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A plan that will get Sydney moving
Posted by Big Gav on February 12, 2010 - 10:44pm in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
The SMH has an article on the recommendations from an independent public inquiry into Sydney's public transport system (with the inquiry including ASPO Australia's Garry Glazebrook, amongst others) - Finally, a plan that will get Sydney moving .
Related articles include - European transport model to cost $71b, Linking the network to where the jobs are, This is too important to be left to the politicians, And never the trains shall meet and MyZone has sting in the tail for people living in the west.
THE Keneally government should delay building an expensive underground metro network for at least 10 years and focus on new heavy and light rail projects across Sydney, an independent inquiry recommends.
Not only would taxpayers save billions by postponing the metros, but reallocating money to a new heavy rail line through the central business district and across the harbour would provide at least 25 per cent more passenger capacity on the CityRail system for decades.
The inquiry, headed by the state's former rail and roads boss Ron Christie, and backed by the Herald, proposes huge benefits for the transport-starved north-west and south-west suburbs, by building rail links to connect commuters to the job-rich arc between North Ryde and Mascot.
Mr Christie says the government should start work immediately on lines between Epping and Rouse Hill, in the north-west, and Glenfield and Leppington, in the south-west. At a total cost of $5 billion, these lines are cheaper than the seven kilometre CBD Metro, and should be completed by 2015.
Based on market research that measured people's willingness to pay for better public transport, and using financial analysis by Allen Consulting, the 450-page report proposes $36 billion worth of new transport infrastructure be built over 30 years, and another $35 billion in operating and financing costs.
Mr Christie, who oversaw the successful transport operation during the 2000 Olympics, urges the government not to sign contracts for the $5.3 billion CBD Metro and $8 billion West Metro until it consults voters.
Mr Christie supports the proposed West Metro but only between Westmead and Barangaroo, not to Pyrmont or Rozelle and, critically, not using a corridor under Pitt Street, which should be reserved for CityRail. But he also says its construction should be deferred until 2020.
In the most searing critique yet of the metro proposals by a respected expert, Mr Christie warns: ''The proposed routes would jeopardise, perhaps fatally, future heavy rail capacity expansion and congestion-relief options within the CBD and across the harbour.''
While the government argues that the CBD Metro is the ''core'' of a future Sydney-wide metro system, Mr Christie has found no overall network plan or system of fares has been made public.
The report reveals that the government has quietly abandoned its five-year-old metropolitan strategy, which was to create a European-style ''City of Cities'' by encouraging jobs and medium-density housing in centres such as Parramatta and Liverpool.
Cross posted from Peak Energy.
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Yet another example of the huge infrastructure costs caused by increasing population.Most of the sheep can't/won't see this or are blinded by self interest.
The base cause of urban problems (and many,many others)is excessive population.In Australia population increase is driven by immigration.
Zero (0) Immigration.
Why do you view providing infrastructure to people as a "problem" ?
No we aren't people Gav, we're (blind) sheep, remember?
Today's SMH has the Premier at least paying attention to the independent report (but she's also in desperate electoral trouble and is short of cash...)
Keneally orders transport rethink
Personally, I don't think zero immigration is an option on moral grounds, the world's population is going to hit 9 Billion before it starts coming back, and Australia should share the load.
[Hums anthem quietly to self:"...we've boundless plains to share.."]
In any case, the transport problem in Sydney already exists. Maybe Thirra your logic would then support banishing or exterminating the residents of those suburbs with inadequate infrastructure?
;-)
Sydney needs much oif this infrastructure for the population it has now let alone in 25 years time!
I had an idea a long time ago.
I have always ridden bicycles. With the wind behind you riding a bike is a pleasure.
If we make it a pleasure more people will cycle.
Therefore, we have to arrange things so that the wind is always abaft the beam.
How?
Cheap and easy.
The structure will not have large loads so it can be made light.
This is because the tare to gross weight ratio on a bicycle is as good as it gets.
So we build an elevated cycle torus.
A wind tunnel.
All cycling is done in one direction. Each cyclist helps to move the air in the tube.
A fan assist can be added. No energy device in needed on the cycle, other than the muscle.
All cyclists will be protected from the weather.
Being elevated reduces the land requirements, and gives everyone potential energy.
The capacity of such a tube to move people will be phenomenal.
The cost in energy input negligible. How green can you get?
Thank you.
Great work by Garry Glazebrook and colleagues. The full 450 page text of the preliminary report can be found at http://www.transportpublicinquiry.com.au/ including 88MB of pdfs which can be downloaded chapter-by-chapter. My first quick read noted clear language, crisp punchy recommendations, lots of data to back assertions, and some stimulating new (to me) ideas like the addition of rail tracks beneath the road deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
A fantastic effort by an independent team seeking to come up with the best multi-modal transport solutions for Sydney free of the constraints of politics and bureaucracy that can hamper Government-led initiatives.
Now let's all keep an eye out for evasions, obstructions, attacks and avoidance - all the usual responses by vested interests to good work by others. I fear that the Not Invented Here syndrome will get a good run.
To borrow the words of Alan from New Orleans - Best hopes for success with a new plan for Sydney transport.
Like most Governments, the NSW Govt is dead-set on expensive (for what it provides), dead-ended options, that they can ribbon-cut in a short time-frame. Implementing a 35-year plan that goes directly against what the RTA wants, and has a high liklihood of either the party not being in power or the individual pollies having retired at the time of the ribbon-cutting, is not high on their agenda.
Just another example of how a hybrid Government/Economy like Chinas Communist (top-down, long -term planning)/Capitalistic (Entreprenueral, profit-based, bottom-up) system will eat us alive. China now has 300km/h trains running to regional cities. We have the Savannahlander and Xplorer cars to the country, and nothing more advanced than the XPT between capitals (QLD has the two Tilt Trains, but they've been deliberately hobbled).
One wonders how we ever got things done in the past.
Speaking of Sydney's infrastructure...
Lane Cove Tunnel debt blows out