Light rail in Canberra

Aerial view of Northbourne Avenue prior to construction of the light rail. Seen looking north from Civic, with City Hill in the foreground.

Walter Burley Griffin's master plan for Canberra proposed the construction of a tram network.[1] The proposal did not eventuate and the city was exclusively served by buses from 1926, when the Canberra City Omnibus Service was introduced, until 2019.

While railways across Canberra, including one to Belconnen were seriously considered until the mid-1960s, little discussion of a metropolitan tramway occurred until the 1990s. Prior to 1989, the ACT had been directly administered by the Federal Government thus any large public infrastructure expenditure in Canberra was subject to national scrutiny.

In the early 1990s, Canberra Land proposed a 8.5-kilometre (5.3 mi) line from Canberra Racecourse via Northbourne Avenue to Civic with Melbourne tram B2089 displayed in February 1992.[2]

A light rail connection for Gungahlin was proposed as far back as 1992, when a syndicate of private land developers MBA Land and Consolidated Builders (together known as Canberra Land) incorporated rail into an urban village plan.[3] The Gungahlin proposal followed a 1991 Murdoch University report, Towards a More Sustainable Canberra, which suggested the city was too car-oriented and should implement a light rail system along the Y-Plan.[4] In 1993 a report by Maunsell-Denis Johnston and Associates found that a dedicated inter-town busway was a more viable transport option for Canberra than light rail.[5]

In 1994, the ACT Government commissioned a study into light rail, based on the findings of an independent report that light rail would be viable in Canberra by 1998.[6] In its detailed report consultants Booz Allen Hamilton recommended a route from Belconnen to Barton via the City and Kings Avenue Bridge be operating by 1998; Woden to Barton by 2000; Tuggeranong to Woden by 2002 and Gungahlin to City by 2004. Routes to Canberra Airport and Queanbeyan received a lower priority. By January 1995 the then ACT Liberal Opposition Leader, Kate Carnell, announced her party's opposition to the light rail proposal citing "suspect" patronage figures and questioned the report's projected population for Canberra-Queanbeyan of 474,000 by 2016.[7] Projections in 2017 for the Canberra-Queanbeyan population, forecast the metropolitan area reaching 474,000 between 2020 and 2023, four to seven years later than the 1995 projections.[8][9] In 1995, the ACT Liberal Party came to power and plans for a light rail system in Canberra were dropped.

In February 1998, the ACT Government announced its support for the Federation Line, a proposed 7-kilometre (4.3 mi) line from the National Museum of Australia via Civic to the Australian War Memorial. The line was proposed to use heritage trams.[10]

In September 2001, to try to garner support for the project, Melbourne tram W249 and Sydney tram R2001 were placed on display outside the Australian War Memorial, the latter operating on a 50-metre section of track and being powered by a diesel generator.[11][12] In a further display in September 2003, W249 operated on an 80-metre section of track on Parkes Way.[13][14]

The construction of the light rail line was part of a deal struck between the Labor Party and The Greens following the 2012 Australian Capital Territory Election, at which Labor required Greens support to form government.[15][16] In the 2013/14 ACT budget, $5 million was allocated for early design work.[17] In September 2014, the business case was approved by the government. The project, known as Capital Metro during planning, was developed by the government agency Capital Metro Agency (CMA).

Light rail works in Franklin in July 2017

The line was to be delivered under a public private partnership.[18][19] Expressions of interest were received from the following consortia:[20][21]

• ACTivate: Downer Group, Plenary Group, Bombardier and Keolis Downer[22]
• Canberra Metro: Pacific Partnerships, Mitsubishi Corporation, John Holland, CAF, Deutsche Bahn, Aberdeen Asset Management, Leighton Contractors, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi[23]
• CANGO: Macquarie Capital Group, Obrascon Huarte Lain, SMRT International, UGL Rail and Siemens
• Connecting Canberra: Capella Capital, Transdev, Alstom and Acciona Infrastructure

The centre of Flemington Road in Gungahlin after being cleared for light rail works in July 2017

In March 2015, the government announced that ACTivate and Canberra Metro had been selected to move on to the Request for Proposal stage of the procurement process.[24][25] The bidders submitted their final proposals for the Gungahlin to the city route on 4 September and had an additional four weeks to submit their proposals for a potential expansion of the project, from the city to Russell.[26] The Canberra Metro consortium was announced as the preferred tenderer in February 2016 and the contract was finalised in May.[27][28][29] Under the contract, Canberra Metro will operate and maintain the line for 20 years, after which ownership will pass to the ACT Government.[27][30]

Stacked rails in Gungahlin in August 2017

Design and construction costs was budgeted at $707 million.[27] The Federal Government contributed $67 million to the project.[30] Commencement of construction was marked by a sod-turning in the northern suburb of Mitchell at the site of the depot on 12 July 2016.[31] Major construction of the route itself began towards the end of the year.[32][33][34]

The opposition Liberal Party opposed the project. In April 2015, the party announced it would cancel any contracts for the light rail if it won the 2016 ACT election.[35] A year out from the poll, the light rail project was already predicted to be the election's major issue.[36] As predicted, the light rail project was the major issue of the campaign.[37][38] The election saw the Labor government returned, with the party claiming the result as an endorsement of the project.

