After 10 years of Labor the neglect of some of Victoria’s fastest growing communities have never been starker. For a decade, Labor has picked winners and losers on basic transport infrastructure, as major projects have blown out by more than $40 billion.
The Northeast Link will become a much much larger blowout and will see over 50,000 trees cutdown in the end the cost to the environment is so big it cannot easily be calculated.
The North East Link will cost more than the SRL East project.
The community has also been handed another road project it never asked for in the Westgate Tunnel project. A stupid project designed to line the pockets of others without any benefit to the community and a project deeply conflicted by data with historical data suggesting it should not proceed.
50,000+ people live on the Clyde area without meaningful and accessible public transport to the city soon to be 100,000. Labour has known about this and it has not been addressed.
We are still waiting for the Armstrong Creek Railway Line in Geelong and for Geelong electrification to reduce carbon emissions and provide a better service of 15 minutes in the peak. A train service is needed between Geelong and Ballarat due to intensive growth in both cities and we still have hourly trains on the Bendigo Line on the weekends.
The Western Rail Plan is still not delivered and when it does come electrification will be required to Ballarat as a major centre making the return on investment much higher. The introduction of double deck intercity trains would be a major uplift to the current services provided today and would work even better with an electrified service between Geelong and Ballarat meaning Ballarat passengers could chose services to Melbourne via Geelong or directly.
A new rail line is required to link the Bendigo and Ballarat Lines to provide services to the many housing estates being built off the rail corridors.
There are no plans to build north of Mernda to the communities there needing a rail service and much has been expected about a new line to Wollert again in Melbourne’s north covering north/west of Epping.
The Bendigo growth corridor needs upgrades that have not materialised.
Electrification and upgrades are desperately required on the North East Line to the major growth areas of Wallan.
Many good rail projects have been delivered by the current government. V/Line have their issues and are poorly run that is so but many more are using the trains with the obvious question how to address the uplift in patronage. This cannot be more diesel units just not practical.
The north east link road should never have been built it serves little purpose other than to line the pockets of the CFMEU.
The western rail plan is a no brainer and urgently need and agree electrify to wendouree and now.
Geelong electrification also a no brainer is it possible to get through the tunnel make the end of the wires waurn ponds.
Armstrong creek whatever happened to that?
Absolutely no need to electrify to Wendouree, then the punters will be complaining about slow electric services with hard seats and no toilet facilities. What parameters do you use to claim Wendouree needs to be electrified…just that it would be nice?
I live in Ballan…on the Wendouree line in case you didn’t know and I use PT over driving my car, but not everyone does and we live in a democracy so nobody is at gunpoint to use PT. Consequently with a growing population, both modes of transport needs to be expanded. Armstrong Ck will come eventually but you do know the residents of Torquay are very much opposed to trains to their little neck of the woods….right?