greenfield development. Increased targeted greenfield development in key regional hubs consistent with the land use and regional planning outcomes of ShapingSEQ. |
Alignment with land use planning: Meeting consolidation and expansion land use targets | Providing a transport network that supports ShapingSEQ consolidation and expansion land use targets. Connecting regions of anticipated population expansion with current and projected employment hubs. |
Affordable Living: Rail corridors are well suited to apartment and townhouse living. | Development of more compact centres in station precincts. More consolidated and affordable housing in areas of limited land availability. |
Productivity benefits
Improved productivity is likely to be generated through the provision of a dedicated, fast rail connection in South East Queensland. It is widely acknowledged that businesses derive productivity benefits from being in close proximity to one another and from being located in large labour markets.
Productivity impacts can be addressed through conventional transport benefits, such as reduced travel time and improved travel reliability. Enhancing productivity and enabling better matching of skilled labour to employment opportunities will facilitate the competitiveness of the region’s industries, contributing to sustainable economic development and greater employment opportunities.
Conventional transport benefits
Conventional benefits of a transport projects are typically quantified in terms of value of travel time savings, vehicle operating costs, accident cost savings and avoided environmental impacts.
While detailed analysis would need to be undertaken to assess these potential impacts of a regional Fast Rail network, the network will service a significant portion of the existing South East Queensland population and provide greater access to employment opportunities.
The population and employment catchment which could benefit from Fast Rail is shown below. This represents over 213,000 individuals in South East Queensland and greater accessibility to 539,000 jobs.
Potential population catchment of new Fast Rail stations

These precincts would also provide a unique opportunity to accelerate land use improvements, diversifying local economies and creating successful places by providing new jobs as well as housing opportunities.
Travel time savings
As outlined in the SEQ People Mass Movement Study, Fast Rail is expected to deliver significant travel time savings relative to existing transport modes.
Travel time comparison estimate of urban rail, private vehicle and faster rail

Fast Rail is likely to increase transport choice for existing and future users of the network, promoting greater public transport uptake and mode share. Escalating traffic congestion, resulting in unreliable and unsustainable travel patterns on road infrastructure may be alleviated through diverting some private vehicle trips onto the rail network.
The Australian Railway Association highlighted within its 2017 industry report, ‘A National Rail Industry Plan for the Benefit of Australia’, that one passenger train can remove approximately 525 cars from the road network.
By reducing travel times, Fast Rail will effectively bring businesses and employees closer to each other. Increased clustering and combined economic benefits facilitated by Fast Rail, in turn, enhances the productivity of business within the region.
Improved connections between centres and regional economic clusters will deliver increased economies of scale and knowledge distribution, improving economic productivity and sustainability in the region.
Fast Rail offers a safer alternative transport connection to existing road corridors. Typically, high volumes of traffic correlate with increased crash rates. This is amplified on roads where speed limits are higher, increasing the severity of a crash, and exponentially increasing the chance that the crash will result in serious injury or death.
Similarly, within high-speed environments, such as highways and motorways, congestion results in sudden start-stop conditions, resulting in sudden changes in speed between vehicles – a common cause of severe crashes. By eliminating one fatal crash from the road network, this could save the economy approximately $3.2 million ($2019).
The delivery of a Fast Rail network will not only provide long-term transformation benefits resulting from the operation of the network. The network will also provide short-term stimulus for the region during the construction period by supporting economic activity in the construction industry and supporting industries.
Using the standard Queensland Treasury multiplier of 3.1 FTE’s supported per $1 million in capital expenditure, a 45-minute Fast Rail Network would generate 4,464 jobs per annum, with a peak of 8,700 per annum at the height of construction, across a 20 year project timeline. The economic injection to the economy directly from the creation of these jobs would be $12.6 billion.
A 60-minute Fast Rail Network would generate 2,619 jobs per annum, with a peak of 5,000 per annum at the height of construction, across a 20 year project timeline. The economic injection to the economy directly from the creation of these jobs would be $7.3 billion.
These figures do not take in the broader economic benefits that would flow from the completion of a South East Queensland Fast Rail Network.
