Make Melbourne Green

Which one will you vote for: the profit plan? Or the people plan, a visionary new public transport plan that costs less than Eddington’s tunnel proposals?

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The Victorian Greens have released a discussion paper and website proposing a major upgrade of Melbourne’s public transport system. The $14 billion blueprint allows Melburnians to go anywhere by public transport with high-frequency train, tram and bus services covering 101 major centres. This plan has huge benefits for the residents and businesses of Melbourne.

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.

Above: coloured cardboard and butchers paper aplenty at Bronwyn Pike’s electorate office, 27/8/08.

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What you didn’t know about the State Government’s Victorian Transport Plan:

- ‘Public’ consultation has already closed!
- $10bn East-West Road Tunnel to be automatically adopted by the plan.

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Melburnians woke yesterday morning to a curious piece in The Age, Tunnel critics shunned by Pike transport forum, by Clay Lucas.

CRITICS of a $9 billion road tunnel plan have been barred from a Government forum this afternoon to discuss transport plans for Melbourne …

Opponents of the proposed 18-kilometre tollway, which would run from Footscray to Clifton Hill, have been told they cannot attend today’s forum, being staged by the Education Minister and MP for Melbourne, Bronwyn Pike.

That the government might be fed up with anti-tunnel protests is not surprising. What was surprising was that a transport forum for the state seat of Melbourne was being held at all: transport experts and activists alike knew nothing of the meeting until Residents’ Groups received their invitations a week earlier.

What was even more surprising was the forum itself. A mere 20 people gathered at the invitation-only event, and quickly discovered that they were taking part in what would be the first and only consultation session for the whole of the Melbourne electorate for the development of the state government’s Victorian Transport Plan.

The two farcical hours that ensued could have been lifted straight from a script of The Hollowmen.

Click ‘read more’ for an insight into the meeting from one of the attendees, and discover why the $10bn East-West Road Tunnel will be automatically adopted by the Victorian Transport Plan, as well as the unique definition of ‘community consultation’, according to the State Government…

Dear The Hon Bronwyn Pike MLA,

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Yours sincerely,

The People of Kensington

http://www.wrongway-goback.com

As late as Monday, Lord Mayor John So was telling reporters that he supported an East-West freeway.

Twenty-four hours later, with the four members of his team all indicating on the floor of the council chambers that they would uphold the sentiment of the original Planning Committee motion moved by Greens Cr Fraser Brindley to abandon Council’s support for any East-West road tunnel, the Lord Mayor decided to save face.

The public galleries were filled beyond capacity with concerned residents, mostly from North Melbourne and Kensington, all waiting to see which way the Lord Mayor, and their Council, would vote.

The Lord Mayor offered no contribution until the very end of the lengthy debate. With a few quick words about the need to satisfy public demands for sustainable transport options, he voted with 8 of the 9 Councillors to support Cr Brindley’s amended motion.

Only Cr Shanahan, the sole ALP member on council, voted against, arguing that council needed to go further and state that they were “horrified” and “terrified” at the prospect of any East-West tunnel engulfing public spaces. As it was an argument over language, rather than of support for a tunnel, the State Government must now come to terms with the fact that 9 out of 9 Melbourne City Councillors have voted to strongly oppose any East-West road tunnel.

A firm political obstacle now stands in the way of the pro-tunnel State Labor Government…

As rising fuel costs squeeze more and more people onto Melbourne’s existing public transport system, commuters boarding at South Kensington station are hit hardest. The last station for city-bound trains coming from the Werribee and Williamstown lines before the two northern lines are added at North Melbourne station, commuters are all too often stranded on platforms as trains are too full to take on any more passengers.

Monday the 16th of June was such a day: commuters stood on the platforms at South Kensington station for forty minutes before a train arrived that could just squeeze some more passengers in.

Melbourne City Council candidate and Kensington local Donna Lancaster, who frequently uses South Kensington station, explains that some city-bound commuters find that it’s more time-efficient to take trains or buses back to Footscray to board trains coming from the Sydenham line (which has not stopped at South Kensington station for years to relieve pressure on the system!) than it is to wait on the platform.

“It’s not an option to go to Kensington Station as the Craigieburn line trains are full as well, and for some people, that’s a 25 minute walk” says Donna.

“The biggest insult to locals using South Kensington station is that they walk across JJ Holland Park to get there; the park that the Eddington Report recommends digging up to facilitate the building of the $10 billion East-West tunnel.”

For Kensington residents, the choice is clear: Public Transport, not roads!

To continue reading, click “read more”…

The Melbourne Times today suggests that some councillors may be second-guessing their own support for the Planning Committee’s decision on June 3rd (see the prior post).

Bianca Hall reports on Page 3 that despite the Planning Committee’s unanimous decision to overturn council’s original support for the East-West Tunnel, “the council’s political resolve shows early signs of wavering. Several councillors were later oscillating about how they intended to vote when the matter goes before the full council.”

Of particular concern is Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer who, it seems, had no qualms in telling Ms Hall that: “I haven’t made up my mind… I can see the arguments on both sides… I’ll be making up my mind closer to the date.” Might his vote on June 3rd end up being totally meaningless? And which other councillors might yet let the residents of the City of Melbourne down?

Click “read more” to see where the councillors stand and find out what you can do to ensure that council upholds its opposition to the tunnel.

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It’s hard to go too far in Kensington without seeing a No Road Tunnel sign up - sometimes you can see five houses in a row, all proudly proclaiming their opposition to the project.

Last weekend, about 300 people turned up to hear Greens MP Greg Barber put forward some of the arguments against the tunnel. A broad mix of the community and several other groups were there, including people from the Kensington Association, and independent and several groups with vested interest. Cathy Oke was introduced as the lead Greens candidate for Melbourne City Council, and Kensington resident Donna Lancaster was introduced as a candidate for the Council.

Greens MP Greg Barber and Greens Lord Mayor candidate Adam Bandt have also released a YouTube video talking about the campaign against the tunnel - take a look. You can find more information on the campaign for better transport options for Melbourne at http://www.wrongway-goback.com/.

Location: Debneys Park, Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington (just North of the Freeway Entrance). Melway ref Map 29 B12
Description: Rod Quantock, Paul Mees, Greg Barber MLC and Cr Rose Iser will be speaking.
Start Time: 1:00 pm
Date: 25th May 2008
End Time: 2:30 pm

Location: Kensington Community Recreation Centre (YMCA Pool) – Cnr Altona St and Kensington Road. Melway ref Map 42 J3.
Description: Greens MLC Greg Barber will be speaking at this public meeting.
Start Time: 2:00 pm
Date: 24th May 2008
End Time: 3:00 pm