Melbourne's transport challenges
Transport was a crucial election issue, with the Coalition successfully playing to anger in the community about public transport congestion, cost blowouts on the myki project and the former Government's clearways policy. The Brumby Government may well have failed to meet Melbourne's transport challenges. But those challenges are significant, and there will be no easy solutions for the new Government.
The primary challenge facing Melbourne's transport system is the large increase in the city's population. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Melbourne grew faster than any other city between 2004 and 2009, adding over 369,000 residents. This growth has occurred both in the central city, with a boom in apartment construction, and in the outer suburban growth areas, and has placed pressure on public transport and on roads. Mismanagement of the public transport system may in part be to blame. But lots more people on trains, trams, buses and in their cars is clearly a significant factor.
What can we expect from the Coalition?
The key Coalition's transport policy commitments during the election included:
- the establishment of an independent Victorian Public Transport Development Authority to administer trams, buses and trains;
- $900 million for rail infrastructure;
- $6.5 million in its first term to begin developing a rail link to Melbourne Airport;
- $50 million for design and planning, land acquisition, and preliminary construction works of a rail line to link Avalon Airport to Melbourne and Geelong;
- $379 million to remove or start planning for removing eight metropolitan level crossings;
- 40 new trains for the Melbourne suburban network.
Further information about the Coalition's transport policy is available in this previous blog post.
Report warns of urban oil dependency
Urban sprawl also has a role to play in creating transport problems, particularly as we transition to a low carbon future. In series of papers released this week, the Planning Institute of Australia warns that sprawling outer suburban neighbourhoods risk becoming the slums of the future because of their dependence upon car travel (see media releases here). The Institute calls for better planning for public transport, noting that it is possible to increase public transport services without waiting for higher urban density - a difficult prospect in the land of the quarter acre block - to develop.
Given Melbourne's history of repeated expansions of the urban growth boundary to address concerns about housing affordability, MEFL hopes Victoria's new Government will incorporate these findings into its transport and urban development policies.
