EastLink opens with traffic jams

Perhaps a precursor of things to come? More cars in another tollway/carpark?

IF THE success of a debut can be measured by the size of the crowd — or the depth of congestion — yesterday's opening of EastLink was a winner.

As Sunday traffic crawled, bumper-to-bumper, through Melbourne's two newest tunnels, the grand event could also have been a million-dollar triumph — if only the tolls were being enforced.

The road's operator, ConnectEast, was counting cars through e-TAGs, but does not plan to release traffic volume data until the end of the first week of operation.

The fee for using the 39-kilometre tollway will be capped at about $5, rising with inflation, and costing less for shorter trips. The tolls will begin on July 27.

ConnectEast has estimated there will be about 260,000 trips on the road every day, bringing in about $900,000 a day once the tolls are in place.

With traffic flows medium to heavy yesterday, hundreds of thousands of vehicles were expected on the road.

ConnectEast managing director John Gardiner said he was overwhelmed by the launch, describing it as a "well-organised operation" that went like clockwork.

Sightseers caused tunnel congestion and several minor crashes, he said.

"Generally, they're nose-to-tail accidents where people are just not watching the road," he said.

"The road's working quite well except in the tunnel where there is fairly slow traffic."

The first EastLink drivers were on the road at 1.01am under police escort from Frankston and Mitcham.

It took 29 minutes to open the on-ramps and exits— less time for one of the first drivers to run out of petrol and not much longer for an 18-year-old Mount Martha man to be caught speeding at 135 km/h between the Princes Highway and Cheltenham Road.

Senior Constable Darryl Jones said police were concerned that the new road would bring out bad behaviour.

"Over the next few weeks there'll be a 24-hour-a-day police presence on that road," he said.

By lunchtime yesterday, the Melba and Mullum Mullum tunnels at the end of the Eastern Freeway were full.

Authorities closed the Springvale Road on-ramp and a tunnel lane to push out a second driver without petrol.

The $3.8 billion project is a public-private partnership and construction costs were $2.5 billion.

In 2003, the State Government revealed that the road would have a toll despite promising before the 2002 election that it would not.

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said yesterday that the Liberal Party had always supported the project but voters should remember the promise broken when Premier John Brumby was treasurer.

"Labor's lie in the 2002 election about that issue and about tolls is very much his to own," Mr Baillieu said.

Deputy Premier Rob Hulls said the road was a fantastic piece of infrastructure and all drivers should use caution.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/eastlink-launch-a-winner-with-traffic-jams-proving-size-really-does-count-20080629-2yvd.html

Memo to Mr Brumby: take Kororoit's lesson to heart

...The state seat of Kororoit, in Melbourne's west, presents a more complex picture. It, too, was regarded as a safe seat — in this case, for the ALP — and did not change hands. But a high-profile independent candidate, youth worker Les Twentyman, gained more than 20% of the primary vote, forcing Labor's Marlene Kairouz to rely on his preferences to secure her election. The swing against the ALP — almost 13% of the primary vote, in a seat that a year ago it would have taken for granted — must discomfit the Brumby Government.

Mr Twentyman has said that the result means Kororoit is now a marginal seat. That is not quite true, because it is not obvious that a Liberal candidate could repeat his achievement. What Mr Twentyman has done, however, is demonstrate that in a seat like Kororoit a left-leaning independent, campaigning strongly on community issues, can knock a hefty dent in Labor's majority and might win the seat on a future occasion. This outcome should warn all parties that the era of rusted-on voter loyalties is past...

Read the whole article here - http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/memo-to-mr-brumby-take-kororoits-lesson-to-heart-20080629-2ytp.html?page=-1

Gotta love this!

Not happy with the proliferation of green triangles all over the place!? That's cool - just make your own sign!

Article on EastLink in The Age

...Although supporters hail the project as the missing link for car users in the outer east, critics say it represents a huge failure by the Government in public transport planning.

Melbourne University transport expert Nick Low says the freeway will "lock in" residents of the outer east to car use at a time of soaring petrol prices and increased environmental concerns.

"That freeway was yet another example of building roads in the outer areas of Melbourne where the need now is for better public transport in all sorts of ways," he said. "Now we're facing a situation where petrol may go beyond $2 a litre and people can't fill up their cars."

He said increasing buses throughout the outer east, improving connections between bus and train services and extending rail lines were better ways of dealing with congestion...

Read the whole article here - http://www.theage.com.au/national/relief-as-drivers-get-early-start-on-road-of-success-20080628-2yjw.html?page=-1

$10bn tunnel plan a bad idea, says its creator

MELBOURNE City Council's "Big Idea" for a $10 billion freeway and rail tunnels under north and west Melbourne is a bad idea, according its creator.

Transport consultant William McDougall told The Age that building tunnels was the lowest of the city's transport priorities.

He said his report to the council only advocated a tunnel after a brief from a senior town hall officer called for it.

"My personal view is that we'd probably be better off not building a tunnel … I think the real key to solving congestion is to shift people from car to public transport," he said.

Dated.... 2005!!

Read the rest of it here... http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/10bn-tunnel-plan-a-bad-idea-says-its-creator/2005/08/31/1125302632676.html

They've thought long and hard about selling it...

Here's one from 2005, and this is from The Age from August 2007 :

THE public relations campaign designed to create the environment in which Sir Rod Eddington's inquiry into the east-west tunnel link can be given a tick without creating too much public opposition is at full throttle.

Wayne Kayler-Thompson from the Victorian Chamber of Commerce told The Age last week building that the link was essential to Victoria's liveability. The idea that cities can improve their liveability by building more freeways is risible.

Melbourne lost its title as the world's most liveable city to cities such as Vancouver because the leading cities' transport policies emphasised sustainability, combining excellent public transport with moratoriums on major road projects.

Publicly, the link is being sold as a means of relieving traffic congestion from the eastern suburbs as peak-hour traffic struggles to get off the Eastern Freeway at Hoddle Street and into the city.

Link proponents are at least frank in this respect. They admit finishing EastLink in 2008 will add to that congestion, with another 15,000 cars trying to get into the city in the morning peak.

Thus the east-west tunnel is being sold as a means of redirecting this traffic away from the CBD and in the direction of the western suburbs. The question is does the traffic want to go in this direction? Previous attempts to get the link up foundered on this point as a result of evidence by University of Melbourne town planner Dr Paul Mees, who showed that 9 per cent of the traffic coming off the Eastern Freeway wanted to go to the western suburbs.

It is a view that is accepted by the people who want to put their money into the project. Last week crikey.com reported that in mid-July a Macquarie Bank and Transurban consortium made a secret pitch to the former state treasurer John Brumby for a $3-$4 billion public-private partnership to build and operate a tolled east-west tunnel connecting the eastern suburbs, EastLinkand CityLink.

