‘Not someone to be ignored’: Former ministers pay tribute to public transport advocate

Brisbane public transport advocate Robert Dow has been remembered as an honest and pragmatic man who had a tangible impact on the cities public transport network.

Dow, the founder of the online forum turned advocacy group Rail Back on Track, passed away on Tuesday, aged 75.

Former Queensland transport ministers have told this masthead how Dow’s balanced opinions made him a trusted voice.

Former deputy premier Paul Lucas, who was transport minister, and then planning and infrastructure minister, in Anna Bligh’s Labor government in the late 2000s, said he regularly met with Dow.

“Ministers need to have people who can give them contrast, who don’t just criticise everything, and don’t just praise everything, but tell them what they think should happen,” he said.

“Sometimes we agree, sometimes not, but that was the successful formula that Robert Dow pioneered.”

Dow was a great supporter of the Go Card, and someone who helped shape the public transport network that Brisbane enjoys today.

“He was a lover of having an understanding of a public transport system as a system, not individual parts, and he has been a person who was really responsible for that sensible advocacy,” Lucas said.

“He is someone who will be sorely missed.”

Ministers of both persuasions praised Dow for his level-headed approach.

Scott Emerson, who was transport minister in the Newman LNP government, said that’s what made him effective.

“We didn’t always agree, but I never doubted his passion for improving public transport,” Emerson said.

Another former deputy premier, Jackie Trad, who served twice as transport minister under premier Anna Palaszczuk, said she also valued Dow’s input.

“[He] brought the commuter’s perspective to the table, including as a member of the expert taskforce we established to review TransLink’s fare structure,” she said.

Rachel Nolan, the first transport minister of the Bligh government and the first to hold the role after Dow launched Rail Back on Track, said Dow was sophisticated in his approach.

“He was passionate about public transport and a better, more inclusive region, but he was well-informed and someone with whom I as minister could have an honest conversation,” she said.

John Mickel, who took over as transport minister after Lucas, said he rode the train with Dow to the opening of the Springfield line, which he had pushed for.

“He was always a staunch advocate through Rail Back on Track, and not someone to be ignored,” he said.

A Vietnam veteran and QUT lecturer in medical industry, Dow will also be remembered for the community he grew through Rail Back on Track (RBOT), which he launched in 2006.

His friend Jeffrey Addison said Dow was inspired to push for a better rail network by the high number of his students who were late for class. It was a mission that later expanded to improving all public transport in Brisbane.

“Robert was honest, hard-working and dogged in his determination to improve the lot of public transport commuters everywhere, whether they knew it to thank him, or not,” he said.

What began as a public forum morphed into an almost full-time gig, with Dow often quoted in Brisbane Times on subjects from the implementation of the Go Card to the yet-to-be-completed Cross River Rail.

Rowan Gray, the president of Better Transport for Queensland – the modernised successor of RBOT – said Dow created a safe space for passionate people to talk about what they loved.

“He made it so welcoming and so inviting that I just fell more and more in love with the work he was doing and found it to be really important and really inspirational,” he said.

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