Claims east-west tunnel will be of little value to Geelong - geelongadvertiser.com.au

Jeff Whalley

A MERE 1100 Geelong people a day would use a $8 billion road tunnel under Melbourne leading to the city's east.

Victorian Greens MP Greg Barber yesterday said Bureau of Statistics Census data showed less than 2 per cent of Geelong commuters would use the proposed road tunnel linking Melbourne's western and eastern suburbs.

The tunnel is one suggestion by transport expert Sir Rod Eddington in his east-west transport study aimed at solving Melbourne's traffic gridlock.

The tunnel has been slated as one solution to allow easier movement for commuters and freight into Melbourne.

Geelong MP Ian Trezise this week told the Geelong Advertiser the tunnel should include an exit for Geelong commuters wanting to access Melbourne's CBD.

Mr Barber criticised the State Government and Mr Trezise yesterday.

He said cash should instead be spent improving public transport within Geelong.

"I can't understand why a Geelong MP wants to spend $8 billion on a road tunnel from Kensington to Collingwood, used by less than 2 per cent of local commuters at best," Mr Barber said.

"Most workers, and shoppers for that matter, stay in Geelong. Local public transport in Geelong is appalling and with petrol prices, people are desperate for an alternative. We could have a dream public transport system, with trains, fast buses and even a tram line, for just one of these billions they are talking about.

"For commuters from Geelong to Melbourne, I would have thought more and faster trains was the priority. It's the only way to clear congestion off the West Gate Bridge, permanently."

Mr Barber said the data showed three-quarters of the Geelong region's 65,000 workers worked locally with about 3000 driving to Melbourne's western suburbs.

He said more than 2000 people drove to the Melbourne central business district or southern suburbs.

The Greens MP said only 1100 drove across Melbourne's north to the eastern suburbs, while at least 1800 used public transport to get from Geelong to Melbourne.

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Massive rise in Geelong train trips

by Peter Begg

GEELONG commuters are jumping on board public transport, with passengers on V/Line's Geelong line surging 19.8 per cent in the past financial year.

V/Line yesterday said there were 3,081,829 passenger trips on the Geelong line in 2007/08, up by more than 500,000 trips on the previous year.

The transport operator was commenting after Premier John Brumby released figures showing patronage on metropolitan trains had increased 12.7 per cent in the past 12 months.

The Melbourne figures showed that 32 million more trips were taken on trains, trams and buses in the past 12 months. Of those, the biggest increase was the 12.7 per cent increase on metro trains.

V/Line has also released its latest performance figures for July, which showed that congestion on Melbourne train lines was continuing to affect its Geelong services.

The latest figures show 95.3 per cent of trains on the Geelong-Werribee section of the line ran on time in July.

But when trains got closer to Melbourne, only 82.6 per cent were punctual.

The V/Line figures showed that out of 1387 trains that ran on the Geelong line in July, 239 were late by five minutes or more.

This is above the carrier's target of 110 delayed trains.

Of the 239 Geelong trains delayed last month, 85 were late due to metropolitan congestion and 36 were held up by infrastructure faults. Train faults held up a further 31.

In June 45 trains were late because of metropolitan train congestion.

V/Line media manager Daniel Moloney said one of the challenges for operators with extra patronage was getting all those extra passengers on and off trains.

"The boarding times take longer, and there are also more trains competing for space," Mr Moloney said.

"So under the broad banner of metropolitan train congestion, there are a lot of V/Line and Connex trains competing for X-amount of space and there are huge numbers of people affecting boarding times."

Mr Moloney said the only thing that would improve V/Line's performance was major infrastructure upgrades, such as extra track space around the Footscray area and the rail tunnel raised in the recent Eddington report.

Mr Brumby attributed the jump in patronage in Melbourne to the introduction of 300 new weekly services to the metropolitan train timetable and the Early Bird Metcard, which allows free train travel for people who arrive at their destination before 7am.

Read the original article at GeelongAdvertiser.com.au

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.