Roads plan raises new truck route fears

NEW laws that would see some Melbourne roads prioritised for tram, bus, bicycle, pedestrian or freight use have alarmed local councils, who see them as an attempt to ram through new heavy truck routes.

- Truck highways fears
- Trams, buses, bikes to get priority
- Move to unblock public transport routes

The changes would give the State Government power to prioritise transport types on all public roads across the state.

A new VicRoads register would be established, listing how roads had been prioritised and the laws could mean new bus or bike lanes on a local road or the sudden appearance of massive freight trucks.

The local government sector is concerned about a lack of detail in the new laws and the potential for new truck highways through suburbs.

The proposed laws before the State Parliament would give Roads Minister Tim Pallas the power to prioritise bicycle, pedestrian and freight roads. The Roads Minister and Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky would have the power to prioritise roads for trams and buses.

The only check would be that if the public road were a municipal road there must be consultation with the Local Government Minister. There is no mention of the local council.

Municipal Association of Victoria chief executive Rob Spence has written to Mr Pallas requesting more details on the laws.

"We are talking about heavy vehicles, that is the real tension point in our sector," he said. "There has been no discussion with us on the detail of this at all."...

Read the whole article at TheAge.com.au

Tim Pallas Underestimates the West, Pays the Price

An obviously under-prepared Minister for Transport, Tim Pallas, drew the ire of residents from Footscray, Kingsville, Tottenham, Yarraville and Sunshine on Wednesday 17th December when addressing a Public Meeting organised by No Freeway for West Footscray and Brimbank Transport Action Group.

Pallas clearly failed to understand the concerns of residents, particularly in relation to the proposed “Westgate Alternative” which will see Road freight spilling out in West Footscray and causing a truck-onslaught for Tottenham and Sunshine Residents.

While some Footscray residents clearly welcome a truck diversion, there is general consensus that a tunnel opening into Sunshine Rd in West Footscray is bad policy. We suggest that Minister Pallas do some homework and real consultation before he puts his head up in the Western Suburbs again. We also suggest that he not use the term “market value” in relation to compulsory acquisition, given that his Government’s Transport Plan has caused property values in affected areas to nose-dive.

Lastly, we register our disgust that promises of information and consultation that were made by the Department of Transport in the weeks leading up to the launch of the Transport Plan, have not been honoured.

If sitting MPs don’t start to listen, they will find themselves voted out - “safe” seat or not.

Read the original at respectthewest.wordpress.com

Peak-hour drivers give major freeways the flick - TheAge

Clay Lucas

JUST days before the State Government releases its much-anticipated Victorian transport plan, new figures show car numbers on two of the city's biggest freeways are falling.

Roads agency VicRoads has released data that shows the number of cars using the West Gate and Eastern freeways during the morning rush hour have fallen consistently over the past six years.

On an average day in 2008, there were 20,400 cars using the Eastern Freeway in the morning peak, from 6am to 10am.

Six years earlier there were 22,600 cars using the freeway each morning.

Figures for the West Gate show a similar situation.

This year, the West Gate averaged 22,900 cars each morning, while in 2002 an average 24,000 cars used the road.

A VicRoads spokeswoman said the reduction had occurred because the two freeways were too choked to fit any more cars. "Peak traffic times are spreading out to deal with the increase in congestion," VicRoads' Ayllie White said.

Other figures released by VicRoads yesterday showed that if all Melbourne's arterial roads were taken into account, freeway traffic was growing.

But where the Government has made public transport options available, drivers appear to be taking them.

On the Eastern Freeway, bus patronage jumped 11 per cent in the past year, a result of the Brumby Government's boost in express bus services.

And the Department of Transport predicted in April that patronage on overcrowded western suburbs' trains would grow by 9.5 per cent a year.

The freeway figures could cast doubt on Sir Rod Eddington's proposed $9 billion freeway from Clifton Hill to Footscray.

In April, Sir Rod proposed what would be one of the world's longest road tunnels: an 18-kilometre freeway between the Eastern and the West Gate.

The tunnel would relieve growing pressure, he said, in travelling between the east and west of Melbourne.

But critics say Sir Rod provided little fresh evidence of the need for the road, which a government taskforce rejected in 2003 because of a lack of travel demand.

That taskforce used the government's own transport planners, whereas Sir Rod used traffic consultants Veitch Lister — who were re-employed to work on the Victorian transport plan.

Since the release of the Eddington report, Roads Minister Tim Pallas has warned of a looming congestion crisis between the Eastern and West Gate freeways. He has called for the first stage of the Eddington road project to be built, saying he supports building a freeway to cross the Maribyrnong River.

"Victoria's reliance on the West Gate Bridge into the long term is unsustainable," Mr Pallas said last month.

