Public Transport Users Association
| The Public Transport Users Association joins with the KMFA in objecting
to the extension of the Eastern Freeway from Springvale Road to Ringwood.
The task of this submission is to outline the public transport measures
that will be needed in the Outer East over the next few years whether this
futile road/tunnel project is proceeded with or not.
Parts of the Outer East served by the Ringwood-Belgrave-Lilydale rail line have some of the better public transport in suburban Melbourne. However the Doncaster region to the north has only bus-based services and thus has half the public transport usage of the Ringwood corridor served by trains, yet very similar demographic characteristics. The Knox region to the south of Ringwood has some of the worst public transport in all the outer areas of Melbourne, again based solely on a threadbare bus network. To effect the necessary major improvements to public transport for the Outer East required for the medium and long term—if the environment is not to be degraded by more and more major roads and the swelling masses of cars using them—two new rail lines along with a comprehensive network of feeder and local buses are required. The new State Government appears to be already committed to the tram extension to Knox City along Burwood Highway and a third track upgrade on the Box Hill to Ringwood line—the smallest items in the public transport improvement package required. So this discussion will concentrate on the need for a rail line to East Doncaster, first planned in the 1970’s as part of Stage 1 of the Eastern Freeway and a rail line into the Knox region from either Glen Waverley, or Huntingdale on the Dandenong rail line. The limited information available for the six-weeks’ period of “consultation” on the freeway extension indicates up to $360 million would be available to build this 5-kilometre project, from State Government funds, and that it will not have a toll charge, as will be nearly every other major motorway artery into central Melbourne after the CityLink southern section is opened. The project is promoted as relieving congestion on the main road system around the Springvale entrance to the present Eastern Freeway, yet there is no acknowledgement that a new section of road costing $70 million per kilometre may not merely change the pattern of congestion but will also attract further traffic from more easterly suburbs to the Eastern Freeway by providing more on-ramps near Ringwood. The result based on experience with earlier sections of this freeway is that traffic volume increases, in the short term, in actuality will far exceed the low traffic growth predictions VicRoads uses to claim long-term relief of congestion in an urban region such as this. The cost-benefit ratio is likely to be very low. Another factor not often acknowledged that makes this project less useful is the large diversion factor from the Monash Freeway to the Eastern Freeway for commuting to the city when tolling starts on the southern section of Citylink. In short, any relief to congestion by this project is likely to be very short lived and very expensively won. However, for a similar expenditure the two new major rail projects required for the Outer East could be achieved: (1) East Doncaster Rail Line: From Victoria Park station to Bulleen Road the Eastern Freeway reservation was planned to accommodate a double track electrified suburban railway. East of Bulleen Road the rail line would head due east through a cut-and-cover tunnel under suburban streets and through a cutting across the Eastern Golf Course to keep costs to a minimum. Stage 1 of this line could terminate in a station under Doncaster Shopping Town which would be a major public transport interchange for comprehensive and frequent bus services and also a terminus for an extension of the North Balwyn tram route. Stage 2 of this project would head further east through a bored tunnel to a terminus in East Doncaster or Donvale. Stations on this line would much more widely spaced than on traditional suburban lines with only 3 stations between Victoria Park and Doncaster Shopping Town—at Chandler Highway, Burke Road and Bulleen Road. All the stations on this new line would have major parking areas plus convenient bus/train interchange design. The extremely successful Northern Suburbs Rail Line in Perth—built along a freeway median—would be the model. In Perth high frequency bus services feed the widely spaced stations on the line where journey times for bus/ train commuters are much less than travel times on the congested parallel freeway at peak periods. Stage 1 of the new East Doncaster line should be budgeted at approximately $200 million. The majority of the route is available for easy construction in the freeway median while funding for the major interchange at Doncaster Shopping Town should be available from the owners of the centre. Only three multi-level intermediate stations would be required on the Perth model in the freeway section and a maximum of 2 kilometres of cut-and cover-tunnel including the crossing of the golf course. (2) Knox Rail Line: A suburban rail line serving the City of Knox region is needed to cater for the broad area between the Belgrave and Dandenong lines. Demonstrably most travel in Melbourne is still radial (if not local) and a rail connection to either the Glen Waverley line (requiring a tunnel) or to Huntingdale (mostly along the Wellington Road median, past Monash University and Waverley Park) would abstract a major part of the road traffic, particularly at peak periods, that it is claimed a Scoresby freeway link to the Eastern Freeway would handle. The link to Huntingdale from Knox, possibly with a Stud Park terminus, would be almost entirely above ground except at grade-separated major road intersections and at Stud Park itself with a multi-level bus/train interchange adjacent to the shopping centre. A generous allowance of $10 million per kilometre would see a cost of $130 million all up for this line. An alternative line from Glen Waverley would require a long bored tunnel and would serve fewer passenger-generating activity hubs, so could be expected to be more expensive to build and generate less patronage. All in all, the long-term needs of transport in the whole Outer East region including the Burwood Highway tram extension to Knox City ($30 million) and third track Box Hill to Ringwood ($20 million) can be met for about the same sum of money that would provide a very short-term answer to the commuter problems that the extensions of the Eastern Freeway have brought to the Outer East over the last 15 years. Both these rail projects can proceed as public/private alliances with a guaranteed revenue stream from the fare box if built as BOOT projects. This is an option that the road/tunnel freeway extension to Ringwood does not enjoy. The PTUA believes that the “value for money” equation and considerations of the long-term protection of the urban environment require our new State Government to take the long-sighted approach and boost the public transport solution to Outer East commuter congestion. Generations in the future will thank this government for a job well done and for the preservation of an environment where families can grow in quiet, safe and friendly neighbourhoods.
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