The CMA was amalgamated into a new government directorate, the Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate (TCCS), on 1 July 2016, resulting in the responsibility for the project transferred to the TCCS.[39]

Testing of the line began in June 2018. A section in Gungahlin was electrified and one of the trams made trial runs.[40] All 14 trams have arrived in Canberra and it was hoped to have the project completed by the end of 2018.[41] The light rail eventually opened on 20 April 2019.[42][43]

CAF built 14 Urbos 3 trams to operate the system. It will also provide twenty years of maintenance for the fleet.[66][67] The trams are 32.96 m (108 ft 1.64 in) long and consist of five modules. There are four doors on each side of the vehicle, two single leaf and two double leaf doors.[68] The first tram was delivered in December 2017.[69][70][71] The vehicles feature a red and grey livery, with white reflective stripe in the middle.[72] The depot is located in Mitchell.[73]

Tehnika's t-visor RAIL platform, also used on the Gold Coast Light Rail,[74] provides the operators with a single, centralised control system. This encompasses the automatic vehicle location, traffic signalling priority, traction power & infrastructure SCADA, CCTV and passenger information systems, amongst others.[75]

In July 2016, the government released a shortlist of four potential routes that could form the second stage of the light rail network. The routes were:[79]

• City to Canberra Airport via Constitution Avenue & Parkes Way
• City to Belconnen Town Centre via Barry Drive past Calvary Hospital & the University of Canberra
• City to the Parliamentary Triangle via either Commonwealth Avenue or Kings Avenue
• City to Mawson via Woden.

In September 2016, the government selected a truncated version of the Mawson route that ends at Woden as its preferred second stage project. The route is around 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) long.[80][81] Tenders to design various aspects of the project were called in November. At that stage the only firm decisions the government had made about the route were that it would run from Alinga Street to the Woden Town Centre and use the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge to cross Lake Burley Griffin.[82] More concrete plans were released in May 2017. South of Lake Burley Griffin, the route will predominantly travel via Adelaide Avenue and Yarra Glen. Design options for several sections of the route that had yet to be locked in were presented to the public for comment.[83][84] An option that would have extended the route to the Canberra Hospital was dropped in December 2017.

There were two options for the section between Lake Burley Griffin and Adelaide Avenue: a deviation to Barton with proposed stops at Old Parliament House, Brisbane Avenue and Sydney Avenue; or a more direct route via the Capital Circle.[85] The longer route via Barton was selected by the ACT Government as the preferred route in April 2018.[86] In March 2019 the Commonwealth Government offered its support for the extension to Woden, however it favoured a different path around Capital Hill, arguing for a route along the State Circle.[87] A delay in the federal government response meant planning work for the line was postponed, though choosing to not pursue the Barton route could mean a simpler regulatory process.[87] The ACT Government is now investigating the State Circle route, which involves some technical challenges due to steep gradients for light rail.[88]

When construction of stage 1 began, construction of stage 2 was planned to begin shortly after the completion of the first stage.[82] The Federal Government will be invited to make a contribution to the project as part of the government's City Deals program.[89]

In July 2019, the new ACT Transport minister Chris Steele announced that stage 2 would be divided into 2 parts, 2A to stop before Lake Burley Griffin at Commonwealth Park and 2B to continue across the lake to Woden.[90]

In mid July 2019, the ACT Government submitted a referral to the Australian Department of Environment and Energy for stage 2A, covering the extension from Civic to Commonwealth Park as well as an expansion of the depot in Mitchell.[91] In September, the ACT Government approved the business case for stage 2A, confirming the three new stops on the route which will also require London Circuit being raised at Commonwealth Avenue where the light rail will travel.[92] According to the stage 2A business case, from the Alinga Street Stop to the Commonwealth Park Stop will be about 6 minutes.[93] The signing of contracts for stage 2A was delayed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[94]

In mid July 2019, the ACT Government submitted a referral to the Australian Department of Environment and Energy for stage 2B, covering the extension from Commonwealth Park to Woden.[95]

In October 2019, the ACT Government released its infrastructure plan which included stage 3 of light rail going from Belconnen to Canberra Airport via Civic, with the Civic–Belconnen section built first.[96][97]

In October 2019, the ACT Government released its infrastructure plan which included stage 4 extending from Woden to Tuggeranong via Mawson.[97]

In October 2015, the ACT Government released a plan for a citywide light rail network that would be built over a period of twenty-five years.[98] The plan includes the following elements:[99]