No trains for the corporatocracy
Sigh, look, I know we don't actually live in a democracy (but a corporatocracy instead), and I should never expect the relevant ministers to care about my meek little protestations otherwise, but I keep writing these letters to ministers for transport anyway, under the vague hope that it might remind them that they're ministers for transport, and not just roads.
Dear Transport Minister, Terry Mulder,
I encourage you and your fellow ministers to read this article
("Tracking the cost", The Age, June 13 2009) from 2009, back when the
Liberals claimed to have a very different attitude, and when
circumstances seemed to mirror the current time:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/tracking-the-cost-20090612-c67m.html
The eventual costs of building the first extensions to the Melbourne
public transport system in 80 years eventually blew out from $8M to
$500M over the short life of the South Morang project; despite being a
much smaller project than the entire rail lines built cheaper by
cities such as Perth in recent years.
The increased cost is explained away as a safety requirement - it
being so important to now start building grade separated lines rather
than level crossings regardless of circumstances. Perceived safety
trumps real safety (I'd much rather be in a train than suffer from one
of the 300 Victorian deaths on the roads each year), but more sinister
is that because of this inflated expense, we'll probably never see
another rail line like this built at all in Melbourne (although we'll
build at public expense a wonderful road tunnel that no-one but
Lindsay Fox will use at more than 10 times the cost, though).
I suspect the real reason for grade separation is not safety, but to
cause less inconvenience to car drivers stuck for 30 seconds at these
minor crossings. Since the delays at level crossings are a roads
problem, and collisions of errant motorists with trains at level
crossings is a roads problem, and the South Morang railway reservation
existed far before any of the roads were put in place, I'm wondering
whether you can answer why the blowout in costs of construction of
train lines comes out of the public transport budget, and not at the
expense of what causes these problems in the first place - the roads?
These train lines become harder to build because of an artificial cost
inflation caused by something that will be less of a problem if only
we could built more rail lines and actually improve the Melbourne
public transport system and make it attractive to use, for once (we've
been waiting for 80 years).
Yours sincerely,
And a little while later, the reply!
Dear Transport Minister, Terry Mulder,
I encourage you and your fellow ministers to read this article
("Tracking the cost", The Age, June 13 2009) from 2009, back when the
Liberals claimed to have a very different attitude, and when
circumstances seemed to mirror the current time:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/tracking-the-cost-20090612-c67m.html
The eventual costs of building the first extensions to the Melbourne
public transport system in 80 years eventually blew out from $8M to
$500M over the short life of the South Morang project; despite being a
much smaller project than the entire rail lines built cheaper by
cities such as Perth in recent years.
The increased cost is explained away as a safety requirement - it
being so important to now start building grade separated lines rather
than level crossings regardless of circumstances. Perceived safety
trumps real safety (I'd much rather be in a train than suffer from one
of the 300 Victorian deaths on the roads each year), but more sinister
is that because of this inflated expense, we'll probably never see
another rail line like this built at all in Melbourne (although we'll
build at public expense a wonderful road tunnel that no-one but
Lindsay Fox will use at more than 10 times the cost, though).
I suspect the real reason for grade separation is not safety, but to
cause less inconvenience to car drivers stuck for 30 seconds at these
minor crossings. Since the delays at level crossings are a roads
problem, and collisions of errant motorists with trains at level
crossings is a roads problem, and the South Morang railway reservation
existed far before any of the roads were put in place, I'm wondering
whether you can answer why the blowout in costs of construction of
train lines comes out of the public transport budget, and not at the
expense of what causes these problems in the first place - the roads?
These train lines become harder to build because of an artificial cost
inflation caused by something that will be less of a problem if only
we could built more rail lines and actually improve the Melbourne
public transport system and make it attractive to use, for once (we've
been waiting for 80 years).
Yours sincerely,
And a little while later, the reply!