But according to the report, "as the consortium knows, there is only minimal traffic that actually moves west to east and vice-versa. So to make the project viable, they set the condition for the PPP that at least four and up to eight exit ramps to the Melbourne CBD be allowed."

Consider that for a moment. The tunnel link would go along Alexandra Parade, Princes Street and tunnel-open cut through Melbourne Cemetery, Royal Park and Flemington Road into Racecourse Road. Under the proposal, this would require up to eight exit and entrance ramps across all but two of the following: Hoddle, Wellington, Smith, Brunswick, Nicholson, Rathdowne and Drummond streets, Royal Parade and Flemington and Boundary roads.

And why? As the peak PPP infrastructure lobby group, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, said in its submission to Sir Rod, the population is expected to grow by about 25 per cent or a million people by 2030 and much of this growth will be in the eastern suburbs.

As the IPA coyly points out, CityLink and the Eastern Freeway are continuing to yield significant traffic volumes with direct consequences for traffic in northern Melbourne, and the Government should consider "traffic problems evident at Hoddle Street, Nicholson Street and Alexandra Parade could be further exacerbated with the opening of EastLink next year".

The project is urgent, says the IPA: "The timing of the project should be sequential to the completion of the EastLink in 2008. The absence of sufficient major projects such as the tunnel in Victoria could result in the dilution of the workforce or its outright relocation to other states or abroad. The situation should be avoided by the progression of the tunnel through approval mechanisms as expeditiously as possible."

But the IPA is concerned an expensive PPP may not be viable without considerable taxpayer subsidies and plenty of exit ramps to allow traffic to go where it wants to go. The IPA wants its cake and eat it at the same time.

In a two-fisted grab for public money as taxpayers and motorists, the IPA claims "there is a compelling case for major Federal Government funding contribution to such a high-profile, nationally significant project.

"It is also vital for the Victorian Government to move quickly with the east-west link project in order to achieve (federal) AusLink 2 funding," it said. "The project is one of national significance and the expeditious conduct of this needs assessment and implementation of its recommendations, will be essential to that end."

The link is a solution to nothing except as a profitable job-creation project for the building industry and a chance for financial engineers in banks such as Macquarie to develop multibillion-dollar tax PPPs to soak up the billions deposited in superannuation funds.

The solution to the problem of CBD congestion that eastern commuters create doesn't require massive amounts of money. It requires a modicum of thought. The only way more people will be able to get into the CBD on the scale envisaged by the proponents of the east-west link is with improved eastern rail transport. Mees points out that in the 1940s daily metropolitan train usage was nearly 200,000 compared with about 150,000 today with a rail system that is larger now. Capacity usage can be increased with better timetabling. But that requires overhauling the system's management including abolishing the failed franchising duopoly, which costs the taxpayer twice as much as when it was public.

Mees points out that all cities with superior liveability have first-class publicly owned public transport. None are considering privatisation.

But what is the IPA's policy? Of course it is to renew the franchises of the private operators when they expire next year. It is a policy that the Brumby Government has apparently adopted. What can one say except poor fella, my city.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/driving-down-the-road-of-congestion/2007/08/12/1186857344539.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

So what's all this about?

Melbourne's transport has been slowing down for some time. Commuters from outer suburbs drive in hour-long bumper-to-bumper traffic. The inner city is choked with traffic coming off from freeways. Other routes get choked by drivers choosing alternative routes to avoid paying tolls. The train system is straining, and Connex themselves say is at its maximum and will not be able to keep up with the increasing demand.

The successive Victorian Governments have commissioned, and received, a number of reports on how to tackle the future of transport in Melbourne. The most recent of these was commissioned with a very narrow focus, and only asked very specific questions. Sir Rod Eddington answered those questions.

There are a number of 'big ticket' items from his report :
- a rail link from Werribee to Tarneit
- a rail tunnel from Footscray, via the hospitals and University district at the north of the CBD, linking with Melbourne Central and Flinders St Station, and down St Kilda Rd to Domain, before coming out in Caulfield, and
- a road tunnel, linking the end of the Eastern Freeway with the Tullamarine Freeway and then continuing on to finish somewhere around Footscray, with possible links to the docks area, Ballarat Road or some major routes headed towards the Westgate Freeway.

If all of the suggestions in Eddington's report were taken up, it would cost $18 Billion in today's money.

However, it is the East West Link car tunnel which has attracted the most attention.

The report states that it, alone, would cost close to $10 Billion. The data that Eddington uses shows that this tunnel would have an extremely low return on investment - it is not a good use of public funds. If, alternatively, it is paid for by private investment, the State Government, and the road users will be paying for it for many, many years. Paying financially, but then also most-probably, by contractual restriction in other potential solutions (eg: CityLink prevents the creation of a rail link from the CBD to the airport).

To construct the East West Link car tunnel, Eddington's report proposes using Royal Park and JJ Holland Park as 'staging areas'. These are two major points where drilling will commence from, and where piles of dirt etc can be stored when they come out of the shaft, before being transported elsewhere. According to the report, construction is liable to take around 8 years. Afterwards, there is some contradictions between the engineering report and what officials have said, but it could be that instead of parkland being reinstated, there could be an open cutting with a 6-lane highway where the parks were to "... enhance the driver experience..." (pg 75).

Artist's Impression of the cutting

So, in this age of increasing petrol prices, climate change and carbon consciousness, the State Government is suggesting spending $10 Billion on a tunnel which would encourage more car use and which will choke, just like any other main arterial near the city.

So what's a real solution? Spend the money on options that will encourage people not to drive their cars. If there are less cars on the roads, there is less traffic - leaving the roads for trucks, buses and taxis, and a minimum of private vehicular use.

This requires a number of long-term solutions, as outlined by many of the reports state governments had received prior to the Eddington report. A key one is massive spending on rail infrastructure :
- MANY people use public transport in Melbourne. However, they do it grudgingly. Others don't, because it's not meeting their needs as it is too inefficient. The current rail system, as it is, could handle many more trains running more frequently. The City Loop was designed so that trains on many lines could run as frequently as every 3-8 minutes.
- Increasing trains would have a flow-on effect to car traffic, as Melbourne has far too-many level crossings. Some key level crossings have already been earmarked for construction of under/over passes (Springvale Road) but this needs to continue. There are other massive level crossings in outer suburbs, and many, many closer to the city. More trains will mean more car traffic disruptions unless these works are undertaken.
- Current rail lines need to be extended, and the number of trains running on them need to be increased accordingly. (Not like the experience with the Craigieburn line (nee Broadmeadows) where the trains have been overflowing with passengers pretty-much since the line was extended.
- New rail lines need to be constructed. Many of the previous reports stated this, and the Doncaster Line is an obvious one.
- The State Government needs to encourage commerce and industry outside of the CBD and surrounds, so that people in outlying suburbs have less of a need for a long daily commute.

