No extra station will be added to the popular Gold Coast light rail project despite there being six high rise apartment towers near a suggested new stop and 1.35 kilometres between the two nearest stops.
With the longer stretch between Surfers Paradise and Main Beach, Paradise Waters residents want a new light rail stop.
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The original light rail project documentation asks for a stop every 800 metres, several Gold Coast councillors told Tuesday's Gold Coast City Council meeting.
Stage one of the Gold Coast light rail has 16 stations.
The motion to add a new station at Paradise Waters was lost because councillors believed it would be a case of slowing the ride and opening the door to the light rail project "being a victim of its own success."
They also believed the state government may ask them to pay for a new station.
Former Gold Coast mayor, now councillor Gary Baildon asked that an extra station be added at Paradise Waters, because it was included in the original plan, but later rejected by a previous state government.
Cr Baildon said there was a distance of 1350 metres between Main Beach and Surfers Paradise, when the original guidelines for the light rail argued for 800 metres between stops.
"I would like to see that wrong 'righted'," Cr Baildon said.
The former mayor said when the light rail project was first considered by council – and ultimately approved – a group of "noisy" residents opposed a station at Paradise Waters.
"So there is now a feeling that the people of Paradise Waters were punished because some of them opposed it at the time."
Mayor Tom Tate said he supported the idea because it was in the original documentation he saw when he was an engineering consultant before he became mayor.
Frank-talking councillor Dawn Crichlow also supported adding another station between Surfers Paradise and Main Beach because it was one of two changes made by the state government that were wrong.
"We even ended up with a stop outside a cemetery in Queen Street (Southport)," Cr Crichlow said.
"It is a joke that it is 1.3 kilometres between stations," she said.
"The rule of thumb for light rail stations is 800 metres between stations," she said.
Economic Development and Major Projects committee chairman Cr Herman Voster said – while he rarely opposed a local issue raised by the local councillor – adding another light rail station had broader ramifications.
"I am very nervous about voting to add another station at this meeting without it going through the rigour of our transport assessment team," Cr Vorster said.
He said he was wary that the State Government could "call the council's bluff" and ask Gold Coast City Council to pay for the new station.
"I would really hate for the light rail to become a victim of its own success," he said.
Cr Vorster said he was aware of the problem because veterans had already told him it was too far to walk from the light rail station to Cascade Gardens at Southport.
City Planning committee chairman Cr Cameron Caldwell also voted against the change because it had impacts on the complete light rail network, not only around Paradise Waters.
Cr Caldwell also questioned the impact on rising rates and charges on stand-alone residential homes in Paradise Waters as the impact of the light rail network evolved.
Cr Baildon said he was "disappointed" his motion to add a new station to the Gold Coast light rail network was lost 12:3.
"All I am doing here is trying to right a wrong," he said.
Over 11 million passengers have caught the Gold Coast light rail stage one since it opened in July 2014.
A stage two extension is now under way on the northern edge from Gold Coast University Hospital at Southport to Helensvale and will open in early 2018.
Planning for a future stage three - running south - has begun, but is not funded at this stage.
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