Tunnel(s) back on the agenda? - TheAge

What goes around, comes around, eh?

A TUNNEL from the Eastern Freeway to the Tullamarine Freeway will be considered by the Baillieu government as part of an infrastructure plan ordered by Treasurer Kim Wells, following widespread criticism that Victoria is not planning major projects.

Mr Wells has ordered his department to urgently get to work on an infrastructure plan for Victoria after being warned the state is at risk of losing billions of dollars of investment and thousands of skilled workers to New South Wales and Queensland.

The Age believes the government will reconsider a range of transport projects flagged by the previous government, including an east-west road tunnel from the Eastern Freeway to the Tullamarine Freeway, a metro rail tunnel from Footscray to St Kilda Road, and a ''missing link'' connection between the Metropolitan Ring Road and the Eastern Freeway.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/wells-plans-to-fix-projects-dilemma-20110626-1gltm.html#ixzz1QRiNcm8w

Déjà vu

Almost two years ago, a fight began in earnest to Save Holland park from destruction (certainly temporarily, but potentially for all time) by its use as a staging area for the development of the East-West tunnel, a recommendation from the oft-called 'Eddington Report'.

The idea was that the park could be used as the major construction point to create the tunnel. Through overwhelming community support, in addition to support from our representatives at all three levels of government, (and a little help from the Global Finanical Crisis probably didn't hurt), the proposal was defeated.

In its Victorian Transport Plan, the East-West Link tunnel was not an option, and it was specifically stated that JJ Holland Park would be left as is.

However, there have been some stirrings of another spectre.

The Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel Stage 1 - (link to official site) - plans to provide a new rail link from Footscray, underground to the Hospital/University district north of the CBD, linking with the City Loop at Flinders St, and potentially Melbourne Central, and eventually going to Domain and Caulfield as part of Stage 2.

The Kensington Association, in their newsletter reports :

Agenda Item 6 – Victorian Government Transport Plan

Matt Hammond reported on a recent meeting where several matters relevant to Kensington were raised. The plan includes a new set of rail lines from North Melbourne to Footscray to increase the capacity of the route for country trains. The tracks would be sited on the Dynon Road side of the existing lines, therefore there should be little impact on Kensington. However, the route of the proposed new Footscray-Parkville-Domain underground metro railway is potentially of concern. It appears that the route may be overground from Footscray to South Kensington, then branching into an underground tunnel portal at South Kensington, posing a similar threat to the aborted East-West road tunnel project. Depending on track alignment, it is possible that a proposal requiring the use of Holland Park as a tunnel entrance, or compulsory acquisition of some housing in South Kensington for the rail tunnel entrance could be reasonably envisaged. It was agreed that the Association would maintain a watching brief on the transport plan.

(My bold)

We will be watching this too. And we suggest you do likewise. The official site does not mention anything yet. The State Government, through Bronwyn Pike's direct influence, categorically stated that JJ Holland Park would remain untouched. However, we do all know how governments change their minds. And the current state government do not have a good track record with listing to the wishes of the public.

(NOTE: The recent tree removal within JJ Holland Park is for the expansion of the Soccer pitch, and has nothing to do with the above).

Doubt cast on need for new rail tunnel - TheAge

Clay Lucas

A $4.5 BILLION "metro" rail tunnel that is the centrepiece of Victoria's transport plan has not been adequately justified, and other options to increase train services in Melbourne should have been investigated, a Government-commissioned report has found.

- Options should be investigated: expert
- Methodology's 'critical flaw'
- Passenger numbers set to soar

Senior rail consultant and transport planner Edward Dotson was hired by the State Government to help assess rail projects including a tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield, which was recommended in this year's report by transport expert Sir Rod Eddington.

The Government's plan proposes building a first stage of the tunnel, from Footscray to the Domain, within a decade.

But Mr Dotson found that while planning work for the rail tunnel should continue, some key assumptions behind it have not been proved.

He is particularly troubled by Transport Department passenger projections, which show a continued soaring in numbers over the next 13 years.

It was not possible to reliably make such projections beyond five years, Mr Dotson wrote.

And little work had been done to look at other options for running more trains on the network besides building the tunnel, he wrote. "This is a critical flaw in the methodology."

He said forecasts for passenger growth on Melbourne's trains, and alternatives to the tunnel, needed to be examined further.