Many of these solutions would fit within the $18 Billion that the Eddington Report. And actually how much is $18 Billion? Well, it would solve Australia's Public Housing Issues. TWICE! So, we want to think very, very carefully about how we spend it!

Minutes from City of Melbourne Council meeting

For those of you who couldn't be there in person, or couldn't follow what on earth was going on, because you were in the antechamber and the microphones kept cutting out, here it is in all its glory... (or just scroll down to the bit I bolded for the good stuff).

Shanahan voted against it, because he felt it wasn't anti-tunnel enough!

3
PLANNING COMMITTEE

5.1. City of Melbourne Submission to State Government on the East West Link Needs Assessment
(EWLNA) Recommendations

On 2 April 2008 Sir Rod Eddington released his report Investing in Transport – East West Link Needs Assessment
(EWLNA) which he has submitted to State Government. The State Government are seeking comment on the
EWLNA report by 15 July 2008.


4
Moved: Cr Ng

1. That Council:
1.1. abandon Council’s support for an East West Road Tunnel;
1.2. oppose the use of parks for any works associated with an East West Road Tunnel;
1.3. note the redrafted submission to the EWLNA reflecting this change along with the
prioritisation of all public transport initiatives including the Doncaster Rail (refer
Attachment 1 to the Council Report);
1.4. request a further report to the Planning Committee on redrafting its Transport
Policy to reflect these changes; and
1.5. state its strongest possible objection to any use of Holland Park or Royal Park or
any other Park for the purposes of any road works or associated activities.

Seconded: Cr Brindley

Amendment
Moved: The Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer moved the following amendments:
• replace paragraph 1.1 above with “oppose the Eddington East West Road Tunnel and the use
or reduction of any parkland and disruption to the community”; and
• to add “provide in principle support for the development of a sustainable transport
infrastructure to reduce congestion across Eastern and Western Melbourne and to continue
discussions with the State Government along these lines.”

Seconded: Cr Wilson

Discussion ensued.

The amendment was put and carried with the Chair Lord Mayor John So, Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer and
Councillors Clarke, Ng, Jetter and Wilson voting in favour of the amendment and Councillors Brindley, Shanahan
and Snedden voting against the amendment.

Amendment
Moved Cr Clarke moved the following additional paragraphs:

• “recognise that the Eddington Report fails to adequately deal with North-South traffic
movements at Hoddle Street off the Eastern Freeway
• that Council call on the State Government to adequately fund public transport as an
alternative transport solution to overcome the congestion on our road network:
• that the City of Melbourne request abutting Councils to undertake its own study to identify
solutions for resident, commuter and freight movement in the City of Melbourne and broader
study area and adequately resource such a study by the city’s budget in the 2008/2009
financial year.”

Discussion ensued.

The amendment was put and lost with Councillors Clarke, Jetter and Snedden voting in favour of the amendment,
and the Chair Lord Mayor John So, the Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer and Councillors Brindley, Ng, Shanahan
and Wilson voting against the amendment.

Cr Clarke suggested that the words “as a high priority for the Doncaster Rail” be included after the words “public
transport initiatives including” at paragraph 1.3 above.

The Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer and Cr Wilson as mover and seconder respectively, agreed to incorporate Cr
Clarke’s suggestion.

Cr Clarke suggested the addition of the following paragraphs:

• that Council call on the State Government to adequately fund public transport as an alternative transport
solution to overcome the congestion on our road network; and
• that the City of Melbourne request abutting Councils to undertake its own study to identify solutions for
resident, commuter and freight movements in the City of Melbourne and broader study area and adequately
resource such a study by the city’s budget in the 08/09 financial year.

The Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer and Cr Wilson, as mover and seconder respectively, agreed to incorporate Cr
Clarke’s suggestion.

Cr Brindley offered an apology to the Manager Strategic Planning and Sustainability, David Mayes, for his
comments during the Planning Committee meeting held on 3 June 2008, which was not in accordance with the
Councillor Code of Conduct. He also stated that the administration is a lot more accountable in their conduct than
that of some Councillors. Cr Brindley acknowledged the administration for doing great work even when in a
difficult situation. He also congratulated the residents and the public for their participation.

The substantive motion was put and carried with the Chair Lord Mayor John So, the Deputy Lord Mayor Gary
Singer and Councillors Brindley, Clarke, Jetter, Ng, Snedden and Wilson voting in favour of the motion and
Councillor Shanahan voting against the motion.

The motion in its entirety reads:

1. That Council:
1.1. oppose the Eddington East West Road Tunnel and the use or reduction of any parkland and disruption to the community
1.2. oppose the use of parks for any works associated with an East West Road Tunnel
1.3. provide in principle support for the development of a sustainable transport infrastructure to reduce congestion across Eastern and Western Melbourne and to continue discussions with the State Government along these lines;
1.4. note the redrafted submission to the EWLNA reflecting this change along with the prioritisation of all public transport initiatives including a higher priority for the Doncaster Rail (refer Attachment 1 to the Council Report);
1.5. request a further report to the Planning Committee on redrafting its Transport Policy to reflect these changes; and
1.6. state its strongest possible objection to any use of Holland Park or Royal Park or any other Park for the purposes of any road works or associated activities;
1.7. that Council call on the State Government to adequately fund public transport as an alternative transport solution to overcome the congestion on our road network
1.8. that the City of Melbourne request abutting Councils to undertake its own study to identify solutions for resident, commuter and freight movements in the City of Melbourne and broader study area and adequately resource such a study by the city’s budget in the 08/09 financial year.


ADJOURNMENT OF MEETING

Moved: Cr Brindley

That Council adjourn at 6.40pm and resume at 6.43pm.
Seconded: Cr Ng
Carried unanimously.

http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/opm/bc/CTEE/meetings/C4_minutes_200806240530.pdf

More pix from Defend Kensington

Lots more at http://savehollandpark.adtphotography.com/

Committee for Geelong disappointed at east-west tunnel rejection

A SUPER-sized $9 billion tunnel under Melbourne to free up traffic from the western region and Geelong needs to go ahead despite the City of Melbourne rejecting it, a peak lobby group says.

Committee for Geelong executive director Peter Dorling said the council's vote against the proposed road tunnel harmed the interests of Geelong commuters.

The tunnel would link the Eastern Freeway with the western suburbs.

Mr Dorling said it was natural for such large scale developments to attraction objections.

But he said the east-west tunnel was too important to be ignored.

"Doing nothing is not an option," Mr Dorling said.

"It's our business that would use it, it's our freight that would use it, it's our general population that would use it we have a right to get in and out of Melbourne."

The committee has long backed the $9 billion tunnel link put forth by international transport expert Sir Rod Eddington.

Premier John Brumby is expected to decide upon the scheme later this year.

The tunnel is Sir Eddington's solution to the bottleneck of traffic creating pressure at the western gateway to Melbourne.

With up to 70,000 people expected to settle in the Armstrong Creek development on Geelong's fringe in coming years, the state is beginning to look at solutions including the tunnel.

