A special guest post about the current state of play in transport from Greg Barber, Greens MLC for Northern Metropolitan.
Above: protesters outside the State Government’s Transport Summit on Friday.
John Brumby is promising us a ‘30 year vision’ for transport for Victoria, due before the end of the year. It sounds like he is softening us up for the bad news: that some communities will have to wait 30 years for the public transport improvements they are crying out for right now, while a privatised road tunnel gets built in the meantime.
What we need is a much quicker, say ten year, plan that deliver on the promise his government made six years ago; a doubling of the proportion of trips (to 20% by 2020) that are taken on public transport. It requires a dramatic upgrade to the frequency and extent of trams, trains and buses.
Click ‘read more’ for the complete post.
When the 20%/2020 target was first proposed, government transport planners did a lot of work on how it would be achieved. Allowing for population and employment growth, doubling the proportion of trips on public transport means a two and a half times growth in the number of passengers carried. That means we need to replace and expand the existing tram, train and bus fleet. More frequent and faster running, late-night running, extending the network of routes and disability access to the vehicles were all looked at. Many detailed technical reports were prepared to back up the direction presented in Tram Plan, Train Plan and Bus Plan and the job was costed down to the vehicle, kilometre and hour of service.
Unfortunately, these documents were never endorsed, actioned or even officially released. All of the problems and opportunities with public transport that are so obvious now were anticipated then. Because those plans were designed to create such a big increase in patronage, it would have avoided the stresses and strains caused by the recent, dramatic growth in public transport usage, growth that they were warned about, growth that has now come in spite of the lack of action to expand public transport.
Thirty years ago, the (Liberal) government promised a rail line to Doncaster. As this recent article in The Melbourne Times (1.3mb .pdf) reports, Labor agreed, but never delivered. Now they’re about to ask us to believe them again.
We don’t need a 30 year plan. Instead, a new plan for public transport should deliver big improvements within the next year or two. But it must be grounded in a big vision: that every Melburnian will have access to public transport, of a good enough standard that they need not own a car to participate in all the opportunities that this city offers.
Instead, we’ll get business as usual as it has been in Victoria under Cain, Kirner, Kennett and Bracks. More and bigger roads, slowly but inexorably turning the inner city into one big off ramp and somehow never quite reaching motorist nirvana. In fact, ending up more congested and being told we need a another freeway to fix it.
We are a long way from a transport plan that is written by and for the people. Check out who is really in charge of the new body set up by the Rudd government to produce a ‘priority list’ of infrastructure projects for the nation. And it’s all headed up by … you guessed it …. Sir Rod Eddington, our favourite tunneller.
I’ve been holding meetings about the road tunnel in my electorate over the last few months. I’ve talked to about a thousand people about the Eddington report. I’ve met three people - three - who were in favour of it. the Eddington report. I’ve met three people - three - who were in favour of it. Wrong way - go back. It’s time for a plan centred around the people of Victoria.
Links:
Greg Barber, State Member of Parliament for Northern Metropolitan
One Comment | Please leave a comment or trackback
Vladimir Vuckovic
hello there,
i’m an automotive engineering student and have been looking into this field for an assignment on ITS and related transport issues. i haven’t read the Eddington report or am aware of much of it, but i do know he did propose a tunnel. well, what is a tunnel going to do? not much in along term anyway, it will become a carpark in several years time just like all the other freeways have these days. the way i think this tunnel idea can be utilised is by building tunnels around melbourne, but instead of allowing cars through them, set them up for trains, trams, buses…public transport in other words. it may cost an arm and a leg, but it may be the only way we are going to get rid of these congestion problems. more and more roads around melbourne are becoming like carparks, with most vehicles trasporting only a single passenger. i am guilty of it too, but the current public transport system goes nowhere near the convenience of the personal transport, and i believe for that reason people are willing to put up with beeing stuck in the traffic for some time. however as the roads become more and more congested (which is inevitable), the public transport should be able to meet peoples needs to get them around Melbourne, and not just suburbs-city, city-suburbs. i am talking about going around melbourne, in circles if you will. currently all our rail lines including trams mostly operate as the CBD as their major destination or stop over, and fair enought, we need a that, me especially as a young person wanting to go out to CBD etc..but on daily basis there are only buses that connect easy-west routes throughtout melbourne. they are painfully slow, noisy, smelly and are plagued by the same problem as a car,congested roads. to sum it up shortly, more efficient inter-suburban trasportation is one of the keys to better living in melbourne. have a rail line going around the melbourne in the same sort of way western ring road does..it will cost money, but doesnt everything?
regards,
Vladimir Vuckovic
Oct 11th, 2008
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