The Department of Transport says a maximum of 20 trains an hour can run on each of Melbourne's train lines. But international rail experts argue this is, at best, unambitious.

Mr Dotson agrees, saying Melbourne's rail system should have a target of 24 trains running each hour on each line.

Read the rest of the article at TheAge.com.au

$8.5b rail tunnel to rescue us from gridlock - HeraldSun

THE Brumby Government wants an $8.5 billion rail tunnel between Melbourne's west and southeast to get the city moving again.

The Herald Sun can reveal the 17km metro-style tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield will be the big ticket item in the Government's Innovative Transport Plan to be revealed early next month.

In its much-anticipated transport blueprint, the Government will also back construction of the Tarneit Link, a new rail line between West Werribee and Sunshine, costing $1.5 billion.

But the allocation of at least $5 billion in federal funding will determine when the rail tunnel can be built.

The Herald Sun believes the Brumby Government wants to start construction in about six years, in line with recommendations in international transport expert Sir Rod Eddington's East-West Needs Assessment report.

But concerns over whether Victoria will get its promised funding from the Rudd Government could delay the project for at least 10 years, causing chaos on our rail system...

Read the whole article at News.com.au

Interesting that it's being reported that the rail tunnel, and not the road tunnel, is now the big ticket item.

Also interesting to note that Sir Rod Eddington is on the board of News Corporation, who publish this newspaper.

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?

Travelling second-class - TheAge.com.au

Paul Mees

LAST week, it was the Oaks day train debacle; this week, it's the chaos surrounding the new timetables. Melbourne's rail system has once again failed the city, leaving hapless travellers stranded on trains and at stations. Melburnians could be forgiven for wondering if the city's rails are cursed. If European cities, and even Perth, can have first-rate trains, why can't we?

...

By the 1920s, the system had been electrified and expanded. More trains left Flinders Street Station in peak hour than do today, with a service every three minutes on the Sandringham line. Reliability was high and cancellations rare. Europeans envied Melbourne for the excellence of our rail system. So why can't we transport people reliably to and from the races now?

The Department of Transport says the reason is that we don't have enough tracks, even though we have many more than in the 1920s. Sir Rod Eddington agrees, and has proposed a multibillion-dollar tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield that will take decades to build and has a price tag we can't afford. But the Eddington tunnel would not have prevented the stuff-ups on Oaks day; nor it will fix the problems created by running the Epping and Hurstbridge lines the wrong way through the city loop.

The main cause of Melbourne's rail woes is a tremendous deterioration in management and planning. Levels of efficiency that could be achieved in the 1920s, or even in the 19th century, are now claimed to be impossible in the 21st century. Things are so tangled that the public doesn't even know who to blame for the collapse of service: is it Connex, or the private company that maintains tracks and signals, or Transport Minister Lynne Kosky, or one of the many divisions of the Department of Transport?

...

The "franchising" system is a shambles and a farce, and nothing will change as long as it persists. No successful urban rail system in the world operates on the model we use in Melbourne: even Margaret Thatcher baulked at applying it to London.

We have ample evidence of the kind of management structures that produce well-run public transport: lean, dynamic, accountable regional authorities that are publicly owned but kept at arm's length from the ministerial spin cycle.

An excellent example is the Zurich Transport Network, which controls all public transport in the state (canton) of Zurich. The ZVV, which many observers regard as the best transit agency in the world, administers a public transport network as big as Melbourne's with 34 staff (the equivalent organisation in Melbourne employs more than 10 times that), of whom only six are responsible for timetables and service planning.

The Zurich staff and their jobs are set out, in German and English, on the authority's website (zvv.ch). Everyone knows where the buck stops in Zurich's public transport system.

A century ago, it was Melbourne, not Zurich that was the world leader in urban rail provision. We could become so again, but only if our public transport system is run for the benefit of its passengers, rather than its operators and administrators.

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

Read the whole article at TheAge.com.au

Rail tunnel 'vital' to state economy

VICTORIA'S economy will slow dramatically if the State Government fails to build Sir Rod Eddington's proposed $7 billion rail tunnel, a transport academic has warned. He says the tunnel would enable more people to work in the CBD.

Graham Currie, chair of public transport at Monash University, said constraints on Melbourne's transport system mean the number of commuters who can travel into the CBD has nearly peaked.

Without urgent action, Victoria's productivity will fall as businesses disperse across Melbourne when it becomes impossible for more people to travel into the city, he said.