But at a City of Melbourne meeting on Tuesday night, eight of the nine councillors, including Lord Mayor John So, voted to oppose the tunnel.

The councillors argued that parkland should not be destroyed and called for a bigger use of public transport.

On Saturday about 500 people turned out to oppose the proposed use of a park in Kensington as a part of the road tunnel.

In his East West Needs Assessment report, Sir Eddington said the digging of the tunnel to connect the Eastern Freeway with the western suburbs should start from the park.

Interesting that it's misreported. Eight of the nine councillors voted for the amendment so it would say that the City of Melbourne was anti-tunnel - one voted against the amendment because he felt it wasn't worded strongly enough, it needed to me MORE anti-tunnel.

Also... I'm not entirely sure how a tunnel in Footscray is going to "free up traffic in Geelong"... I don't think their traffic jams are 75km long.

Sample submision content - to send to eastwestyoursay@doi.vic.gov.au

East-West transport options review

Department of Transport

GPO Box 2797

Melbourne VIC 3001

To the review committee,

As a parent of a child using the Kensington Community Children’s Cooperative, I am extremely concerned about reports I have heard about the impact of the proposed East-West Road Tunnel on JJ Holland Park in general and the child care centre in particular:

• Excavation of JJ Holland Park to create the tunnel

• Use of JJ Holland Park as a ‘staging post’ for debris from wider excavation

• Possible ‘open slot’ freeway permanently occupying part of what is now parkland

Impact on Kensington Community Children’s Cooperative

It would be impossible to continue operating the Centre next to a major construction site, which will create air pollution from the disturbance of asbestos-contaminated soil and dust, noise pollution, and traffic problems. Noise and air pollution from a tunnel portal in or near JJ Holland Park would also make it impossible for the Centre to operate. Melbourne City Council has invested considerable funds on a project (currently in progress) to expand the childcare centre from 60 to 100 long day care places. This investment will be completely wasted if the East-West road tunnel goes ahead as proposed in the Eddington Report.

The population of Kensington has risen significantly in recent years and continues to grow rapidly with a local “baby boom”. This will place even greater demand on the child care centre in future years.

Impact on other children’s amenities in JJ Holland Park

The “Venny” Adventure Playground, the playground next to the child care centre and the YMCA Kensington Recreation Centre are very popular with local children. These facilities would not be able to operate if major building works were taking place in or near the park.

For older children, the skateboard park located at the south-west corner of JJ Holland Park is well used and one of the few meeting places for teenagers in the area. It will be destroyed if the park is to be used as a staging post during tunnel construction.

Impact on the Kensington community

JJ Holland Park is the only large open space in Kensington. It is used by many different sporting and recreational groups and usage will increase as the population of children in the Kensington area continues to grow. The park is currently one of the most popular meeting places for parents, their children and numerous dog owners in Kensington.

I urge you to consider the irreparable damage this project would cause to the Kensington Community and to reject any use of JJ Holland Park or any other parkland for construction of the road tunnel.

Sincerely,

No margin for error in rail squeeze

Premier John Brumby has defended the State Government's attempts to cope with soaring passenger numbers on Melbourne's rail network.

Speaking on radio 3AW this morning, Mr Brumby said an increase in services on the tram and bus network could help ease the pressure on train operators.

"The system is running at full capacity and if you assume petrol prices or oil prices in the future stay high, there will be increase of demand in the system,'' Mr Brumby said.

"When the system runs 100% capacity there is no margin for error it is likely that the level of breaches could be higher."

Mr Brumby said the Eddington report, which recommends building an $8.5 billion rail tunnel linking Footscray to Caulfield and bolstering already-stretched train services in the west, would also help address the issue.

"Our goal is to make it fit. I haven't got the numbers in front but the objective is to carry increased number of passengers.

"That is what (the) Eddington (report) is all about. That is what the record road investment programmes is all about and record investment trams and buses is all about.''

Leaked tender documents show that by 2011 28% more commuters are expected to use Melbourne's trains but its fleet will expand by only 11%, The Age revealed today.

That equates to a jump in passenger numbers from 198 million this year to 253 million in 2012.

And passengers in regional Victoria are also facing a tight squeeze, with V/Line carrying a record number of passengers - breaking the 1 million mark for the first time in the year to May.

When questioned about the leaked documents on radio 3AW this morning, Mr Brumby admitted rail operators could face lighter penalties for late or cancelled trains.

"The expression of interest document flags is there maybe some flexibility,'' he said.

Numbers have also increased on Victoria's regional rail network, with V/Line reporting a rise of more than 23% in passengers on some lines.

Figures released by V/Line show the Ballarat/Bacchus Marsh and Bairnsdale/Sale lines have recorded a 23.2% rise in patronage in the year to May.

Passenger numbers rose on the Shepparton, Traralgon and Ararat lines by more than 20%, while the Geelong route had a 16.2%. jump.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/no-margin-for-error-in-rail-squeeze-20080624-2vym.html

City of Melbourne vote against East-West tunnel

As shown on Ch 2 news

"I don't want to lose my house"

CONCERNS among Sunshine home owners and members of Friends of Kororoit Creek that their homes and parklands may be destroyed by a proposed east-west road tunnel will be raised at a public meeting on 1 July.

Brimbank City Council will host an information session about the Eddington public transport report at the Glengala Community Centre from 7pm to 9pm.

Friends of Kororoit Creek member and Sunshine home owner Debbie Woods said she had concerns that the State Government might compulsorily acquire her home for proposed routes of the road tunnel that would link the Eastern Freeway to the western suburbs.

She said from reading the Eddington report, it looked like her home could be acquisitioned for the first or second proposed road tunnel route, along with all three proposed routes requiring a bridge across Kororoit Creek for traffic.

“I don’t want to lose my house,” she said. “My house is in the line of fire.”

Ms Woods said losing her home acquisition would be hard, particularly because she was about 50 years old.

She said while she had paid off her home loan, the State Government would pay her only market value - about $270,000 - and more than likely she would not get another home loan from a bank to afford another home.

Residents wanting to attend the Brimbank Council’s public meeting should register by phoning Helen Christie on 9249 4702 or email helenc@brimbank.vic.gov.au

For more information on the Eddington Report, visit the Department of Transport website www.doi.vic.gov.au/eastwestyoursay.

Original article from SunshineStar

John So backflips - article on MakeMelbourneGreen.com

As late as Tuesday, 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…

Transport: the fine print

Leaked documents show the public transport system faces massive extra strain, but the operators will not suffer rigorous performance fines.

IF YOU catch a train, tram or bus in Melbourne, things are about to get worse for you. Much worse.

The State Government knows this but until the Opposition on Monday released leaked tender documents for the running of the city's train and trams for the next 15 years, it hadn't planned on telling you.