The head of Melbourne University's transport research centre, Nicholas Low, said people wanted better public transport, not more freeways.

"Tim Pallas wants to build lots of new roads but he is out of step with public opinion, which wants the money spent on better public transport," he said.

Confidential VicRoads data obtained by The Age in July showed zero growth in car use on Melbourne's roads over the past year.

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au

Stateline ABC - 14/11/08

Stateline ABC 14-11-08 from baudman on Vimeo.

My favourite comment from Tim 'the cars that ate' Pallas...

"... You can't talk public transport unless you talk about roads. 85% of all kilometres travelled on public transport journeys actually occur on roads..."

Hmm... could that perhaps be because Melbourne hasn't had a new suburban train line since the 1930s, and so buses are the only option? Or is he including trams in that as well?

Labor split over new tollway plans - TheAge.com.au

Jason Dowling and Paul Austin

A NEW tollway proposal in Sir Rod Eddington's transport plan for Melbourne has split the Victorian Labor Party's transport policy committee.

The committee's secretary has resigned in disgust at a decision to endorse all 20 recommendations in Sir Rod's report to the State Government, including a new multibillion-dollar road tunnel linking the city's east and west.

The committee's response to the Eddington proposals will be presented to the ALP state conference today, and Premier John Brumby will release his transport plan for Melbourne next month.

The secretary, Pat Love, has written to his committee colleagues, along with Roads Minister Tim Pallas and Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky saying he would bring forward the end of his term because of the committee's support for more freeways.

"Recent decisions of the committee, most importantly the decisions to support all 20 recommendations from the (Eddington) study, prompted me to bring this forward prior to the state conference. I handed my resignation to Kevin Bracken last Monday," he wrote in an email sent on Thursday night and obtained by The Age.

"As you know, I have argued both internally on the committee and externally in public forums that now is not the time to build another road tunnel."

Mr Love, who has been secretary of the committee for three years, said: "If it is implemented by State Government, I firmly believe that it will lead to more long-term problems than solutions for people in Melbourne, and especially the people living in the west."

It was wrong to argue that the "massive expenditure of an 18-kilometre tunnel, whether funded by government or private or both, will solve our congestion problems in the inner west, north and inner east".

"I don't believe it will improve transport options for many people in the west, but will further entrench them in car dependence," Mr Love wrote.

"Overall, it will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions from transport in Melbourne, not less."

Transport is expected to be the subject of passionate debate at today's conference, with one draft resolution accusing the Government of failing "to establish an effective process for the development of transport policy for Melbourne in the wake of the Eddington review".

It says the Government manipulated its consultations with the community about transport policy to prevent many ALP members being involved. The process had degenerated into an exercise "in which people were asked little more than to pick their favourite problem and project".

Other draft resolutions seen by The Age call on the Government to:

• Urgently implement a manufacturing strategy for Victoria "to ensure the ongoing viability of the industry".
• Immediately ban logging in all water catchments.

The keynote speakers at today's conference will be Mr Brumby and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Read the original article in TheAge.com.au

Tollway alternative part of new roads plan

Clay Lucas and Jason Dowling

A NEW tollway would traverse either semi-rural Warrandyte, or run through the heart of Heidelberg, under controversial plans being devised for the State Government's transport strategy.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet is working with VicRoads on the project, which would see a new tollway connect the Metropolitan Ring Road — which finishes in Greensborough — to either the Eastern Freeway or EastLink.

Secrecy surrounds the Government's transport statement, due out in November.

But Government sources have told The Age the transport team is working on economic analysis of three route options for a major new tollway.

The routes are:

• From Greensborough to the Eastern Freeway, running through Heidelberg; or
• From Greensborough to EastLink in Ringwood, with the road running via Eltham and Warrandyte; or
• Sir Rod Eddington's $9 billion road tunnel route from Clifton Hill to Footscray.

Roads Minister Tim Pallas met financiers Babcock and Brown last month to discuss funding possibilities for new tollways.

The State Government has recently polled residents in Eltham and Warrandyte on their support for a new road link, which would traverse some of the city's most environmentally sensitive areas.

And Government emails obtained by The Age show VicRoads is determined to retain land in Greensborough set aside for the ring road connection.

Nillumbik Council, which covers much of the area a new tollway would run through, opposes the project. Cr Greg Johnson said locals would fight a new freeway connection through the area.

As opposition leader in the 1990s, Premier John Brumby ruled out building a freeway along the proposed Nillumbik route.

"The ALP opposes this road on environmental grounds, and because of the enormous disruption it would cause to property owners whose homes would be demolished," Mr Brumby wrote in a 1995 letter.

One roads industry source said there was still an appetite to build major toll roads, despite the turmoil on financial markets.