His fears have been echoed by the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has warned that small city-based businesses will suffer if larger firms — on which they rely for work — are forced to move out of the CBD.

The Victorian economy is heavily dependent on Melbourne's CBD, with almost a quarter of the state's $230 billion gross regional product generated within the City of Melbourne.

Sir Rod has said a rail tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield would bring at least 40,000 extra people an hour into the city — the equivalent of five West Gate freeways, Professor Currie said. "No one is suggesting we build five West Gate freeways into Melbourne … But an important fact is that CBDs are a huge part of the Australian economy … We have been living off the back of an empty railway to get people here efficiently and now that's finished," he said.

In September, The Age revealed that the State Government was considering abandoning the project in favour of reopening a disused 80-year-old tunnel beneath Footscray.

Professor Currie said anything that increased the size of the rail network should be encouraged but Sir Rod had comprehensively shown that the tunnel would add the capacity Melbourne needed.

"Expanding CBD rail is not just a transport issue, it's at the heart of the future of the Australian economy," he said.

The State Government's new transport plan will respond to Sir Rod's proposals before the end of the year. But with the decision-making done behind closed doors, it has been left to transport experts and observers to debate the project in public.

Both the rail project and Sir Rod's $9 billion road tunnel have won enthusiastic support from powerful lobby groups like VECCI and the RACV, with VECCI spokesman Chris James saying it would be disastrous if transport into the CBD were not upgraded.

He said the Victorian economy revolved around businesses and services such as those in the financial, legal and urban planning sectors — most of which had their headquarters in the city and relied on each other to perform at optimum levels. If it becomes more difficult to travel to work or these businesses are forced apart, productivity will drop.

"It ultimately makes it more difficult for those businesses to source available talent if that talent can't get to work in a timely fashion," Mr James said.

"If firms reduce their investment in the inner-city, it means all money on services that they spend on is reduced … there's a huge flow-on effect."

While the rail tunnel has widespread Labor support, the road tunnel linking the western suburbs to the Eastern Freeway has divided elements of the party.

The Victorian Labor Party's transport policy secretary resigned over his committee's decision to endorse it. And Education Minister Bronwyn Pike has risked her political future by backing the road tunnel, which will run through the heart of her Melbourne electorate.

The Greens remain opposed to both tunnels, and last month released their own $14 billion "People Plan".

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder has backed a road tunnel.

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au (our bold)

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor candidate, Peter McMullin, has a leadership role at VECCI. Look at his policies here www.petermcmullin.com.au. We will do a profile on all of the candidates once they are finalised.

Bronwyn Pike? Well, she's lucky enough to get profiled now!

Plan for free evening rail trips

Clay Lucas

John Brumby at the transport summit. Photo: Craig Abraham

MELBOURNE'S rail commuters would get free evening travel under a plan by Premier John Brumby to reduce severe overcrowding in the afternoon rush.

Mr Brumby said free travel after 8pm could help spread out commuters.

He floated the idea as new Government projections showed public transport patronage would grow from 480 million trips a year in 2009 to more than half a billion a year by 2010.

Mr Brumby was speaking at the Victorian Transport Summit, the final stage of a consultation process for its transport plan due in November.

He said the morning "early bird" scheme, which allows free travel before 7am on Melbourne's trains, had been a "spectacular success".

"One of the issues we will examine is if there is the case to do the same thing in the evening," he said. "To shift some of that peak (on trains) between 5pm and 8pm."

Mr Brumby, who drove to the conference at Telstra Dome, said anything that helped reduce train overcrowding was a positive step.

Metlink, the transport operators' marketing body, said the "late bird" idea still had a long way to go.

"We've had some discussions that you wouldn't be surprised about," chief executive Bernie Carolan said. "When myki (the travel smartcard) is available, it ought to be feasible."

But the Public Transport Users Association described the idea as a gimmick, and demanded the Government increase train regularity.

"People won't change their travel time if they know they'll have to wait half an hour between trains," it said.

Mr Brumby hinted at the massive funding boost that would be needed to pay for the projects included in November's transport plan. He said: "(The projects) will be projects that are bigger than EastLink, bigger than channel deepening."

EastLink cost $3.8 billion and channel deepening upwards of $1 billion.