Premier John Brumby admitted yesterday that public transport in Melbourne was choked with as many passengers as it could handle.

"The system is running at absolutely full capacity," he told 3AW's Neil Mitchell. "And if you assume that petrol prices are going to stay high or that oil prices may go even higher in the future, we're going to see increasing demand on the system."

Brumby would have preferred people did not understand just how much that demand is set to increase - or whose fault it would be if the rail and tram system fails to cope with the demand.

But, thanks to the documents leaked to Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder, what has become all too clear is that it will not be the transport operators who will pay for a poor system. It will be commuters.

Mulder this week released a leaked copy of the confi dential expression-of-interest documents that will set out the terms for Melbourne's privatised train and tram operators. The documents reveal that Melbourne's next operators will face softer penalties for late services and too many cancellations.

They also reveal the Government's own estimates for just how many passengers will pile onto our already packed train, tram and bus network, which is at "full capacity".

By 2011, train passengers will total 253 million a year - up from 198 million - while tram passengers numbers are expected to grow to 182 million, up from 161 million.

Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky often cites the Government's decision to buy 18 new trains from French train builder Alstom as proof it is acting to reduce the massive overcrowding on the system. The fi rst of the new trains are due to arrive next year.

But the new fi gures - which Kosky had ruled out making public at a parliamentary committee last month - reveal that even these new trains will do little to accommodate the huge expected growth.

While train patronage will grow by 28% over the next three years, the fleet capacity is increasing by just 11%.

Worse still, while tram patronage will boom by more than 11% in the next three years, there are no fi rm plans to buy a single tram, but they are leasing an additional five.

Kosky yesterday rejected any suggestion she had tried to keep secret the expression-of-interest documents and all of the details they contained.

"It's not secrecy," she told ABC Radio's Jon Faine. "It (the expression- of-interest document) is more of a draft, and so it didn't make sense to put ... documents which could be confusing for the public."

Mulder says the documents, which marked the fi rst stage in the tendering process to run the rail and tram networks, were not confusing - rather, they were all too clear for the Government.

They are, he says, an admission that the poor performance of the system is not the fault of the operators Connex and Yarra Trams. Together the companies have been fi ned more than $60 million for tardiness and cancellations in the past year.

Those fi nes, Mulder believes, speak more of underfunding by Labor in public transport since it came to power in 1999.

"The problem is not with the operators, the problem is with the Government," he says. "In the past, the Government has hid behind Connex and Yarra Trams over the fi nes they are (accruing). But, now with the renewal of the contract, they are basically admitting they can't blame them any more if they want to attract anyone to run the system."

Mulder has argued for several months now that in addition to the 18 new trains ordered, the Government must buy a further 20 from Alstom.

Brumby, although he wouldn't readily admit it when questioned yesterday, seems to agree that public transport users face tough times ahead.

"When the system is running at 100% capacity, there is absolutely no margin for error," he told Mitchell.

"It is likely that the level of breaches (by transport operators) could be higher, not necessarily because of any fault of the operators."

Instead of his normally polished radio performance, Brumby stumbled when asked how the public transport system would cope with the increased patronage.

He promised short-term improvements by providing more train services in a timetable review in November. He promised rail duplication projects in Clifton Hill and other parts of the network.

And in the longer term, he promised to look at $20 billion worth of recommendations by Sir Rod Eddington, including a $7 billion rail tunnel joining Footscray to Caulfield.

But the leaked tender documents, written by Brumby's bureaucrats without the spin, acknowledge that there is a crisis in transport in Melbourne now, and that it is going to get worse before it gets better as more passengers pile on to avoid high petrol prices...

Read the rest of the article here...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/transport-the-fine-print-20080624-2wb6.html?page=-1

Article in the Moonee Valley leader

KENSINGTON residents have welcomed Melbourne Council's decision not to support the east-west road tunnel proposed in the Eddington report.

Kensington Association chairman Richard Reilly said Melbourne Council's decision on Tuesday night was a "tremendous result for Melbourne residents".

"The council has listened to the residents and demonstrated real leadership," Mr Reilly said.

The decision comes after a series of community group rallies in Kensington and Flemington. Ther latest protest on June 21 was organised by the Kensington Association against the imapct a tunnel would have on the J.J. Holland Park and surrounding area.

Mr Reilly said about 600 people attended the rally concerned that the park "would be lost to the people of Kensington and the local community".

Mr Reilly said the association would make a submission to the Eddington report.

Acting Lord Mayor Gary Singer said Melbourne Council acknowledged there was a significant problem with traffic using local streets to access other parts of the city.

"The council does not believe that the construction of a road tunnel to act as a city bypass, as proposed in the Eddington report, is an appropriate solution," Cr Singer said.

"We will continue to liaise with the State Government over the coming months to discuss the impact of the recommendations on the municipality."

Debney Ward councillor Rose Iser said Flemington and Travancore residents should follow the Kensington Association's lead and voice their concerns about the proposed tunnel.

"The proposed tunnel will have a substantial impact on the area as it connects with CityLink," Cr Iser said.

"The State Government is contemplating spending billions of dollars on one road in the hope of easing congestion while keeping people in their cars, yet we are facing a public transport crisis that needs urgent funding," she said.

Read the original article here

Bronwyn Pike's response to the Kensington Association

This is the bit where she talks about Holland Park. Read the whole letter here...

...I know that the issue of a road tunnel is a key concern of Kensington residents, particularly as to how it relates to Holland Park. But I also urge you to make your views heard on the other facets of the Eddington Report. I am working hard to ensure that improvements to public transport, bike paths, and removing trucks from residential streets remain the focus of the Government's response to the Report.

I, along with many local residents, have strong views about retaining sites which are environmentally significant or which are important to local communities. I will continue to represent those views at the highest levels of Government.

I will be making a formal submission as part of my contribution to this process, which i will make available to the Kensington Association, and to any individual residents who request a copy.

Sample submission content

I would like to register my opposition to the Construction of the proposed East-West Road Tunnel.

I have just read through the Economic Benefits and Costs Analysis from Meyrick and Associates (posted on the Department of transport website).

This does not make sense financially.

Page 34 of the report puts the benefit/cost ratio for the combined road and rail project at 0.7 and if you subtract the "rail only" figures, this gives a BCR for the tunnel of 0.45.

That is a ridiculous return on investment. If the government is going to spend billions of dollars of Victorian tax-payers money, then I can't imagine a worse business case than the one Eddington's report has proposed.

I am [insert your job role if appropriate] and if someone in my office proposed a business case that had a BCR of 0.45 they would be laughed out of the room.

I understand that the government sometimes needs invest money in something that appears to have poor return on investment economically if there were large social or environmental benefits. However, I can not see any potential benefit worth the 3.9 billion dollars that will be lost by this project.

I do not believe that this tunnel will, in any way, reduce the congestion at the city end of the Eastern Freeway as the vast majority of that traffic is headed for the city, not the western suburbs.

