The Infrastructure Thread

I don’t see a thread like this anywhere else but please merge if I’m wrong. Some of this stuff is buried in the politics thread but I’d rather keep politics out of it.

This new suburban ring rail project proposed for Melbourne is exactly the sort of visionary infrastructure project governments are petrified of. Chances are it will take 50 years to start building it but hopefully they just pull their fingers out and get on with it. It would be fantastic for the city.

That said I still think we need to prioritise an inner suburban loop train that could compliment the Metro project presently underway and they should build the most expensive airport rail option connecting Footscray to vu, highpoint, Keilor etc.

As an aside while I spent an hour in the car traveling from Footscray to Carlton on Saturday I found myself again cursing the lack of an east West link to take pressure off the likes Alexandra pde etc.

Anyway, infrastructure projects… Go.

6 Likes

utopia

17 Likes

I’ve got a minor thing for the girl in the red blouse.

4 Likes

Major.

Women aren’t funny, but when they are, it’s attractive.

She’s very funny.

2 Likes

Was she in that show based in a Tasmanian real estate office with the orange haired nerd?

1 Like

On closer inspection, that may be him in the background.

Just for clarity, on a scale of Zero to Serena, where does this minor thing sit?

1 Like

I think the rail loop is a good idea. A six year old can look at the rail map on a train wall and see it needs a outer loop connecting the lines.

Being one of the residents that had a four story station built right outside my front door in Murrumbeena, I just hope one of the many people that labeled me a NIMBY for complaining gets the same treatment.

2 Likes

She sits somewhere around the middle.

For clarity, my scale works a little differently from the usual ‘least to most’ scale. For the record, I would have a go at all those who appear on my list, regardless of where they place.

1 Like

Celia Pacquoia? Been on her bandwagon since day one. She’s grouse too.

1 Like

Ah you’re a binary-over-scale man as well

On topic, I reckon this project is about 20 years overdue, but great to see they’re doing it. I think the level crossing removals have given the public a bit of an appetite for projects like this because they had (relatively) quick tangible benefits.

4 Likes

I think this is a new record for thread derailment.

7 Likes

Don’t encourage it

1 Like

Yep I thought this thread will be a good discussion.

Nope just diggers sexual fantasies.

1 Like

I must say that I struggle to see what the real point of it is. No doubt individual parts of it will get some use. But if I were going say from Cheltenham to Tullamarine I doubt that I would want to go via Monash, Burwood, Bundoora and Broadmeadows.

I am all in favour of infrastructure and I think it should be funded by government debt and taxes rather than some so-called public-private partnership that hands some developer guaranteed profits and monopoly control for 40 or 50 years, at no risk. Railways are great. I just don’t really see the point of this one

I use to live around there. My mother still does. Without wanting to play down the impact you’ve experienced I’m curious to know how everything works now that it is up and running. Does the traffic flow better. Koornang Rd, poath Rd, Murrumbeena Rd were all routinely stuffed at peak hour.

1 Like

Sorry about contributing to that

No you wouldn’t but I don’t think that what it is designed to do.

And why the fk would you do that? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

You’d go into the City, … and out again, …

1 Like

Moved back from Paris years ago and didn’t own a car at the time. I remember travelling to a mate’s house in Collingwood with a commute that would normally take about 40 minutes which due to interruptions and alighting connections took me nearly an hour longer. I initially thought, this city could at least have a simpler underground service from Elwood to Brunswick/Footscray to Burnley radius (roughly the same size of the inner village of Paris surrounded by the Periferique) winding through different pockets from trains and trams but more direct than the latter meeting up at hubs. If smaller and similar cities like Brussels, Montreal and Toronto (has trams too) can have them, so can we.

Since then small alterations have been made to tram stops, level crossings and the Metro Tunnel has been implemented which has been a small boon really. Not keeping politics from the thread, I’m glad it’s come to the forefront of state parliament as our thinking in this country has really been stuck in the post WW2 period, new world cities like Los Angeles being the prime example on how to not town plan. There are theories that General Motors played a part in that push mid 20th century, discouraging public transport over roads, roads and more of the farkers.

Infrastructure has never been sexy for career politicians with short minded stop gap aspirations all to quick to put forward ridiculous road building band aids.

This proposal is kinda like the modern version of the Outer Circle railway line of the 1890’s (the remainder of that is the Alamein line) from Fairfield to Oakleigh on steroids which was really just a half arsed attempt for (from memory) Thomas Bent to flog off real estate in those underdeveloped areas at the time. I don’t particularly enjoy driving and need a car for my job but I’m happy the discussion for infrastructure to be open in parliament and the public but it needs to be implemented and seen through.

5 Likes