Libs ramp up priority for freeway - TheAge

Based on the last post, I could see this coming. A bit more today, in The Age.

A CONTROVERSIAL freeway through inner Melbourne and a new underground rail line have again topped the state's wish list for funding from Canberra, with the Baillieu government saying it wants to proceed with a series of major transport projects first proposed by Labor.

The government today will unveil its submission to the federal government's advisory body Infrastructure Australia. It marks the first release of the Coalition's transport proposals since coming to office last November.

However, the submission does not say when any of the projects detailed would be built, or what they would ultimately cost. Premier Ted Baillieu said yesterday he did not want to make these predictions until more planning had been done.

The government has backed an 18-kilometre ''inner urban freeway'' that would link the Eastern Freeway in Clifton Hill to the Western Ring Road in Sunshine. The freeway would travel via CityLink and the Port of Melbourne. It is based on a plan put forward by Sir Rod Eddington in 2008 in a report for the Brumby government. Sir Rod is now chairman of Infrastructure Australia.

This freeway plan was partially adopted by Mr Brumby's government later in 2008, when it announced plans for WestLink, a $2.5 billion tunnel linking the inner west to the port.

Public transport advocates attacked the road tunnel plan, which has been in limbo since Labor's defeat last year, saying it would only add to road congestion.

Federal Greens MP Adam Bandt vowed to fight ''tooth and nail'' to stop the freeway gaining money from Canberra. State Labor MP Richard Wynne - whose electorate the freeway would slice through - also attacked the idea. ''When Eddington first looked at this freeway, it was neither economically or environmentally sustainable. It's the same today,'' he said.

But the government's submission to Canberra argues booming traffic on the West Gate Bridge and Hoddle Street means the project is now justified. It has requested $30 million to fund a two-year planning study. ''This is a once-in-a-generation project that would transform the way people move around Melbourne,'' Mr Baillieu said.

The government's submission says the private sector may help fund construction of the freeway, raising the possibility it may be a toll road.

The submission also puts a new rail tunnel under inner Melbourne back on the agenda. Labor's 2008 blueprint detailed a plan for a 17-kilometre track from Footscray to Caulfield via Parkville, with its first stage to cost $4.5 billion. Its future was put in doubt after the election but the Baillieu government is now seeking a further $130 million for pre-construction work. While the new proposal follows much the same route as Labor's plan, it will stretch only nine kilometres...

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/libs-ramp-up-priority-for-freeway-20111116-1njco.html#ixzz1du7EHKrg

Note that there's little detail about the route, and therefore what could be at risk. The previous government had categorically said that JJ Holland Park was safe. With the prospect of the car tunnel on the agenda, I suppose it depends upon its route and how they intend to create it.

Even the more recent plans for the rail tunnel showed that the park would be safe.

For both of these, however, there's the potential disruptions to the surrounding areas during construction to think about. With the train tunnel, I'd personally view that as a short-term pain, for long-term gain. With the car tunnel, as with other roads built to 'save' the city from traffic, I believe it will fill up with traffic, just like the others, and make any arterial which its exit ramps spill onto, even worse. The 'booming traffic on the Westgate and Hoddle Street' is the product of the Monash Freeway works, and EastLink, respectively. The tunnel would certainly help through-traffic, but usage patterns show the vast majority of users would be getting on/off at some point near the city. And most of them are commuters. And many of them are driving because of the poor/non-existant public transport options.

Peak-hour motorists forced into 23 km/h crawl

MELBOURNE'S traffic-choked road network is slowing down, leaving peak-hour motorists crawling through the city's inner core at just 23 kilometres an hour, a confidential VicRoads report shows.

The new figures come as the road authority releases its first data on the massive $2.25 billion expansion of Melbourne's Western Ring Road.

VicRoads has confirmed that the road works, jointly funded by the state and federal governments, will dwarf current disruptions on the Monash-West Gate upgrade, take half a decade to complete and cost almost as much as the EastLink project.

The VicRoads report on the state of Melbourne's road network shows drivers, fed up with delays on arterial roads, are opting for the city's already clogged freeways and tollways.

Drivers are travelling 3 million more kilometres a day on freeways than in the previous year, VicRoads' Traffic System Performance report, shows.

The draft figures contained in the study also show that:

• Inner-city arterial roads with trams have sped up, calling into question the Government's new policy on extending clearway times.
• 80% of cars on Melbourne's roads have only one occupant: the driver.
• Drivers on Melbourne's roads cover 88 million kilometres every day, the same as last year.
• The average all-day speed on Melbourne's roads has fallen to 40.8 km/h, a kilometre slower than the previous year.
• Average freeway speeds are just 59 km/h in the morning peak, three kilometres faster than the previous year.