On top of this the environmental implications of building this tunnel are diametrically opposed to the Victorian Government’s emissions reduction goals that they have published.

I am a Labor voter and have been for some years. If this plan is approved by the state government I will not, in good conscience, be able to vote for Labor in this state ever again. In fact I will be compelled to actively campaign against any government that is so short-sighted as to suggest this tunnel.

Sample submission content

Dear East-West Transport Options Review Panel,

I would like to register my oppostion of the proposal to develop an East-West Link car tunnel, as identified in Sir Rod Eddington's report regarding the future of transport in Melbourne.

I am 0pposed to the car tunnel, on the following grounds :

- I think that in the current environmental crises, the last thing any government should be doing is encouraging people to drive more. Indeed, a car-filled tunnel goes against the State Government's own greenhouse gas and sustainability targets.
- The identified budget of the tunnel would be far-better spent in other areas to help solve Melbourne's transport issues. These include public transport (inc. Doncaster link, and increasing frequency of trains on all other lines) as well as creation of more over/underpasses so to aid in not impeding car traffic.
- The proposed use of parkland (Royal Park, and in particular JJ Holland Park) for the construction of the tunnel, and the possibility of the destruction of this parkland for open road culverts to "enhance the driver experience" is obscene, and should never have been suggested.
- The government should look at previous, similar reports, which suggested a much greater focus upon a public-transport focussed solution.

I am conscious that no solution will be quick, and that it will take a lot of time and effort, as well as change in community attitude to reduce current transport issues, however the construction of another road link is NOT a solution which should be undertaken.

Yours faithfully,

Sample submission content

As a resident/home/owner/taxpayer in Kensington, I am extremely concerned with reports I have been hearing about the proposed East-West Road Tunnel recommended by the Eddington Report. I am committed to living in this area for the foreseeable future and have two young children which I would like to grow up in Kensington. I would like to make a submission to the Department of Transport, East-West Transport Options Review opposing the unbelievably flawed and costly road tunnel plan in its entirety and have outlined my concerns below.

Questionable Opportunity, Enormous Cost

10 billion of tax payers’ money on an 18 kilometre tunnel is ludicrous and would be the most expensive public project ever undertaken. The tunnel has been identified as having an extremely low return on investment; both directly, and in the general Victorian economy. This money should be spent upgrading our public transport system which would cost less and be fairer to all Melbournians as it would encompass the greater metropolitan community, as well as working toward the Government’s 2030 Greenhouse Emissions plan. In private business a proposal with a cost benefit ratio of less than one would not even be considered. If this proposal is successful funds will not be available to develop public transport infrastructure for many decades. A questionable benefit is being sought at a guaranteed enormous cost to our urban environment.
Impact on Holland Park, Kensington

JJ Holland Park is the only large open space in Kensington. It is currently used by many different sporting and recreational groups and this is set to increase dramatically as the current Kensington baby boomers (babies born in an influx over the last five years) reach school age: it is expected that prep aged children will increase by at least five-fold in the next 2 years at local schools. Due to the drought there are less sporting grounds available and JJ Holland Park is fully booked by various sporting and recreational groups. The park is currently one of the most popular meeting places for parents, their children and numerous dog owners in Kensington. The Melbourne City Council, recognising it importance to local residents, is currently investing millions of dollars upgrading the park as a community hub.

The proposed use of parkland (Royal Park, and in particular JJ Holland Park) for the construction of the tunnel, and the possibility of the destruction of this parkland for open road culverts to "enhance the driver experience" is obscene, and should never have been suggested.

Impact on Amenities Located at the Fringe of JJ Holland Park

Melbourne City Council has poured millions of dollars into upgrading the Kensington community hub; park amenities, a child care centre and the current sports pavilion is set to be upgraded. Also contained within the park are several amenities which would be affected by the tunnel construction.

KCCC (Kensington Community Crèche Cooperative) is situated within the park.
It would be impossible to continue operating a creche adjacent to a major construction site which will propagate air pollution from the disturbance of asbestos contaminated soil and dust, noise pollution, and traffic woes.

Noise and air pollution from a tunnel portal in or near JJ Holland Park would also spell an end to the crèche’s operation.

The population has significantly risen and is set to increase dramatically as the current Kensington baby boom continues. This will place even greater demand on the child care centre in future years.

The KCCC currently has a waiting list of 450 children.

YMCA Kensington Recreation Centre and The Venny, Adventure Playground are also located
within JJ Holland Park and would not be able to operate if major building works were taking place in or near the park.

The skateboard park located at the south-west corner of JJ Holland Park is well used and one of the few meeting places for teenagers in the area. It will be destroyed if the park is to be used as a staging post during tunnel construction.

JJ Holland Park Housing Estate located just behind the creche houses over 1000 public and private residents. These residents and adjacent home owners will be affected by air pollution from the disturbance of asbestos contaminated soil and dust, noise pollution, and increased traffic.

Disturbance of Asbestos Contaminated Soil

If JJ Holland Park is used as a staging point, as suggested by the report, large areas of it would become unusable due to construction activity, noise and the storage of soil during construction. The soil in the area is known to be contaminated with asbestos and any disturbance of it would impact on or eliminate the use of the park for recreational and/or childcare purposes for obvious health reasons. This could also directly impact local residents and anyone passing through the vicinity (including the Werribee, Williamstown and Watergardens train lines, as well as V-Line services.

Impact on Parkville and Kensington Property Prices

In addition to the loss of amenity I am also concerned about the impact that any development in both Parkville and Kensington will have on my property investment. It has been suggested that large tracts of parkland will be lost if the tunnel proposal goes ahead. This will adversely impact on property value due to the reduced livability of the surrounding areas.

Impact on wetlands and environmentally sensitive areas

The impact on inner city wetlands and parks would be immeasurable. Melbourne prides itself on its beautiful parkland but these are being increasingly encroached on by overdevelopment. Royal Park is being eroded by the expansion of the Royal Children’s Hospital. The Royal Park wetlands and the Newells Paddock Wetlands Park in Footscray are home to many species of birds and other water based life. To destroy these wetlands and parklands reduces quality of life, not only for the species we have left, but also for its human residents. Once these places are gone, they are gone forever. The wetlands and parklands immeasurably enrich the inner-city areas.

Emphasis on Private Vehicle Use versus Public Transport.

I am disappointed by the fatalism of Eddington Report's recommendations and, in particular, its emphasis on the development of private vehicle use, rather than public transport. Freeways do not reduce car use; they encourage it! City Link is the perfect example. The development of the South-Eastern arterial has done little to solve the problems of the past as evidenced by the severe traffic congestion during morning and afternoon peak hours.. The only way to effectively reduce traffic on roads is to move people out of cars and into mass-transportation. At a time when we are mindful of the use of fossil fuels due their increasing scarcity, rising cost and impact on the environment, we need to be more creative with our solutions to the problems we are faced with.