Possible projects under consideration are Rod Eddington's proposed $20 billion road and rail tunnel proposals, both of which run from Footscray to the eastern suburbs, and a possible toll road between the Greensborough bypass and EastLink.

Any funded projects would "need to go through final feasibility studies and the necessary environmental and planning processes" before they went ahead, Mr Brumby said. "Many of these projects will take many years to deliver."

Public-private partnerships, State and Federal Government spending and tolls would be considered to pay for the projects.

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Brian Boyd said: "We need an immediate multibillion-dollar injection into building … transport infrastructure."

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au

Commuters' fit of peak as Melbourne trains fill up

FEELING a bit squashed? It's probably because an extra 100,000 Melburnians a day have squeezed on to our public transport system in the past year.

Metlink figures for an average weekday show 1.5 million commuters jam trains, trams and buses, with packed-out peak times dragging out to almost six hours a day.

While morning and afternoon peaks are the most crowded, some of the biggest hourly increases have come outside peak, as strap-hangers try to avoid the crush.

The shift has prompted calls for increasing trip frequency and capacity across the day, as well as 24-hour public transport, as more people leave their cars at home.

Last year to July, Melbourne's commuters took an average 1.5 million trips a day -- up from 1.4 million in 2006-07. Of those trips, trains carry 45.2 per cent, while trams take 35.5 per cent and buses 19.3 per cent.

And exclusive hour-by-hour figures show pre-7am travel leapt 15 per cent, with more big jumps after evening peak.

Across the day, Connex figures show it is the Sydenham line that carries the most passengers, followed by Werribee, Pakenham/Cranbourne, Epping and Frankston...

Read the rest of the article at news.com.au

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"

Fire Connex, transport expert says - TheAge.com.au

by Clay Lucas

Connex says Melbourne's trains should stay in private hands. Photo: John Woudstra

RAIL operator Connex should be sacked and management of Melbourne's suburban trains brought back into public hands, prominent transport academic says.

- 'Dismal' performance
- Tunnel proposal slammed
- New contract

Melbourne University transport planner Nick Low says Connex has performed dismally.

Professor Low will tell a transport conference today the State Government should not renew Connex's contract for the rail network. The contract expires next year.

"I'm absolutely convinced that Connex has made a complete mess of it," Professor Low told The Age.

In a speech today to the Municipal Association of Victoria's strategic transport planning conference, Professor Low will argue that the Government must bring the rail system back under public control.

Connex has failed to manage the system to the benefit of rail travellers, Professor Low argues, by not doing everything possible to run more services and reduce waiting times.

"The Government would be wise to not reappoint Connex to run the suburban railways, and wiser still to bring the whole operation back into public hands," he says.

...

In his speech, Professor Low attacks a proposal by Sir Rod Eddington to build a $9 billion road tunnel from Footscray to Clifton Hill.

The road tunnel proposal will only encourage more people to drive into the city instead of taking public transport, he will say today.

If the road tunnel were to be built, it would encourage future freeways through inner parts of Melbourne, to relieve the traffic pressure it would create...

Read the whole article at TheAge.com.au

Does Melbourne need another central city rail tunnel?

I've only just happened across Dr Paul Mees's EWLNA submission. If you have ever heard him speak, you will know a lot of this. If you haven't, it's very interesting reading and I'd encourage everyone to take a look. A quick excerpt...

The $8.5 billion rail tunnel budget alone could pay for:

• elimination of all rail level crossings in greater Melbourne ($3 billion), plus
• new lines to East Doncaster, Rowville (via Monash), Mornington, Aurora, Mernda (via South Morang) and Melbourne Airport ($2 billion), plus
• electrification of lines to Melton (via Caroline Springs, and including track duplication), Sunbury and Cranbourne East, and duplication of single-track sections on the Cranbourne, Hurstbridge, Epping, Lilydale, Belgrave and Altona lines ($1 billion), plus
• doubling the size of the train fleet ($2 billion)

• 
  

Read the whole submission here...

Trains, trams and automobiles: getting our priorities right | theage.com.au

by Kenneth Davidson

IT IS about time that Melburnians began to confront the sausage rather than the sizzle in the transport debate. Rapid population growth (due to high immigration) and rising oil prices (due to peak oil) mean that public transport will have to bear an increasing share of the burden of providing personal mobility if this city is to remain liveable.

