It’s not hard to imagine what life in one of Australia’s big cities in 2020 would be like if we keep going with the roads obsession of successive governments. With peak oil and carbon pricing driving petrol costs through the roof, battling worse air pollution and worse congestion, there would still be no real alternative for those who want to get off the oil addiction and get out of their cars.
But, just for a minute, imagine if the State, Federal and local governments decided to change direction.
Picture living in a thriving community, a clean city, with regular, fast, safe trams, buses and trains running around a well-constructed network, planned around community needs and desires. A city of 5 million people or more running smoothly, cleanly and happily!
The Victorian Greens have done us all a huge favour by setting out not only what this future would look like for Melbourne, but also how to get there! By 2020, everybody in Melbourne would have access to a fast, convenient and publicly-owned network of trams, buses and trains if a plan launched yesterday by Greg Barber MLC and Greens Lord Mayoral candidate, Adam Bandt, were adopted and delivered.
The people plan, as opposed to John Brumby’s ‘profit plan’ of more road tunnels, looks at how to double capacity in 8 years and triple the number of trips made by public transport by 2020.The plan focussed on upgrading networks and services, planning around where and when the need is greatest, and spending the kind of money usually earmarked for more roads.
As well as a detailed discussion paper for the policy wonks amongst us, the website has a really funky interactive map of Melbourne where you can click on your municipality and see for yourself where new services would run under this proposal.
Plus there’s the very cute tunnelling Brumby Mole to check out and send to your friends 
This is the kind of visionary planning that the Greens can provide, contrasting with the boring, corporate and profit-focussed guff the Rudd Government is still spruiking. Here’s hoping Infrastructure Australia will deliver something to wake up the Government. And hoping even more that the Government will not sideline or shelve their suggestions as they have done with the National Framework on Energy Efficiency.
8 Comments
The proposals put forward by the Greens have quite some merit.
Extending Tram 8 to meeting the Burwood Rd Tram is one also extending Trams out to Morabbin Station although I would argue this could be extended all the way to Mordialloc Station. all that would be required is replacing the medium strip down Nepean Hwy.
If we wanted to become really radical we could extend the Dandenong Rd Tram all the way to Dandenong then continue it too Frankston.
The Tram lines that run out too the Eastern suburbs could be considerable longer.
The one complain I have with the Public Transport lobby is their obession with Buses, I’m sorry but Buses are a waste of space and should be only used where a Tram or Train cannot, even in the inner city Buses are rarely used and there is a good reason for that.
I would go as far as to suggest replacing at least a third of Melbourne’s bus routes with Trams, yes that sounds radical but lets recall the Tram and Train network have remained basically unchained since the 1890s when Melbourne had its own Property bust. Dejavu
Problem with you greenies is that you have no concept of the fact that things cost money; investment won’t occur without profit and the people of Australia do not want to live in the dark ages.
Personal transport will never ever be replaced by public transport. The solution is to fuel investment into zero-emission cars.
Tim, I reckon this is a classic battle between the business-as-usual approach and a something-more-sensible approach.
All outward indications are that, in Melbourne, the future is all about the car. Bigger, better roads are getting built and public transport continues to suffer. The incentives to drive are far stronger than to get on a tram, especially when you have to watch three jam-packed trams go past before one arrives on which you can fit, let alone commute comfortably. (Despite it, public transport use has risen in the last 12 months, which imo illustrates that people want to use it.) Housing estates are being developed huge distances away from where people work, regardless of the price of fuel, the cost of pollution and other environmental concerns. There is little to no public transport servicing these areas. Bike lanes in the inner city are improving, but slowly. And the Victorian government’s plan? Build more roads. That’s the reality of Victorian transport policy. I wonder if it is the same in other major cities?
I can’t help but feel pessimistic about changing it for the better. I just see so little evidence that common sense even has a seat at the table. The People Plan is just the sort of alternative that should be factored into any grand plans to remake Melbourne roads etc. Let’s hope Brumby et al take note.
Generic Republican, let me put aside your personal attack for the moment (which is contrary to Crikeyblogs comments policy, I’d note) and address the issues you raise, to whit:
- of course these things cost money. So do road tunnels. It’s worth noting that the Greens’ plan is estimated to costs significantly less than the Eddington / Brumby plan for more road tunnels.
- if investment won’t go ahead without profits, could you please explain to me why the Lane Cove Tunnel was built in Sydney???
- who ever said personal transport will be replaced by public transport? The idea is not to replace it altogether - everyone accepts that there will always be an important role for personal transport. The idea is to make the alternatives sufficiently attractive and convenient that a larger proportion of trips be taken with public transport instead of personal.
The Greens also support investing in hybrid and plug-in electric cars and alternative fuels, through direct incentives for manufacturers, fuel efficiency standards and government fleet purchasing policies.
“This is the kind of visionary planning that the Greens can provide, contrasting with the boring, corporate and profit-focussed guff the Rudd Government is still spruiking.”
Sorry Tim but I must admit I had a bit of a titter when I first looked at the Greens’ quite impressive plan for Melbourne. I was wondering where the cost estimates were but then I realised that because the Greens will never get into power such estimates aren’t needed. *Ho ho ho - boy did I giggle at myself*.
But anyway since you make mention of cost estimates for your plan I will have to apologise for being so quick to judge. If you could kindly point me towards such estimates, which for some no doubt unrelated reason, were not connected to the People’s Plan website.
And since it is I who has wronged you, in the spirit of the Crikeyblogs chivalry policy I will promise to shout you a bottle of the finest Socialist Chardonnay money can buy AND eat my hat if any independent party costs these plans at less than the combined cost of both the Eddington Rail tunnel and Road tunnel. Shall we say $18 Billion?
Good Day Fine Sir.
Gosh, PJ, I suspect you might be owing me a bottle of chardonnay - although I’d prefer a nice Tasmanian pinot grigio, frankly.
Did you look at the website before you made that bet? Did you even read my post with the direct link to the discussion paper?
If you care to click that link, which is also easily accessible from the website itself (for those who are more interested in finding stuff out than in being gratuitously rude), you would see a detailed costings section at the end of the paper. Greens costings are under $14 billion - way under Eddington’s costings.
As for an independent party to verify these costings - perhaps you can run your expert eye over them? But seriously, as you will read (if you want to…), the costs in the discussion paper are all sourced from independent reports.
Is that enough to get the vino? If not, it should at least be enough to stop you from shooting your mouth off before doing the work next time…
Thanks for that Tim.
I apologise if the costings were always there. I must admit I didn’t look very hard.
Well it seems the costings are reasonably accurate assessments of what these projects would cost with regards the rail links and I will accept that the rest is a fair assessment too.
Accordingly I wish you good luck with the project as I agree that public transport is the future for Melbourne.
Personally I am not a fan of the Eddington plan and think an inner circle style underground, very similar to your rail plan would be better at allowing rail travel between Carlton, Fitzroy, Richmond, South Yarra, Prahran, St Kilda and back to the city and North Melbourne.
It seems to me that linking and better utilising existing rail and lightrail routes would be a far better option than one new line under the city. Moreover it would allow suburban trains to not all squeeze into the City Loop when they are certainly not all full arriving at the city.
So perhaps you are deserving of some wine. I’ll have to send it to crikey but I’m sure you’ll get it. I don’t know about my hat though.
Phil
I’ll let you get away without eating the hat, Phil
Thanks for your graciousness in defeat! I do hope that we’ve made a small step in preventing knee-jerk anti-Greens reaction in the future.