The Gold Coast's light rail is finally heading south. Stage 3 extends the G:link line from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads via Mermaid Beach, Nobby Beach and Miami — here's the route, the timing, and what it means for getting around.
See the Route Where to Stay on the LineA 6.7km southern extension of the G:link tram from Broadbeach South to Burleigh Heads.
Testing through 2026; passenger services expected mid-2026 (confirm with TransLink).
Burleigh, Mermaid, Nobby & Miami get the tram for the first time — a car-free southern coast.
For the first time, the Gold Coast's light rail is pushing south of Broadbeach. The Stage 3 extension carries the G:link line another 6.7 kilometres down the coast to Burleigh Heads — and it changes the calculation on where to stay, how to get around, and whether you need a hire car at all.
The first tram completed the Broadbeach-to-Burleigh run in April 2026, kicking off full-line testing, with passenger services expected to open mid-2026. Until the official opening, the southern stretch is still served by buses — so if you're timing a visit around the new line, confirm the current status with TransLink first.
| Section | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Broadbeach South | The current southern terminus and the start of the Stage 3 extension. |
| Mermaid Beach | New stations serving the low-rise, increasingly fashionable mid-coast suburbs along the Gold Coast Highway. |
| Nobby Beach | Walkable village dining and a quieter beach, now on the tram line. |
| Miami | Home to the Miami Marketta food-and-music hall; the station should lift the suburb's profile further. |
| Burleigh Heads | The new southern terminus, with an upgraded bus-and-tram interchange — connecting the coast's most desirable beach-and-café suburb to the network at last. |
All up, the extension adds around eight new stations and takes the network to roughly 27 kilometres, from Helensvale in the north — where it meets the Brisbane heavy-rail line — to Burleigh Heads in the south.
The headline is simple: you can now base yourself at the southern, more local end of the coast and still reach Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and the shops at Pacific Fair without a car. Burleigh, Mermaid, Nobby and Miami have always been among the best places to eat and swim on the Gold Coast; the missing piece was easy transport, and Stage 3 supplies it.
Pair the new line with the flat 50-cent public-transport fare across South East Queensland, and a car-free Gold Coast holiday is more practical than ever — tap on with a go card or contactless card, ride to your beach, and walk to the sand. A hire car still earns its keep for the hinterland and the theme parks, but for a beach-and-dining trip down the southern coast, the tram now does most of the work.
The light rail covers the beaches beautifully — but the hinterland, the wildlife sanctuaries and the Scenic Rim need wheels. That's where we come in, with pickup from any tram-line suburb.
The Gold Coast is the only Australian tourist-coast city built around a light-rail spine, and the network has consistently outperformed its patronage forecasts since the first trams ran in 2014. Stage 1 connected Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach; Stage 2 pushed north to Helensvale in 2017, linking the tram to the Brisbane heavy-rail line. Stage 3 is the long-awaited southern leg — and arguably the most significant for visitors, because it finally connects the coast's most desirable beach-and-café suburbs to the network.
For years, Burleigh Heads' one drawback as a base was transport: it was bus-only, which nudged car-free visitors towards Surfers or Broadbeach. Stage 3 removes that friction, and it does the same for Mermaid Beach, Nobby Beach and Miami — a stretch that has quietly become some of the best eating and swimming on the coast. Combined with the flat 50-cent public-transport fare across South East Queensland, the extension makes a genuinely car-free Gold Coast holiday practical for the first time across the whole length of the city.
There's a bigger backdrop, too. The Gold Coast hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games and is a venue partner for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and its transport network is being built out with that future in mind. For visitors, the practical upshot is simple: more of the coast is reachable without a car, the southern beaches are easier to base in, and the tram now runs the better part of 27 kilometres from the Brisbane train connection at Helensvale all the way to Burleigh.
One caveat worth repeating: until passenger services formally begin, the southern section is still served by buses. If you're planning to rely on the new line, confirm the current opening status with TransLink before you travel.
The Gold Coast tram is a relatively young system with an outsized impact. The first stage opened in July 2014, linking the Gold Coast University Hospital and Southport through Surfers Paradise to Broadbeach South — a 13-kilometre spine down the heart of the tourist coast. Stage 2 followed in December 2017, extending the line north-west to Helensvale, where it connects with the Brisbane heavy-rail line and, by extension, Brisbane Airport via the broader network.