Motorists may love their cars, but that is no reason people using public transport should cross-subsidise those drivers who enjoy a Commonwealth fringe benefit concession, which allows them to write off the expense of using their car against tax, when public transport users have to buy their tickets out of their after-tax income. Nor does it explain why those living in the outer suburbs should not have the same choice of public transport as is available to those who live in the inner suburbs.

The $1.5 billion car subsidy should be abolished and the money used to improve and extend rail networks in the larger cities where road congestion is most acute. By reducing road congestion, the reform would be doing a favour for motorists as well as those who prefer public transport.

The essence of good government is to design a tax and regulatory system that rewards good behaviour.

The fringe benefit concession encouraged the demand and local production of six-cylinder cars in defiance of environmental realities as well as making the benefit proportional to mileage. The more you drive the more you get. Crazy. The real, immediate and urgent question facing Melburnians is why is the public transport system, the rail system in particular, manifestly unable to meet the felt needs of commuters?

Is it due to bad management or to a lack of capacity on the rail system? With better management of the system, would we get more services through the City Loop, or are there real physical constraints on the capacity of the system that can only be relieved by the construction of a new underground rail link between Caulfield and Footscray?

The debate has two clear sides. The Transport Department, supported by the Eddington report, argues that the new $8.5 billion rail link is required to make new services to the outer suburbs possible. This is disputed by advocates of the work of RMIT urban transport planner Paul Mees, who left the urban planning department of Melbourne University after pressure from the Transport Department, whose senior management resented being characterised as corrupt and incompetent by Mees because they had ignored his recommendation to reorganise the City Loop.

What should be a straightforward technical dispute has become a highly charged personal and political issue. In my opinion the responsibility for this lies with the Government, which has refused to have an expert inquiry into the core issue of why the loop is a bottleneck that prevents more intensive use of the present system and why public transport services in suburban growth areas are appalling.

Based on the history of the transport bureaucracy under successive governments, public transport advocates may well be right to suspect that the rail tunnel will never be built but is being presented in the hope of making more palatable the east-west road tunnel connecting the Eastern Freeway with Footscray. This is an extremely unpopular and economically and environmentally unsustainable private-public partnership that will cost $9 billion.

The Eddington inquiry was independent in name only. Most of the information and its staff came from the Transport Department. Department head Jim Betts was employed by Macquarie Bank as the transport expert in the original failed attempt to privatise Melbourne's public transport corporation and he as been involved in every inquiry since.

These have resulted in generous public subsidies and less onerous regulations to prop up the system, which is the worst of all worlds. Victoria has a transport minister who is on the record as saying she doesn't want to run a train system, so franchisees run the system with a focus on profit rather than service, and we have a regulator in the form of the department, which has been captured by the franchisees.

The issue of whether the failure of the public transport system is due to bad management or a physical bottleneck that prevents expansion into the outer suburbs must be resolved by an independent and open inquiry. It should be conducted by experts drawn from cities with successful public transport systems — cities such as Toronto, Zurich and Perth.

There is still time to achieve this. The current franchises are in place until the middle of next year. They should then be converted into operational agreements that will give responsibility for management of the system to a transport commission responsible for investment in track, rolling stock, signalling equipment and timetabling and will operate at at arm's length from the responsible minister. Under this arrangement, the transport minister would be required to communicate any ministerial directives in writing to be tabled in Parliament.

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au

Social gap widens from outer to inner Melbourne - The Age

by Clay Lucas

SUBURBIA is bearing the brunt of rising fuel prices and extreme mortgage stress, a major study of Australian cities has found.

Governments must step in to provide outer suburbs with better public transport or risk extreme social breakdown, it warned.

The report, Unsettling Suburbia, for the first time combines the 2006 census figures on car use, mortgage levels and income.

Outer suburban households are under the greatest stress from petrol prices and mortgage levels as a percentage of income, according to the Griffith University's urban planning unit report.

Melbourne's outer suburbs were far more vulnerable to rising fuel prices than the middle and inner suburbs, it warned.

"The households that will have the greatest (problem) coping with higher transport and housing costs are among those with the least resources and weakest access to local infrastructure," authors Jago Dodson and Neil Sipe said.

They warn of a greater social divide between inner Melbourne, which has better access to public transport, and outer suburbs where residents have little option but to drive.

Residents of inner and middle suburbs use their cars less and take far shorter trips, the study found...

...

...It criticised state governments in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland for proposing "grossly expensive" rail projects to combat transport problems.