Fewer inner-city residents are driving their car, the study shows, while there has been an increase in the kilometres travelled by outer-suburban drivers - pointing to the lack of public transport options in outer Melbourne.

Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese told The Age this week that improved rail links were desperately needed to reduce commuting times in Australia's big cities. The time workers spent in cars crawling to work was "a national tragedy", he said.

"Many working parents spend more time commuting to work in their cars than they do at home with their kids," he said. "Better urban transport in terms of rail links (will) mean (drivers) are using roads that are less congested."

The report will alarm many motorists as the school holidays end tomorrow, and thousands of motorists are predicted to use EastLink for the first time. The toll road is free until July 27, and figures released by operator ConnectEast this week showed that already 275,000 drivers are using it a day - causing traffic at the end of the Eastern Freeway to increase by about 5%.

The RACV said the figures showed there was a need for better public transport and cycling options, to help speed up the road network by getting drivers out of their cars. "There is obviously increased congestion on the arterial road system, combined with overcrowding on public transport," public policy manager Brian Negus said.

He said the increase in travel on freeways was likely a result of overcrowding on public transport. "People have tried the trains, and are going back the other way - and that's adding to the arterial congestion," he said.

The State Government's clearways plan - which will see clearways extended from their current hours to 6.30am to 10am, and 3pm to 7pm - was desperately needed, he said. The marginal improvement on inner-city travel speeds was due to clearway extensions already in place, such as on Sydney Road, Mr Negus said. "To get public transport freed up, you need to move more cars," he said.

While the number of kilometres travelled has not changed from last year's figures, VicRoads regional services director Ted Vincent revealed that traffic on the Western Ring Road had surged by between 11% and 20% in the five years to 2007.

Works to upgrade the road will take five years and will start late next year.

Public transport advocates lashed out at the level of roads spending, saying it would do nothing to reduce travel times.

Professor Nick Low, of Melbourne University's transport planning research centre, said the amount spent building roads was sickening, especially when public transport so desperately needed more.

"You can't build your way out of a problem when the roads system is not capable of carrying the car numbers already being injected into it by the radial freeways," he said.

Professor Low ridiculed Sir Rod Eddington's proposed tunnel link between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink, saying it would increase congestion in inner Melbourne. "The answer is obviously public transport and not more roads," he said.

Original article at http://www.theage.com.au/national/peakhour-motorists-forced-into-23-kmh-crawl-20080711-3dse.html?page=-1

New orbital freeway plan for city

A CONTENTIOUS proposal to build the "missing link" in Melbourne's outer ring road network will be considered as part of a wider plan by the State Government to deal with Melbourne's transport chaos.

Premier John Brumby has confirmed that a freeway link through some of the city's most environmentally sensitive areas will be among a series of proposals considered in a far-reaching new transport plan.

By linking the Metropolitan Ring Road to the the EastLink tollway, the road would create a continuous "orbital" freeway of outer Melbourne, running about 100 kilometres from Altona in the west to Frankston in the south.

Two alternative routes will be looked at: a six-kilometre link from the Greensborough Highway to the Eastern Freeway, and a more ambitious 15-20 kilometre road from Greensborough to EastLink.

Motoring group the RACV said it expected the Government to provide "a strong commitment to the planning and implementation" of the new freeway.

But putting the project on the agenda would amount to a policy reversal by Labor, which has repeatedly promised not to build the missing link in the ring road since winning power in 1999.

In 2001, then transport minister Peter Batchelor told Parliament that any suggestion Labor would ever allow a freeway link between the Eastern Freeway and the ring road was "a fear campaign, a smear campaign".

Yesterday Mr Brumby confirmed that the ring road plan was among a range of potential projects other than those in Sir Rod Eddington's transport blueprint, released in April. "There have been a lot of other proposals about other things that we might do (including) outer ring roads," Mr Brumby said.

Among the main proposals from Sir Rod was a $9 billion freeway to link the Western Ring Road to the Eastern Freeway via a tunnel under Royal Park. However, it is believed Sir Rod was frustrated by his narrow brief, which looked only at the links between Melbourne's eastern and western suburbs...

Read the rest at http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-orbital-freeway-plan-for-city-20080707-34em.html

Who-da thunk it? Mr Brum-brum-brumby want's to build another road!