Pollution: Exhaust Stacks and Government Policy 2030 reducing Greenhouse emissions.

These monstrosities will be an unfortunate by-product of the proposed tunnel. City Link has already shown us that these spew concentrated pollution over the local population causing related health issues. The Government has promised to reduce Greenhouse emissions by 60% by 2030. I think that in the current environmental crises, the last thing any government should be doing is encouraging people to drive more. Indeed, a car-filled tunnel goes against the State Government's own greenhouse gas and sustainability.

Develop our Public Transport Network!

As a tax payer I believe that the 10 billion dollars of public money that the East-West Link would cost would be far better spent developing our public transport network. Melbourne’s public transport system is under-utilised because of its poor coverage and unreliability.
If a fraction of 10 billion dollars was spent enhancing our public transport system, new roads would not be necessary. Public transport would be safe and reliable; an enviable world class transport system. Our tax money would be shared with all residents of Melbourne; not just wasted on one incredibly flawed and costly project.

The metropolitan rail network is currently running at less than half its designed capacity. In the 1930’s it was running a larger volume of trains than it does currently and it was designed to carry much higher numbers than it does today. Investment in improving the existing infrastructure and its use would surely be a wiser and more cost-effective use of taxpayer money.
The identified budget of the tunnel would be far-better spent in other areas to help solve Melbourne's transport issues. For example a new train line to Doncaster and an extension of the Glen Waverly line to Rowville, as well as the creation of more over/underpasses in order to improve traffic flows.

The government should look at previous, similar reports, which suggested a much greater focus upon a public-transport focused solution.
***
I urge you to consider my submission and choose the enhancement of our public transport system over the costly and environmentally destructive Eddington Report proposal.

I am conscious that no solution will be quick, and that it will take a lot of time and effort, as well as change in community attitude to reduce current transport issues; however, the construction of another road link is NOT a solution which should be undertaken.

Yours Sincerely,


Name:
Address:
Email:

Tunnel fate uncertain

The Melbourne City Council has overturned its support for the proposed East-West road tunnel.

Councillors last night endorsed a report that advises against the tunnel, proposed by Sir Rod Eddington.

The underground tunnel is part of a transport strategy recommended by Sir Rod Eddington for the State Government, linking the Eastern Freeway to the western suburbs.

Former Lord Mayor, Kevin Chamberlain, says increasing fuel costs make it clear a road tunnel is not the solution to Melbourne's transport problems.

"The Council meeting was a major victory for the inner Melbourne residential and business community who'd been opposed to the East-West link tunnel and linked roads," he said.

"The community will be going back to the council and working with the council to mount a strong case to the State Government for them to have a rethink."

David Ettershank from the Kensington Association, says the council win is only the first step in a long campaign to stop the tunnel from being built.

"We think it's a terrific decision from Council, they've taken a very strategic response in terms of recognising that we need to have an intelligent dialogue involving the community and the State Government to find long term, sustainable transport options," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/25/2285135.htm

We have the City of Melbourne on our side...

MELBOURNE City councillors have voted to reject the proposed road tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway with the western suburbs.

At a meeting last night, eight of the nine councillors, including Lord Mayor John So, voted to oppose the $9 billion tunnel.

Only councillor Brian Shanahan voted against the final motion after arguing its wording should be much stronger.

"I want it clearly understood this council is horrified by the potential to disrupt parkland," he said.

Premier John Brumby expects to decide whether the tunnel - recommended by international transport expert Sir Rod Eddington - proceeds by the end of the year.

Councillors strongly objected to the use of parkland and called for a bigger focus on public transport solutions.

About 80 residents protested outside Melbourne Town Hall last night. Cr So, who previously backed the tunnel, said he supported sustainable solutions to help Melbourne grow.

â– Cr So was last night due to fly to Singapore to address two conferences.

It is the second official overseas trip in less than a month for Cr So, who has yet to declare whether he will stand in the November council elections. His spokesman said the Lord Mayor would not meet any of the 1100 Melbourne ratepayers who reside in Singapore.

KATE LAHEY

http://www.theage.com.au/national/city-council-rejects-eastwest-tunnel-20080624-2w69.html

Sorry, Sir Rod, your rail tunnel plan is just loopy

IT'S been a long time between drinks for advocates of rail in Melbourne. The last new suburban line was the Glen Waverley line, which opened in 1930. It was to be followed by one to Doncaster, but the Depression and war intervened. Since then, plans for links to Monash University, Rowville and Melbourne Airport have also come to nothing.

But things may be changing. A new Prime Minister has begun talking about urban rail and, after decades of decline, patronage is growing again.

Enter Sir Rod Eddington. His report on east-west transport proposes the biggest capital expenditure program in Australian history. Half the $18 billion is for a single road project, which Eddington's own consultant economists suggest has a benefit-cost ratio well below one — which in plain English means it's a waste of money.

The other major project is a rail tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield, and Eddington has been talking up this aspect. He has criticised, without naming, people who have questioned the need for the rail tunnel. He describes this questioning as "dangerous nonsense", a stance echoed by Melissa Fyfe in The Sunday Age last week.

How could supporters of public transport question the wisdom of spending $8.5 billion on rail? Isn't it time Melbourne put serious money into an underground line to enable more trains to run to the city centre?

The simple answer is that Melbourne has already done just this. That's what the City Loop, which cost $5 billion in today's money, was all about. It's set out in the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan, which shows the system was intended to handle much higher volumes of trains and passengers than it carries today. There were to be new lines to places such as Doncaster and Rowville, more frequent services and more expresses.

Annual patronage was supposed to reach 300 million by 1985; in fact, this year it might reach 200 million. The number of suburban trains arriving at Flinders Street in the busiest hour was to jump from 108 in 1964 to 181 in 1985; instead, it's fallen to 95. There was to be an express from Mordialloc every two minutes in peak hour; instead there's one a day.

One reason patronage is lower than anticipated is that none of the proposed suburban lines were built because the loop chewed up all the available funds. The priority now should be to start work on those long-overdue new lines, plus electrifying existing routes to places such as Caroline Springs and Melton.

But Eddington is proposing that nothing be done to serve these areas. He wants to spend all available money on a rail tunnel that will duplicate the one we already have and which won't be finished until at least 2019, giving rail managers an excuse for another decade of inaction.

What reasons does Eddington offer for not utilising the spare capacity on the system? His report does not discuss the issue at all. Instead, it compares Melbourne's rail system with the way it operated in the 1930s, showing that we now run more express services. So what? We run far fewer expresses than the loop was designed to handle, as the 1969 plan shows.

The problems that are clogging the system are set out in a consultants' report that, although available on the Eddington website, is not discussed in his report. The Transport Supply and Demand report shows there are eight in-bound tracks serving Flinders Street: four running via the City Loop, and four "direct". Each is signalled to handle a train every two minutes, or 30 an hour. This would allow a total of 240 trains an hour, but international best practice suggests running at 80% to maintain reliability. That's 192 trains an hour, or twice the current level.