In Melbourne, Sir Rod Eddington has proposed a $7 billion rail tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield. Feasibility studies into a $7 billion CBD rail underground have begun in Brisbane and a $12 billion metro is planned for Sydney.

"These schemes direct new investment to central and middle suburban areas — the zones already well served by high quality public transport," the study found. Infrastructure funding should be re-directed to the outer suburbs, the report advised.

"Modest extensions to existing suburban rail networks, combined with comprehensively planned and high quality local suburban bus services, would be a cheaper and more sustainable option."

Read the whole article at TheAge.com.au

Cross-city rail tunnel likely

Paul Austin
July 28, 2008

PREMIER John Brumby has given his strongest indication yet that the Government will build a multibillion-dollar rail tunnel to tackle Melbourne's public transport congestion crisis.

Mr Brumby told The Age several train lines were already at full capacity, and the rail tunnel from Sunshine to Caulfield proposed by transport adviser Sir Rod Eddington was "obviously about increasing capacity".

Asked if he was attracted to Sir Rod's call for "a generational leap forward in Melbourne's rail capacity" and the creation of a Paris-style "metro" underground rail network, Mr Brumby said: "I am categorically in the business of making the right decisions now to secure the long-term future of the state."

In an interview to mark his first year as Premier, Mr Brumby also:

■ Flagged an end to water restrictions in Melbourne once the Government's contentious water projects, including the north-south pipeline and the Wonthaggi desalination plant, were finished.

■ Said he would work with his long-time political rival Jeff Kennett in the best interests of Melbourne if the former Liberal premier was elected Lord Mayor in November.

The Age believes senior figures in the Department of Transport are pushing hard for a rail tunnel, arguing it could be affordable using a mix of state and Federal Government money. Some Labor Party strategists believe a commitment to a rail tunnel would help Mr Brumby to go to the 2010 election portraying himself as a man of the future with a low-carbon-emissions plan to cater for the transport needs of Melbourne's rapidly growing population.

Mr Brumby emphasised that the Government had made no decisions on Sir Rod's proposal for a $7.5 billion rail tunnel linking the booming western and south-eastern suburbs via the CBD and St Kilda Road, and stressed he would soon unveil measures designed to reduce congestion in the short and medium terms.

"But a big tunnel is really about building capacity for the long-term future, and, of course, I want to be in a position where in 10, 20 and 30 years time we've got the capacity for an expanded and further improved public transport system," the Premier said.

His comments will be welcomed by public transport advocates who fear the Government might endorse Sir Rod's other main recommendation — a $9 billion road tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway to CityLink — but reject a rail tunnel as too expensive.

In his blueprint released in April, Sir Rod recommended the Government double the capacity of the rail network in Melbourne's fastest-growing areas by building a 17-kilometre tunnel from Sunshine to Caulfield.

"The new tunnel would provide capacity for at least an extra 40,000 commuters every hour and take a major step towards creating Melbourne's first 'metro' style passenger line (a common feature of successful overseas rail networks)," Sir Rod wrote.

Mr Brumby said he would make an "Eddington-plus" statement on Melbourne's transport system in November.

On the water shortage, Mr Brumby said he was confident there would be no need for restrictions in Melbourne once the Government's water projects, including Australia's biggest desalination plant, were finished and operating — by about 2012.

Mr Brumby described John So as "a very good Lord Mayor", and said the partnership between the State Government and the City of Melbourne was working well.

But he said he could work with Mr Kennett if he contested and won the November election.

Mr Kennett, who is chairman of the Hawthorn Football Club, is expected to make a decision in September or early October.

■ At a rally of about 200 people in drizzling rain in Fitzroy yesterday, Local Government Minister Richard Wynne, whose Richmond seat covers one end of what would be a new $9 billion road tunnel, has urged anti-tunnel protesters to push for public transport solutions.

Mr Wynne gave a carefully worded three-minute address, referring protesters to his submission to the report by Sir Rod, which recommends the tunnel.

"From a social justice point of view, this is a unique opportunity to use Eddington to get outcomes more broadly in terms of public transport. We should not miss that opportunity," Mr Wynne told the crowd.

With KATE LAHEY

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au

Melburnians want a better rail system

It is essential and possible to meet growing transport needs.

THE Federal Government has given the travelling public and State Government infrastructure planners just five years to

adapt before a carbon price for transport kicks in fully. So infrastructure decisions to mitigate climate change must be made now.