That northern connection was transformative: it meant visitors could arrive by train from Brisbane and ride the tram the length of the tourist strip without a car. Patronage consistently beat forecasts, with well over 100 million paid journeys recorded across the network — proof that a tourist-coast city could build genuine public-transport habits.
Stage 3, the southern extension to Burleigh Heads, is the next logical leg and arguably the most useful for visitors, because it reaches the suburbs where many people most want to be. Major construction ran through 2023 to 2026, and the first tram completed the Broadbeach-to-Burleigh run on 30 April 2026, kicking off full-line testing ahead of passenger services expected mid-2026. Looking further out, the city's long-term transport strategy envisions an even larger network, but Stage 3 is the extension that matters for trips planned in 2026.
Using the G:link is simple. Trams run frequently through the day along a single line, so there are no routes to learn — you're either heading north towards Helensvale or south towards Broadbeach (and, once Stage 3 opens, Burleigh Heads). You tap on and tap off at the platform readers rather than on board.
The fare story is the headline for visitors: public transport across South East Queensland — including the G:link tram and Gold Coast buses — now runs on a flat 50-cent fare per journey when you tap on with a go card or a contactless bank card or phone. That's among the cheapest urban transit anywhere, and it fundamentally changes the maths on whether you need a hire car for a beach-focused trip. A go card can be bought and topped up at stations and convenience stores; contactless payment avoids the card altogether.
Trams are step-free and accessible, with room for prams, luggage, wheelchairs and the odd surfboard, and they connect to the bus network at interchanges to reach the suburbs the tram doesn't. For most visitors staying along the line, the practical reality is that the G:link plus the occasional rideshare covers the whole holiday — beach, dining, shopping and nightlife — without ever needing to park a car.
The real significance of Stage 3 is what it unlocks at the southern end. Burleigh Heads has long been the suburb locals rate most highly — a patrolled beach under a national-park headland, the coast's best independent dining on James Street, a famous point break — but it was bus-only, which quietly pushed car-free visitors towards Surfers and Broadbeach. The tram removes that friction entirely.
The extension also brings Mermaid Beach, Nobby Beach and Miami onto the network for the first time. This mid-coast stretch has become some of the best eating and most relaxed swimming on the Gold Coast — Nobby Beach's village dining, Miami's Marketta food hall, the low-rise, local feel of Mermaid — and easy tram access should lift all three. For visitors, it means the quieter, more characterful southern beaches are now just as reachable as the high-rise north.
Combined with the 50-cent fare, the upshot is a genuinely car-free southern Gold Coast holiday: base yourself in Burleigh or Mermaid, ride the tram north to Surfers or the shops at Pacific Fair when you want the bright lights, and walk to the sand the rest of the time. It's a meaningfully different — and, for many travellers, better — way to experience the coast than the traditional Surfers Paradise base.
The tram covers the beaches and the central strip beautifully, but it doesn't reach everywhere, and whether you need a car comes down to your plans. For a holiday focused on the beaches, dining and nightlife along the line, the answer is increasingly no — the G:link and the occasional rideshare will do, and you'll save on the $15–40 a day that northern high-rises often charge for parking.
Where a car earns its keep is the hinterland and the theme parks. The Scenic Rim — Tamborine Mountain, Springbrook, Lamington — is not served by the tram and is awkward by public transport, so it's a car or a guided day tour. The big theme parks are reachable by go card but each sits on a different route and takes time; families doing multiple park days often prefer to drive, or to base nearer the northern parks.
On airports: Gold Coast Airport (OOL) at Coolangatta sits at the southern end, a short hop from a Coolangatta base and 40–50 minutes from Surfers by road; Brisbane Airport is about 60–80 minutes north, or reachable via the Airtrain rail link connecting to the Gold Coast line at Helensvale. For getting to Brisbane itself, the train from Helensvale is the easy car-free option. In short: tram for the coast, car or tour for the ranges, and let your itinerary — not habit — decide.
