When signalling problems pushed back the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula train line by a couple of months earlier this year, the added wait seemed like an eternity for locals.

But historian Greg Hallam knows just how long residents of the region have really been waiting for rail to come to the region.

It was 1885 — 131 years ago — when the idea of a rail link to the Redcliffe region first came about.

That long wait finally comes to an end next week when the first passengers make the journey from Kippa-Ring to Petrie as part of an open day to celebrate the long-awaited rail link, to be known as the Redcliffe Peninsula Rail Line.

The new 12.6-kilometre dual-track passenger line includes new rail stations at Kallangur, Murrumba Downs, Mango Hill, Mango Hill East, Rothwell, and Kippa-Ring.

One of the original ideas to bring trains to the peninsula. ( Supplied: Moreton Bay Regional Council )

Mr Hallam, who is the historian for Queensland Rail, estimated there have been at least 22 different concepts and variations of the Redcliffe line since the first was planned in the late 19th century.

He said the long wait came down to "rotten luck and politics".

"It's a long and interesting and convoluted railway line," Mr Hallam said.

"I think the unfortunate thing for Redcliffe was that when the idea for a railway was proposed and pushed, it almost seemed to come at the worst possible time.

"There was always this feeling that it was perhaps a railway that couldn't be justified on population and those sorts of things."

First efforts for railway stopped by parliament

The 100-year-plus journey from concept to completion took its first steps in September 1885 when a deputation went to the then-Minister for Works asking for a survey for a railway.

Redcliffe gained a reputation as a seaside resort in the 1880s. ( Supplied: Queensland Rail )

Moreton Bay Regional Council recently helped to dig up more than a century's worth of maps, clippings, and photographs, to provide an insight into the push to connect the peninsula to Queensland's rail network.

"It was urged that the line would be only 8 or 9 miles [12.9 or 14.5 kilometres] long, and would present no great engineering difficulties, and would more over, cost little," an article from the time read.

A committee was soon formed, appointed with carrying out the survey and make all necessary preparations.

But it was not to be.

"In the 1890s when there was a push for a railway line built out to Redcliffe the then-members of the Queensland Parliament from all the country electorates objected to it because Brisbane already had a railway to Sandgate, a railway to Cleveland … these were resort railways which were basically built to take people down to the seaside," Mr Hallam said.

"Other far flung places of Queensland, regional Queensland, crying for railways for better communication, felt that if a line was built to Redcliffe, it'd just be the justification again that Brisbane got itself another railway so people could go to the seaside. There was that against it.

"Had that line been built in 1890s, early 20th century, it would have been a completely different thing."

Pontoon system floated as another preferred rail option

There was a renewed call for a Redcliffe rail line in 1897, this time proposing to extend the Sandgate Line through to the Redcliffe peninsula.

The estimated cost was 200,000 pounds.

Redcliffe rail route proposed by Ald Phillips of Sandgate Municipal Council in 1897. ( Supplied: Moreton Bay Regional Council )

The "Pontoon system" would have taken trains 18 kilometres from Nudgee station, across Hays Inlet, to the Redcliffe Jetty.

It was eventually mooted.

"No one was 'game' to approach the then Sandgate Shire Council in order to ask it to share the cost," the Redcliffe Herald reported in a 1968 article.

"Later, Sandgate made its own approach, only to be told that a discussion would be wasted as the Government would not approve the cost, a route via North Pine and Hays Inlet to Redcliffe being suggested instead."

Mr Hallam said the idea was "an absolute smasher".

"The interesting thing was they actually seriously looked at trying to electrify it … almost like a tram system," he said.

"They also worried about the force of winds and waves in Bramble Bay … they proposed a 7-foot [2.1-metre] gauge [spacing of the rails on a railway track] … that's twice the Queensland gauge, on that causeway so in the event of high winds the trains won't be blown off into the water."

A railway to Redcliffe from Sandgate has been previously investigated. ( Supplied: Queensland Rail )

Throughout the early 20th century, residents and the local council continued to support increased transport infrastructure in the Peninsula, which resulted in the construction of the Hornibrook Highway in 1935, connecting pedestrians and motorists on the peninsula to Brighton on Brisbane's north.

"Once the viaduct was built, that pretty much killed off the railway for the next 40 years … because there was a road connection," Mr Hallam said.

The opening of the Hornibrook Highway in 1935 was the result of a push by residents and local council for increased transport infrastructure. ( Supplied: State Library of Queensland )

Land finally acquired in 1980s

The first significant planning study to investigate the line occurred around 1979.

That was when the Metropolitan Transit Authority conducted a series of planning studies into a public transport corridor between Petrie and Kippa-Ring.

These investigations led to the identification of the preferred alignment for the project and the land was then acquired.

"It was always in the background … it's one of those things the timing just had to be right," Mr Hallam said.

Land was secured for the rail throughout the 1980s with additional studies carried out throughout the 1990s into the early 2000s, including the Petrie to Kippa-Ring Public Transport Corridor Study, which ran 1999 to 2003.

According to the Department of Transport and Main Roads, this study assessed the feasibility and impact of the corridor to support the visions and objectives set out in the Queensland Government's Regional Framework for Growth Management.

The population was an important factor in getting a railway to the peninsula. ( Supplied: Moreton Bay Regional Council )

"In 2005, Mayor Allan Sutherland, who was then-mayor of Redcliffe City Council, and his fellow councillors moved to support a campaign to finally have the Petrie to Kippa-Ring railway built," Moreton Bay Regional Council's local history officer Kelly Ashford said.

"By 2010, the Federal Government announced that the Kippa-Ring railway line would be fast-tracked, with the project to be complete by 2016.

"The agreement for the project was finally formalised in December, 2010 and signed by Mayor Sutherland together with the Federal and State governments."