It's up to Brumby to make public transport better, says expert

It's not often that I feel the need to comment on what I post from the newspapers, but a few facts up front. Sir Rod Eddington is on the Board of NewsCorp (who produce the HeraldSun). The deadline for responses is Jul 15th and the spin merchants know this. This is a very-cleverly written article, proffering the 'must have all the Eddington recommendations for it to work' concept, under the headline of investing in public transport.

We do need quick solutions... but building this tunnel would take over a decade. In my opinion, a better investment of time/money would be more focus upon public transport.

THE onus is on the Brumby Government to end Melburnians' love affair with their cars by investing in large public transport projects.

That's the view of international transport expert Sir Rod Eddington in a recorded chat with Premier John Brumby, posted online today.

The Government's challenge was to balance the demand for cars with a push for better public transport, Sir Rod said.

Any decision would come at a cost, he said.

"There's an opportunity now to put in place infrastructure, which children will be the beneficiaries of, albeit that we'll have to accept some short- and medium-term disruption while it's being put in place," he said.

Sir Rod, who released his East West Link Needs Assessment report in March, said commuters needed viable public transport if they were to get out of their cars.

"We know that the motor car has a couple of challenges against it," he said. "It's so important to our daily lives, it's at the heart of personal freedom in so many ways, and people love their cars and wish to use their cars for many different reasons.

"But we know if that's going to continue into the future, one, we need to make sure that the motor car substantially reduces its carbon footprint, and secondly, that in . . . areas where there's real congestion we've got strong public transport alternatives.

"And again that's going to require us to change our habits in some ways," he said.

"I think people are up for the challenge, but the infrastructure has to be in place to help them make it."

Mr Brumby agreed, acknowledging that "doing nothing" was not an option.

"If we're to tackle climate change, public transport and a more efficient transport system are going to be absolutely crucial in the way in which we achieve that," he said.

Commuters can respond to the video on the Premier's website in a forum between 9.30am and midday today.

They are encouraged to discuss Victoria's transport challenges and pose questions to the Government, which will record and consider them.

Mr Brumby said the Government had been given many ideas on how to spend taxpayers' money but he would not say how much it would spend on transport.

He said Sir Rod's report was the foundation of the Government's plan, but it would not necessarily adopt all of his recommendations.

Among the report's suggested projects is a $9 billion road tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway with the Tullamarine Freeway and an $8.5 billion rail tunnel between Caulfield and Footscray.

"I clearly looked at a particular piece of the jigsaw, and clearly you need to reflect on the jigsaw in its entirety," Sir Rod said.

"At the end of the day, it will be for you to strike the right balance."

Read the orig article at http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23985392-661,00.html

Back to the drawing board again

JUST two years after it launched a transport strategy that was meant to last Melbourne 25 years, the Brumby Government has confirmed it is working on its latest "major" transport plan.

At a public transport forum yesterday organised by the Eastern Transport Coalition, a grouping of seven eastern suburb councils, parliamentary secretary for public transport Rob Hudson said the Government would unveil the strategy later this year. "The Government will be producing a major transport statement at the end of the year which will look at transport needs right across the metropolitan area of Melbourne," Mr Hudson said.

In May 2006 then premier Steve Bracks released, amid much fanfare, his government's $10.5 billion Meeting Our Transport Challenges strategy.

Unveiling the plan in Frankston, Mr Bracks boasted that it laid out a 25-year vision for Victoria's transport network, and provided funding for the first decade. "We must act now to protect our world-class lifestyle," Mr Bracks said at the time.

But two years later, Melbourne's transport system is under severe stress: road congestion is costing the Victorian economy an estimated $1.3 billion per year, and public transport patronage is spiralling out of control as commuters ditch cars to avoid petrol price rises.

Rail operator Connex said last month that Melbourne's overcrowded rail system would go into meltdown unless action was taken soon. Patronage levels not expected to be reached until 2016 have already been achieved. Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu, who also spoke at yesterday's forum, said an umbrella transport strategy was desperately needed. "We do not have a major, overarching transport plan for this state, and in its absence we have a series of planning patchwork solutions that have failed," Mr Baillieu said.

The Eastern Transport Coalition used the forum to renew its call for the State Government to build rail lines down the Eastern Freeway to Doncaster, as was promised when the road was built in the 1970s. The coalition also wants a new rail line built to Rowville, and many more services added to the Lilydale and Belgrave lines.

Read the whole article here - http://www.theage.com.au/national/back-to-the-drawing-board-again-20080704-31xv.html

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

Save Holland Park video