Of the two main infrastructure proposals from the Eddington report, the road tunnel does not support the aims of the carbon pollution reduction scheme green paper. The rail tunnel does. The road tunnel, in its outdated obsession with a "missing link" between motorways, will increase greenhouse emissions and add to traffic congestion in inner Melbourne. The rail tunnel, provided that it is contained within a transport plan for the whole of metropolitan Melbourne, including the outer suburbs, will lead to a reduction of emissions and congestion.

There are major benefits from the Eddington proposals for public transport:

■ They will provide an immediate strategic boost to the capacity of the train system.

■ They are targeted at the parts of the system where urban growth is driving patronage most heavily.

■ The new "metro" style rail tunnel proposal will bring efficient transport to important destinations in inner Melbourne, while speeding access from outer suburban growth areas.

The Government asserts that sufficient additional train services to meet the growth of demand cannot be provided unless new infrastructure is built. We have not yet seen the detailed reasoning behind this claim, and to conceal it is harming the case for the tunnel. Nevertheless, just as VicRoads added road space year after year in the period of a shift towards the car, now more rail paths must be added as people increasingly use public transport. A recent survey showed 27% of Melburnians were choosing to use their cars less. By contrast, over the past three years, train use in Melbourne has boomed, growing over 8% a year and above 12% in critical corridors such as Watergardens. Tram use has grown too.

The Eddington rail tunnel is correctly placed to provide additional paths for the very crowded services from rapidly growing areas such as Altona, Werribee, Tarneit, Melton, Caroline Springs and Roxburgh Park. The extra capacity will also mean that the booming V/Line regional fast rail services will not need to be caught behind stopping trains.

The full benefit of the successful regional rail improvements will be received when the 160 km/h regional trains can continue into central Melbourne at high speed.

Where does this leave the urgently needed outer-suburban connections — serving areas beyond Cranbourne, Rowville, Doncaster and Mernda, as well as the needed electrification of the Sunbury and Melton lines? In a nutshell, expansion of the core capacity is prerequisite. When the Rowville feasibility study was undertaken several years ago by a team led by one of the authors, there was capacity on the Dandenong line to add the extra trains. This capacity is rapidly disappearing, but the addition of space for 25 trains an hour via the Eddington tunnel will mean that Rowville can be built.

To provide a suburban level of service to Sunbury and Melton will also mean extra capacity, as will any alleviation of the existing overcrowding on the Watergardens line. Again, the Eddington proposals will meet this need. For the moment, Doncaster is being provided with Doncaster Area Rapid Transit, a smartened up bus system. Though a second-best alternative to rail, it provides some improvement for Doncaster residents. Because Doncaster does not have a massive suburban growth area beyond it, a Doncaster rail link doesn't have the same urgency as the areas where Eddington proposes the initial investment should be made. Finally, there is the Mernda extension (and the related extension of the No. 86 tram to Doreen). These should be in final planning now, since once the new bridge at Clifton Hill is completed there is no technical obstacle to extending adequate public transport to this critical growth corridor.

How should these proposals be financed? This is the place for a public-public-public partnership. In other words, while the State Government, as the owner of the system, should be central and bear the largest financial burden, both the Commonwealth and local government have roles to play. We suggest that the Federal Government contribute $4 billion from the Building Australia Fund, with the remaining $4 billion to be provided by the State Government. We think that local government should design and finance (or manage private developers to finance) new stations and their surrounds. While slightly reducing the burden on state finance (at the rate of about $25 million a time), we think local government is best placed to integrate stations into surrounding urban design, making them safe, accessible and lively places. In the case of the new station proposed for Parkville, the university could use the project as a showcase for its architectural and planning expertise.

The community is saying very clearly that it wants the option of car-free access to jobs, education and leisure. An efficient rail system is the path to this goal, and the Eddington rail proposals the best entry we are likely to get soon. Let's support them.

Professors Nick Low and Bill Russell are the directors of the Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport at the University of Melbourne. Russell wrote the report recommending the construction of rail services to Doncaster in 1991, and headed the feasibility team for the Rowville railway in 2004.

Read the original article in TheAge.com.au

Transport group urges caution on rail tunnel

The Public Transport Users' Association (PTUA) says the Victorian Government should be making the most of existing public transport infrastructure, before investing in a new rail tunnel.