The benefits from reduced transport congestion and improved road safety, freight movement improvements, tourism expenditure, development uplift around key precincts, and many others are enormous and require a detailed business case to adequately capture the full economic impact of Fast Rail.
Tourism
Tourism is a significant driver of employment and regional growth within South East Queensland, as demonstrated by the total visitors, annual expenditure and associated contribution to Gross Regional Product highlighted below.
Providing easy access for international, interstate and domestic visitors between key points of interest and tourist attractions is vital to supporting the growth of the tourism sector for the region.
Transport is a key enabler of tourism and plays a vital role in moving tourists from their port of arrival and on to various attractions. The location, capacity, efficiency and connectivity of transport can therefore play an important role in how a destination may be perceived by tourists, how attractive it might be and could influence how long they stay.
SEQ annual tourists (year ending 2019)

The Queensland Tourism and Transport Strategy identified the importance of transport and accessibility to the visitor experience when travelling around Queensland. Visitors require access to safe, accessible and affordable transport links to reach destinations and regional areas, as well as a range of transport options to access attractions and tourism precincts.
Currently, travellers wishing to explore the attractions across many areas of South East Queensland are limited to private vehicle, tour operators or lengthy travel times with multiple interchanges.
Major attractions within South East Queensland such as the beaches and theme parks of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, shopping, food and entertainment precincts of Brisbane City, and the Southern Queensland Country surrounding Toowoomba are not currently easily accessible to interstate or international visitors.
By enhancing accessibility of the region to tourists, there is potential for additional tourism expenditure, as visitors may extend their stay to visit more of the attractions available to them. Tourists will be able to get from coast to coast or to Toowoomba in the west from their airport of arrival, without the need to access a private vehicle.
Based on 2018 research conducted by Star Entertainment and Tourism and Events Queensland, better transport links across the region is the biggest single factor in driving future demand among domestic visitors.
This research showed that a South East Queensland Fast Rail Network is the missing link in capturing an additional $20 – $30 billion in visitor stay and expenditure between now and 2031.
Furthermore, a Fast Rail network throughout South East Queensland would complete an efficient high speed and frequency rail network between key ports including Brisbane Airport, Toowoomba (Wellcamp) Airport, Sunshine Coast Airport and in the future the Gold Coast Airport.
These locations would connect to key origins/destinations including the Brisbane CBD, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Toowoomba key activity areas.
Quality of Life and socio-economic factors
Transport can have a significant impact on the quality of life of a region’s residents. It facilitates access to new leisure and lifestyle opportunities and consequently provides a wider range of residential location choices. Lengthy commute times can result in lower overall life satisfaction, job satisfaction, free time and satisfaction with job flexibility.
Fast Rail has the potential to fundamentally change the way people think about where they locate to access employment opportunities while maintaining lifestyle preferences. This could manifest through broadening the degree of access to housing and lifestyle options and enables the individual to make a decision that best suits their needs while maintaining or enhancing accessibility.
Liveability
Poor public transport accessibility and increasing congestion can reduce the attractiveness of a region as a place for people to live, especially within South East Queensland where individuals often don’t reside in the same Local Government Area as they work.
Fast Rail will provide greater choice, through increasing the efficiency, comfort and safety of commuters travelling between an individual’s place of residence and place of employment. It will facilitate the growth of Regional Economic Clusters, as individuals will be attracted to live in close proximity to reliable and efficient transport nodes connected to these clusters.
Evidence suggests that accessibility to public transport has a positive impact on the attractiveness of an area to households, with traffic congestion having the opposite effect. By improving transport connectivity and reducing travel times between population and employment centres, the perceived costs of commuting can be reduced, and access enabled to a greater range of employment and lifestyle opportunities for a growing population.
This facilitates the efficient allocation of labour and a productive labour force, and improves the quality of life and desirability for residents to live in South East Queensland.
There is a strong evidence base within the literature that suggests that lengthy commute times can result in lower overall life satisfaction, lower overall job satisfaction, lower satisfaction with free time and lower satisfaction with job flexibility.
