It seemed like a no-brainer until the costing was released. Taxpayers need a return of more than the projected 45-85c for every dollar spent, especially if we’re to invest $10b plus 25 years of payments to the consortium.
The numbers for this project just didn’t stack up. I’m sure there are plenty of other infrastructure projects that would provide better value for money and the government needs to get on with building them.
Apart from the work of eliminating rail crossings as Stu suggested, I'm wondering what new road projects apart from East West could actually benefit the state.
Obviously linking Eastlink to the Northern ring road, but having grown up in the area, I not sure if that will ever happen, and I'm not sure how much traffic it would divert from the CBD.
I’d definitely use it to get to the airport, but that’s maybe 6 times a year at the most.
Apart from the work of eliminating rail crossings as Stu suggested, I'm wondering what new road projects apart from East West could actually benefit the state.
Obviously linking Eastlink to the Northern ring road, but having grown up in the area, I not sure if that will ever happen, and I'm not sure how much traffic it would divert from the CBD.
Correct. Especially when government’s can currently borrow money in Australia for less than the inflation rate. Public infrastructure would be a great use of money to get the economy rolling plus it is investing in our future.
What I don’t get is why the inner city councils were so against the tunnel. About 2 months ago we had a scare with one of our little ones and trying to get across Alexandra Parade on a Saturday to get to the Royal Children’s was an absolute nightmare. The tunnel would have taken so many cars off these inner city roads and made these suburbs so much less crowded in terms of traffic.
I understand the demand for public transport and can safely say that Melbourne’s train network is one of the worst I have encountered throughout major cities in the world. However there is more to a road in just people get from place A to place B. Last time I checked industry couldn’t transport their goods via a metro train. Roads are needed to keep the ‘wheels’ of industry turning over. A truck coming in from Melbourne’s east to the port would have been so much more efficient with the East-west link.
This is where the taco girl is needed. I see no reason why we can’t have both the E/W Link and continue to upgrade the rail network.
Yes, yes, I know it costs money, but these things are always pitched and always discussed as an either/or situation.
Good luck with this staying non political, I hope it does
I want the east west link, I want all existing rail crossings eliminated which means more trains & better traffic flow, I want better more reliable public transport (even though I wont use it), more bike paths but not at the expense of road space, dedicated bike paths to keep everyone safer.
I also want world peace, a supercar in my garage and an apartment in New York, none of which are going to happen either.
I remember reading a while ago that an extension of the Ring Road to Eastlink was near on impossible because of the terrain or green-wedge zoning or something around the Warrandyte area, and the alternative (buying up a lot of private property) would put out way too many people. Not sure if that holds true, but certainly makes sense.There is a big green wedge but it wouldn't be more than 5km wide.
They went under some environmentally important areas for the Ringwood-Donvale Eastlink tunnel.
The underground train link from the north of the city to the south will be great for people living inner city, but overall it will do nothing to help industry and transport for the state.Correct will help people get to work. That’s about it.
Which removes cars from the roads, which means trucks & others travel easier.
The underground train link from the north of the city to the south will be great for people living inner city, but overall it will do nothing to help industry and transport for the state.Correct will help people get to work. That’s about it.
Which removes cars from the roads, which means trucks & others travel easier.
If you look at the route, I don’t think it will aid transport and industry that much. When would they travel on some of these roads?
“There will be five underground railway stations in the new underground railway line: at “Arden” opposite North Melbourne football ground, Parkville, near Melbourne Central station, near Flinders Street station, and near the Domain on St Kilda Road.”
The underground train link from the north of the city to the south will be great for people living inner city, but overall it will do nothing to help industry and transport for the state.Correct will help people get to work. That’s about it.
Which removes cars from the roads, which means trucks & others travel easier.
If you look at the route, I don’t think it will aid transport and industry that much. When would they travel on some of these roads?
“There will be five underground railway stations in the new underground railway line: at “Arden” opposite North Melbourne football ground, Parkville, near Melbourne Central station, near Flinders Street station, and near the Domain on St Kilda Road.”
The loop is the giant bottleneck for rail travel. Even if you only “need” to in on 1 line then out on another you can take ages with the loop only going one direction and trains not always going through the loop etc. You can find it easier to take a train just a couple of stops to the line you want .
I presume (probably ridiculously optimistic) they’ve run the numbers on this and found a lot of passengers will use this link instead, which will take pressure off the loop, and allow other trains to go through the loop easier.
Monorail, Monorail, MonorailBut the Eastern’s still all cracked and broken.
I’ve sold Monorails in Ogdenville, Brockway and North Heverbrook, and by god it put them on the map!
The purpose is to allow more trains for existing lines to go through the city loop (as two existing lines will be re-routed through the metro tunnel). Then we can expand the network, to new lines like the proposed Doncaster line.The underground train link from the north of the city to the south will be great for people living inner city, but overall it will do nothing to help industry and transport for the state.Correct will help people get to work. That’s about it.
Which removes cars from the roads, which means trucks & others travel easier.
If you look at the route, I don’t think it will aid transport and industry that much. When would they travel on some of these roads?
“There will be five underground railway stations in the new underground railway line: at “Arden” opposite North Melbourne football ground, Parkville, near Melbourne Central station, near Flinders Street station, and near the Domain on St Kilda Road.”
From what I can gather, anyway.
i don;t care about EW link either way, but the butt hurt from people who wanted it is beautiful.
No. Some dill proposed a few months back to re-instate a creek that used to run down Elizabeth St to the Yarra.
Hahaha. Perfect.
You need a train going to the airport. It's actually ridiculous that there isn't one.
Yup.
Hardest city in Australia for a tourist to get anywhere
I’m impartial to Brisbane, and absolutely hated Sydney, but getting around was a hundred times easier
i don;t care about EW link either way, but the butt hurt from people who wanted it is beautiful.
Yep. Got some mates who just don’t seem to accept the Libs lost the election and are seriously, seriously disappointed there wasn’t a big compo payout.
Traffic in this city is unacceptable. Ban people north of the Yarra owning or operating cars.
There is actually a rather simple method of building the airport rail link.
In recent times, 2 new platforms were built at Southern Cross for the Regional Rail Link project, easing pressure on existing platforms.
We also know that there is already rail infrastructure running close to the airport - that being the current freight/XPT lines from Albion in the west to Jacana in the north.
The trick is to build the airport rail link onto that existing infrastructure and then services into platform 1 at Southern Cross direct, using V/Line rolling stock that’s current stabled at the Dudley St end of Southern Cross and in the rail yards around North Melbourne.
Ummm… Pazza… you do realise the Albion freight line is indeed the option most often quoted?