Sir Rod Eddington's report on an east-west transport solution proposed a $7-billion rail tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield.

The Government is considering a public-private partnership as one of the funding options, if the tunnel is approved.

Daniel Bowen, from the PTUA says a new, privatised tunnel would drive up public transport fares.

"We would like to see better use of existing rail infrastructure we have at first before we go and spend [up to] $9-billion on a new rail tunnel," he said.

"So it is a very expensive project and I think the government needs to be very wary before they go ahead and approve it."

Read the original article here - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/15/2303929.htm

New rail tunnel may be privatised

A PROPOSED $7 billion rail tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield could be privatised under funding options being considered by the Brumby Government and being backed by Metlink, the body that promotes Melbourne's public transport operations.

The Government has also refused to rule out fare increases to help pay for the tunnel.

The tunnel was among the key proposals in Sir Rod Eddington's report earlier this year on east-west transport options for Melbourne.

As the Government considers its response to the Eddington report, it has emerged that Metlink's submission to the inquiry included private finance options for rail projects.

Metlink's chief executive, Bernie Carolan, said the Footscray-Caulfield rail tunnel would be an attractive private financing opportunity because it was a "stand-alone" line and not an add-on to an existing line.

"This sort of rail tunnel proposition lends itself to it (private financing) more than most public transport initiatives simply because it is stand-alone," he told The Age.

Rail lines in Sydney and Brisbane have already been built using private finance.

Metlink, a strong advocate of the rail tunnel proposal, would prefer public funding for the project, but would support private finance to ensure it is built.

The operation of Melbourne's train and tram system was privatised by the Kennett government in 1999, but the state has retained the ownership of the tracks and trains...

Read the rest at http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-rail-tunnel-may-be-privatised-20080714-3f43.html

Rail Tram and Bus Union submission

Their response - read the whole thing here.

A quote, in regard to the car tunnel :

The RTBU’s view is that the rail solution is of a higher priority than the proposed road solution. The rail proposals will go a long way to resolving commuter traffic congestion on East West road access links including the West Gate Bridge. They will also significantly reduce the pressure for the East West road connection. In this sense if the choice is between the road and rail options then the benefits of the rail solutions would outweigh the benefits of a road only option.

Although, I have no doubt, many people would agree that the rail tunnel should come before the road tunnel, they don't actually suggest the road tunnel shouldn't be built. In fact the "...if the choice is between the road and rail options..." statement is of great concern to me. Given the statements that the State Government are currently providing to the media, suggesting that all of Eddington's suggestions need to be implemented, I see this as potentially an opportunity for the State Government to say to the union "Yes, we'll do ALL of your suggestions, and the road tunnel too, as they complement each other".

Australia's urban railways are full: experts

Australian urban railways are full and the federal government needs to pour at least $10 billion into meeting public transport demand, an expert panel warns.

The panel says new railways have to be built to handle the huge influx of people leaving cars at home and cramming onto public transport.

Professor Graham Currie, the chair of public transport at Monash University, said Australia's railways had used up their spare capacity.

"The railways are full - we need to solve the railway capacity problem and we are five to 10 years away from even implementing it," he told reporters.

"We need to act now to find a solution - it has an impact on our economy because mobility is going to start declining."

He said disadvantaged families living on city fringes who depend on cars will fare the worst.

"Beyond that issue, we have greenhouse gas emissions that will impact on our weather system and the viability of the economy, we have pollution and peak oil prices," he said.

The panel called for major investment in public rail and bus systems.

Dr Janet Stanley, chief research officer at the Monash University Sustainability Institute, said the federal government's emission trading scheme would hurt low income families and could cost rural families as much as $1,200 a year.

"It will cause considerable difficulties for low income people but we support it because people will be worse off if it isn't introduced," Dr Stanley said.

Professor John Stanley, of the Institute of Transport and Logistical Studies at Sydney University, said Australia was one of the few developed western economies where the national government played no role in public transport.

"This needs to change," he said.

He was backed up Michael Apps, executive director of the Bus Industry Confederation, who said it was time the Rudd government made good on its rhetoric.

"So far we've heard a lot of talk from the new government about their commitment to addressing the problems of fuel prices, traffic congestion and climate change - it's time we saw some action before it's too late," Mr Apps said.

Read the original article here - http://www.theage.com.au/national/australias-urban-railways-are-full-experts-20080708-394r.html