Once commute times reach longer than 45 minutes, the perceived costs of a commute rise steeply, and these commutes are perceived as unambiguously lessening wellbeing. Fast Rail will reduce the commute time to 45 minutes or less Brisbane – Sunshine Coast via Moreton Bay Region, Brisbane – Gold Coast via Logan, Brisbane – Ipswich; and from Brisbane – the base of Toowoomba.
Equity and social inclusion
The South East Queensland Economic Foundations Paper utilised the 2011 Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) to assess the relative socio-economic disadvantage of individuals in South East Queensland.
The report found there are key areas of disadvantage located on the outskirts of the region which have poor accessibility to services and employment. There is a direct link between low-income households and the need to travel greater distances in order to get to places of employment, services and activities.
This research highlights that the highest average income of workers tends to congregate close to the Brisbane CBD. Access to public transport is key to social equity in providing access to employment, education, goods and services regardless of age, ability or advantage.
Social inclusion benefits arise where barriers from transport are removed for people such that their ability to participate fully in the economy, society and community wellbeing improves. Transport infrastructure in outer fringe suburbs is predominantly road-based infrastructure, whereas high-quality public transport services are more prevalent in inner and middle-ring suburbs.
This creates a reliance on road infrastructure for those who reside in outer fringe suburbs, resulting in a higher dependency on private vehicle ownership and use. Consequently, a lack of investment in suburban public transport infrastructure beyond the urban core acts to entrench social exclusion as access to major employment and other services becomes increasingly more difficult.
Fast Rail will improve public transport infrastructure and access for suburban populations, and therefore has the ability to improve social inclusion by strengthening people’s ability to participate in social and economic activities. This will have a positive employment, financial and psychological impact on these communities and can improve their wellbeing and life satisfaction.
Urban development
Fast Rail presents an opportunity to align and facilitate the goals of ShapingSEQ to achieve desired land use and regional planning outcomes. Improved connections between centres and Regional Economic Clusters will deliver increased economies of scale and knowledge distribution, improving economic productivity and sustainability in the region.
Land use planning outcomes
An efficient and reliable public transport initiative, tied with the right land-use policies and opportunities, can provide a stimulus for land use transformation. To meet the desired land use outcomes outlined in ShapingSEQ, existing areas with potential for urban consolidation require a catalyst to attract investment, and greenfield areas need adequate public transport access to support the sustainable and efficient use of these land opportunities.
Fast Rail has the ability to contribute to a number of ShapingSEQ success measures (below). Rail corridors are well suited to apartment and townhouse living and provide an opportunity to develop more compact centres in station precincts through development of more affordable housing including over-station developments and increased consolidation of existing dwellings.
Measures that matter
Measure | SEQ’s preferred future |
Dwelling growth: Monitor consolidation and expansion dwelling activity against dwelling supply benchmarks. | Consolidation – 60% increase Expansion – 35% decrease |
Housing type: To monitor housing diversity. | Increased high-rise Increased diversity Increased Middle (attached dwellings up to three stories) |
Affordable Living: To monitor the combined effects of housing and transport costs to inform ongoing planning for sustainable communities. | Decrease in cost of living as % household income. |
Source: ShapingSEQ
Regional planning and land use targets
ShapingSEQ specifies dwelling supply targets for each Local Government Area within South East Queensland. Access to high-quality public transport can support higher density development of greenfield areas and promote urban consolidation. Greenfield development areas in locations relative to proposed Fast Rail stations or corridors provide the opportunity to deliver an urban form integrated with public transport services.
Existing areas with potential for urban consolidation require a catalyst to attract investment. Fast Rail has the opportunity to assist in realising infill development and urban consolidation in line with the objectives of ShapingSEQ and encourage consolidation in centres, contributing to a more liveable region and providing more affordable housing and lifestyle options within station precincts.
Fast Rail will help facilitate the achievement of consolidation targets, such as Brisbane (94 percent), the Gold Coast (80 percent), Sunshine Coast (62 percent), Toowoomba (84 percent) and Ipswich (75 percent).