And ConnectEast director Max Lay, a former senior VicRoads bureaucrat, said big toll road projects were "seen as a safe harbour for long-term investments".

News of the road plan comes as the Greens today launch their new $14 billion transport plan — along with a marketing campaign targeting Mr Brumby's support for new road infrastructure.

Under the Greens' People Plan, detailed in an extensive new website at www.thepeopleplan.org.au, Melbourne's public transport system would be expanded dramatically. The plan includes new train lines to Doncaster, Mernda, Rowville and Melbourne Airport.

There would also be a major new CBD metro system, with new train stations built in the CBD at Kings Way and St Kilda Road, in the inner north at Parkville, Carlton and Fitzroy, and elsewhere.

And in an attack ad devised by South Melbourne ad agency Cyclone, Mr Brumby is portrayed as a mole, tunnelling to create "a profit plan for political survival".

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au

One person's discussion of the Greens' 'The People Plan' is here - http://reubenville.blogspot.com/2008/10/greens-transport-plan.html

Freight plan calls for expansion of B-triple network in Victoria - news.com.au

By Nick Higginbottom

THE Brumby Government plans to run B-triples through some suburban streets as part of a massive overhaul of the transport sector.

A secret Department of Transport document obtained by the Opposition revealed the B-triple truck routes that will force heavier and longer truckes onto Victorians roads without any community consultation.

Opposition Transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the document showed the truck road map stretched from Wodonga to Portland and from Sale to Mildura including many roads, tollways and freeways in metropolitan Melbourne.

"This is John Brumby's fallback plan because of his failure to transfer freight to rail as Labor promised," he said.

"In December 2007 (Roads) Minister Pallas promised full consultation with local communities and councils about B-triples.

"John Brumby should tell Minister Pallas to pick up the phone and start making calls instead of traeating local communities and councils like mushrooms."

Key roads affected by the proposal include the Calder Freeway and Highway from Melbourne to Bendigo and Mildua, the Western Hwy from Ballarat to the South Australian border, the Henty hwy from Horsham to Portalnd, the Geelong road and Princes Fwy West to Colac and from Heywood through to the South Australian borders and the Hume Hwy to Wodonga.

The radical plan will also push the massive truck onto already overcrowded roads including West Gate Bridge, Monash Fwy and most of Citylink. The trucks will also be allowed to drive through the state's four freeway tunnels on the Monash and Eastlink - the Burnley, Domain, Melba and Mullum Mullum tunnels.

Other roads included in the plan are the whole of Eastlink, the Mooroduc, Frankston and Tullamarine freeways, the Western Ring road and Ferntree Gully Rd.

The plan would also see the massive trucks inundate numerous roads around the Port of Melbourne in Footscray and Yarraville, along with Fitzgerald Rd in Laverton and Cooper St in Campbellfield.

Premier John Brumby said the government hadn't made any decisions about the monster trucks, but admitted it was investigating a range of options for increased B-Triple use....

Read the whole article at news.com.au

"Not ruling anything in... not ruling anything out"

Review suggests Melbourne congestion tax - TheAge.com.au

Tim Pallas has since denied that the State Government are looking at a congestion tax (see below, and there's some nice reader comments in there too).

A review of Melbourne's transport system has called for a congestion tax and tolls on public roads.

Fairfax newspapers report that VicRoads and the Department of Infrastructure said in interviews for a review of Victoria's transport legislation in 2006 that "road congestion pricing" was an emerging issue.

The review also proposed "the extension of tolling to public roads" as a means of cutting congestion, Fairfax said.

"Over time there may be further private toll roads," Fairfax quoted the report as saying.

"There may be decisions to introduce pricing for public roads and/or to restructure tolls for the current private roads."

The review was obtained by the Victorian Opposition following a freedom-of-information request.

The Victorian government has long been opposed to tolling public roads, Fairfax said.

Sir Rod Eddington's plan to build an $18 billion 18km road tunnel and 17km rail tunnel to link Melbourne's east and west, released in April, also suggested tolls on roads that are presently toll-free.

At the time of the Eddington report's release, Premier John Brumby said the government was not "ruling anything in, nor ruling anything out" among Sir Rod's 20 key proposals.

Shadow transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the report showed the government was considering tolling public roads.

"The government has a long history of diving into motorists' pockets," he told Fairfax.

A government spokeswoman said the government continued to oppose tolls on existing roads and a congestion tax although its departments could continue to examine ways to manage the road network.

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au

...Roads Minister Tim Pallas today said there were no plans for a Melbourne CBD congestion tax or tolls on public roads, despite proposals to do so in a government report....

Read the rest of that article, and some great user comments, at news.com.au