Author: PTUA
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Neat, plausible and wrong: East West Link
PTUA President Tony Morton’s in-depth article on the history and folly of East West Link, originally published in Eco-Logica: World Transport Policy and Practice, is now available online on the YCAT web site. The state of Victoria, Australia, has long been a site of tension between an incumbent and powerful road lobby and a community…
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PTV’s new proposed rail map
As mentioned in our May member newsletter, PTV is seeking comments on this new design for the rail map. Click on the map to see it full size. Leave a comment on our Facebook page – or you can send your feedback directly to PTV.
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Free transport forum: How do liveable cities stay liveable?
Promoting public discussion about transport in Melbourne WHEN: May 27, 2014 at 6pm – 7:30pm WHERE: Melbourne Town Hall RSVP here
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East West Link: submission
Click below to read the PTUA’s submission to the East West Link hearings in April. The submission identifies a number of important issues not flagged in the Comprehensive Impact Statement, including problems with traffic modelling, local impacts on trains, trams and buses. East West Toll Road: Impacts Missing From the Comprehensive Impact Statement (PDF, 539…
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Big splurge on roads, while public transport planned on the run, says PTUA
The 2014 State Budget will splurge $7 billion on new roads in the next term of government alone, yet will spend only $2.5 billion on new public transport developments in that time. This includes welcome spending on level crossing grade separations and early works on a long-awaited rail link to Melbourne Airport. But actual airport…
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Road-building feeds the congestion monster
Liveable for how long? Not only is the federal government to give $1 billion towards building the western half of the East West Link without a shred of a business case (unless we count the Eddington Report’s 45¢ return in the dollar), Victorians are to be slugged with an extra year of tolls so that…
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Zone 2 residents likely worse off, not better off from fare changes: PTUA
The Public Transport Users Association has slammed the Napthine Government’s announcement of a flat fare cap for Melbourne as a “lost opportunity” to reform fares in a sustainable direction, and as a longer-term hit on people in the suburbs that the scheme is supposed to help. “If Premier Napthine really wanted to make public transport…
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PM’s nonsensical logic
Does Tony Abbott really think Victorians will accept that black is white? That the best way to fund public transport expansion is to not fund it? More specifically, to pull all federal funding out of urban public transport on spurious ideological grounds and pour money into competing road projects instead (“Tony Abbott backs East West…
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Big win for south east, no win for west and north, masks ‘split personality’ on transport policy
The Napthine Government’s announcement of $2 billion of rail infrastructure upgrades and new trains for the Dandenong, Pakenham and Cranbourne corridors has won the strong backing of the Public Transport Users Association, who have labelled it “a template for fixing the rail network across Melbourne”. But it is a shame the improvements are entirely confined…
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PTUA calls for more public transport for White Night
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has called for upgrades to public transport services for White Night, in response to long delays and overcrowding at the all-night festival. PTUA President Tony Morton said clearly White Night was a huge success, with estimates of 500,000 people attending, and the state government was to be congratulated for…
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Follow the lead of world’s liveable cities
Finally, we have confirmation from Infrastructure Australia co-ordinator Michael Deegan of what the community had suspected. The Napthine government has assessed the benefit-cost ratio for its east-west link as just 80¢ in the dollar (The Age, 13/2), in the absence of fanciful “agglomeration benefits”. The wider benefits claimed are the kind that you get by…
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Census travel data: don’t jump to conclusions – public transport mode share is up
from PTUA President Tony Morton The rather lightweight* McCrindle presentation of some Census data in the last couple of days seems to have triggered rather a lot of discussion, including a rant from Neil Mitchell on 3AW where he declared that we should forget about public transport, and just build more roads. It seems rather…