Month: March 2013

  • Another Myki mess – Government scraps our most popular ticket

    The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) revealed today the Victorian Government will scrap the use of short-term tickets on Geelong buses in the middle of next month. PTUA Geelong Branch Convenor Paul Westcott said that move was the worst decision since the introduction of Myki itself, and would cause huge problems for bus users in…

  • Plan will sit on shelf unless priorities change, says PTUA

    Welcome news on high capacity signalling, but must be fast-tracked Public Transport Victoria’s new Rail Network Development Plan risks joining previous attempts and gathering dust on a shelf, due to its reliance on expensive, unfunded and premature tunnels, the Public Transport Users Association said today. “This plan has all the right individual elements in it,”…

  • Cars remain problem

    The West Gate bridge carries 160,000 vehicles a day (”Trucks test structure of West Gate”, 18/3), but that is only a modest 15 per cent increase on 10 years ago, when it carried 140,000. Then, as now, traffic was forecast to increase by some staggering amount over the next decade. In fact, traffic finds its…

  • Doncaster Rail Report is “Topsy-Turvy Planning”, says PTUA

    Making the Doncaster rail extension conditional on undergrounding the South Morang line is unnecessary and an excuse to kill the project, the Public Transport Users Association said today. “The government all but promised to build the Doncaster extension in 2010, but they failed to confront a bureaucracy that’s too fond of making excuses to do…

  • Ditch road tunnel and remove level crossings instead, Liberals urged

    The Victorian and federal Liberal parties should forget the uneconomic East-West road tunnel and instead direct road funding to a widespread program of level crossing removals, the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) said today. “Even being optimistic, the Eddington study found the East-West tollroad would cost several billion dollars more than any benefits it would…

  • Rowville Rail possible with Dandenong upgrade, no Metro tunnel

    Get cracking on Dandenong line upgrade, but Metro tunnel a distraction: PTUA Signalling upgrades and grade separations on the Dandenong line should proceed immediately to boost service to growth suburbs and enable the Rowville rail extension. But claims that the Melbourne Metro tunnel from Footscray to South Yarra is a prerequisite to Rowville rail are…