The real problem is not in the Loop at all: it's in the Department of Transport and Connex. The consultants outline the poor operating practices preventing available capacity from being used, ranging from crew changes delaying trains at Flinders Street to poor internal carriage layout slowing boarding. Instead of fixing the problems, Eddington proposes giving the department $8.5 billion to duplicate the Loop, along with an excuse for doing nothing else for a decade.

That's why Eddington has missed the train.

Paul Mees is a senior lecturer in transport planning at RMIT.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/sorry-sir-rod-your-rail-tunnel-plan-is-just-loopy-20080621-2uke.html?page=-1

Zico and his ball

It looks like the community are on board

Many more here http://www.flickr.com/photos/26670541@N07/sets/72157605750025483/show/

Coverage in The Sunday Age

AROUND 500 people turned out to oppose Sir Rod Eddington's recommendation to use a park in Kensington as the staging ground for a $9 billion road tunnel.

Residents said that any work at J. J. Holland Park would threaten local child care, sporting teams and Kensington's amenity.

Richard Reilly, from the Kensington Association, said the day was about raising awareness. "The loss of the park is really hitting us hard," he said. "It's so well-used and is really the only park in Kensington."

In his East West Needs Assessment Report, Sir Rod said the digging of the vast tunnel to connect the Eastern Freeway with the western suburbs should start from the park. Power to implement the tunnel plan rests with the State Government.

But Mr Reilly said opponents were anxiously waiting to see if Melbourne City councillors formalise council opposition to the project, which was already rejected by its planning committee.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/locals-park-protest-20080621-2umn.html

Defend Kensington on the news

Coverage from channels 2 and 9. Most of channel 7, but my battery ran out :(

The song...

...OK... everybody sing "Get your hands off our park..."

Defend Kensington Pix

Click on the picture to see more from the rally

Stats of oil use in Australia

Could be very useful when suggesting reducing private vehicle use as a solution to congestion...

Sector	2007 Usage (bpd)	Proportion of Total	Target Reduction
Agriculture	45,239	5.2%	5%
Mining	43,521	5.0%	15%
Industry/Commerce	80,171	9.1%	25%
Road Transport (Personal)	388,829	44.3%	60%
Road Transport (Goods)	133,427	15.2%	25%
Public transport	12,598	1.4%	0%
Rail goods	11,453	1.3%	40%
Air transport	98,496	11.2%	50%
Water transport	24,624	2.8%	0%
Products	36,650	4.2%	0%
Heating	2,291	0.3%	50%
Total	877,300	100%	40%

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4187

Socialist Alliance - Victoria: Say no to Brumby’s roads and tunnel madness!

Has the Brumby Victorian Labor government been hiding under a log? Hasn’t it noticed the reports showing that climate change is speeding up alarmingly and that transport is the fastest growing cause of greenhouse emissions in Australia?

You could be forgiven for thinking that the state government and its army of advisers had never heard about climate change. The Eddington report is titled “Investing in public transport: an east west link needs assessment” but it ignores the possibility of developing a public transport network which could actually be an alternative to private car travel. The report assumes that it isn’t possible for people to switch from cars to public transport.

This is scandalous but entirely predictable. Brumby got the report he wanted, one that will provide enormous contracts for big business. But the needs of th travelling public in the age of catastrophic climate change don’t get a look in.

Business as usual

Instead, Eddington’s recommendation is in line with the tradition of building more and more freeways while just tinkering with public transport. Remember former Premier Jeff Kennett declared that Melbourne needed Citylink because the Monash freeway was like a parking lot at peak hour. Now, we have an uninterrupted peak hour parking lot all the way from the Monash Freeway to the Westgate bridge and beyond, and they just want to keep building more of it

Implementing the $18 billion Eddington plan would mean that solving the issues of public transport would be postponed to the “never never” and road congestion and greenhouse emissions will increase with every road built. The main beneficiaries of the Eddington plan will be the construction companies that will make massive profits from building the tunnels, the banks that will finance them, and the petrol and motor vehicle companies that will continue to sell more cars and trucks.

The companies operating the public transport system also have no interest in such improvements, especially as the government pays them handsome subsidies. In fact, these subsidies have doubled since 1999 and are twice what they were when the system was publicly owned.

Why do people use cars instead of public transport?
# Services are unreliable, frequently cancelled and overcrowded
# There’s no public transport near where they live
# The private bus service near where they live doesn’t run at night or on the weekend
# Public Transport is too expensive
# For shiftworkers, public transport doesn’t operate when they start or finish work

# The low frequency of services at night and on weekend even where they do exist

Every one of these issues can be resolved.

People want to use public transport?

If it was more convenient to catch public transport than drive a car, tens of thousands would do so. People aren’t averse to using public transport.

Since petrol prices started to rapidly increase in 2007, people have been switching from cars to public transport in unprecedented numbers for travel to and from work. But the system hasn’t been able to cope with the increased patronage because the state government refuses to put the necessary resources into it.

During the Olympic Games in Sydney and the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, there was a big increase in people using public transport because, for the time of the events, public transport was increased.

Patronage on V-Line country services has roughly doubled over the past year – due to a 20% fare cut, increased services and new carriages. There is still a long way to go in the country but this shows clearly what is possible – if the political will is there.

But the public transport system isn’t good enough for it to be a real alternative for most people at the moment.

What Socialist Alliance wants:
# The billions of dollars that Eddington wants for his insane project should instead be invested in public transport to extend services, introduce new services and increase their frequency. Thousands more staff should be hired, new rolling stock purchased and the necessary infrastructure put in place
# As a simple safety measure, and to encourage patronage, all train stations should be fully staffed from the first service to the last.
# Public transport should be made free
# Public transport should be brought back into public ownership and operation.
# There should be a moratorium on road building. Maintain the roads and keep them safe but with peak oil and climate change, motor vehicle usage must be massively downgraded in favour of public transport and rail freight.
# In addition to public transport, bike paths need to be upgraded and expanded to make cycling a safer and more convenient option to driving.

Given that both state and federal governments, whether Liberal or Labor, only listen to the vested interests of the oil and automobile industries, we have to organise so that the people’s voices drown out these vested interests. Until we develop a people’s movement that demands serious action for public transport and against the road lobby and climate change, none of the governments will be prepared to take serious action to make public transport a better option than using a private car.

Socialist Alliance is involved in trying to build such a people’s movement for serious action to avoid climate change. We are involved in campaigns against the desalination plant, against the rush to build more freeways. Socialist Alliance is also involved with other climate action groups in taking mass collective action dramatise that the government and the energy industry phase out the use of coal and shift to renewable energy.

http://www.socialist-alliance.org/page.php?page=765