The G:link is built for the way the Gold Coast actually travels. The low-floor trams are step-free from the platform, with dedicated spaces for wheelchairs, prams and mobility scooters, audio and visual stop announcements, and level boarding that makes them genuinely easy with young children or luggage. Stations are accessible, with ramps and tactile guidance.
Bikes are welcome on board outside the busiest peak windows, and the trams comfortably carry the beach paraphernalia of coastal life — within reason, surfboards and beach gear travel too, which is part of why the line works so well for a beach holiday. Bays can fill on busy summer days, so allow a little flexibility if you're travelling with a bike or board at a popular time.
For visitors with accessibility needs, the combination of step-free trams, the flat and continuous Oceanway path, and beach matting and loan wheelchairs at several surf clubs makes the central coast one of the more navigable beach destinations in the country. If mobility is a consideration, basing yourself within walking distance of a tram stop — easy along the Surfers-to-Broadbeach spine, and increasingly so south to Burleigh once Stage 3 opens — keeps the whole coast within reach without a car.
Visitors sometimes confuse the Gold Coast's different rail and bus services, so it's worth being clear about how they connect. The G:link is the light rail — the tram running along the coast from Helensvale through Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, and (with Stage 3) on to Burleigh Heads. It's frequent, turn-up-and-go, and the backbone of getting around the tourist strip.
Separately, there's the heavy-rail line — the regular Queensland Rail train that runs between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with Gold Coast stations at Helensvale, Nerang, Robina and Varsity Lakes. These sit inland, not on the beach, so the usual pattern is to take the train down from Brisbane and change to the tram (at Helensvale) or a bus to reach the coast. The Airtrain service links Brisbane Airport into this same line.
Filling every gap is the bus network, which reaches the suburbs the tram doesn't — Palm Beach, Currumbin, Coolangatta and the hinterland fringes — and connects to the tram and trains at interchanges. The unifying feature across all of it (trams, buses and Queensland Rail within the zones) is the flat 50-cent fare per journey when you tap on with a go card or contactless card. The simplest mental model for a visitor: train for Brisbane, tram for the beaches, bus for the rest — all for fifty cents a trip.
So what does Stage 3 mean in practice for a 2026 visit? In short, it widens your options for where to stay without a car. The southern beaches — Burleigh, and the mid-coast run through Mermaid, Nobby and Miami — have long been among the best places to eat and swim on the Gold Coast, and now they're joining the tram network that already made the Surfers-to-Broadbeach spine so easy to navigate. A car-free holiday based at the calmer, more characterful southern end is more practical than it has ever been.
The one thing to nail down before you rely on it is timing. Testing ran through the first half of 2026 with the inaugural Broadbeach-to-Burleigh run completed on 30 April, and passenger services were expected to begin around the middle of the year — but until the official opening, the southern stretch is still served by buses. If your plans hinge on riding the new line to Burleigh, confirm the current status with TransLink before you travel.
Beyond that, the formula is simple: use the tram and the 50-cent fare for the beaches, the dining strips and the shops; keep a car or book a guided tour for the hinterland and the theme parks; and let your itinerary decide rather than defaulting to a hire car out of habit. For most beach-and-food trips down the coast, the G:link now does the heavy lifting — and Stage 3 finally extends that ease to the best beaches in the south.
If car-free convenience is the goal, it pays to choose accommodation within walking distance of a tram stop. Along the established line that means Southport, Surfers Paradise, Main Beach and Broadbeach — all well served and a short stroll to the sand. Once Stage 3 opens, the desirable southern suburbs of Mermaid Beach, Nobby Beach, Miami and Burleigh Heads join them, opening up a calmer, more local base with the same easy access.
Our companion guide to where to stay on the Gold Coast breaks down each of these precincts in detail — the vibe, the price, who they suit — and reading it alongside this one is the quickest way to land on a base that lets the tram, the beach and the dining all fall into place. With the line extended and the flat 50-cent fare, the southern coast is now the value pick for a car-free holiday.
Hotel pickup from every Gold Coast precinct. Hinterland, beaches, wildlife sanctuaries, and the Scenic Rim. Small groups of max 14, expert local guides, free 48-hour cancellation.
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