"Almost nothing signifies progress like building new roads" this is a quote taken from Tony Abbott in the link above. Honestly is this guy for real! This quote was made during an announcement regarding road funding. Now don't get me wrong funding towards roads is important but not in our major cities. The fact is over the past 50 years governments keep spending more and more on roads and it is getting us nowhere even faster then it did before.
Within this funding totalling almost $4 billion is $1 billion for the Gateway Motorway. Now the Gateway is a very important road but the fact is Brisbane's Public Transport is facing an meltdown. The Busway system is facing gridlock at the main choke point Culture Center Busway Station. This is so bad that during afternoon peak over twenty buses can be seen waiting to access the station. It is also so bad the newest BUZ route the 340 is the first bus route to be directed out of Culture on becoming a BUZ route when it originally serviced the Culture Centre Busway station. Translink says it is to provide better connection to the Gabba and the route 29 and while there is some truth in that the fact is culture is at capacity. Then there is the Rail system, the Marivale Bridge is expected to be at capacity by 2016. The State Government both previous and current agreed that a new crossing the Cross River Rail is required and both agreed that it would need majority funding from the Federal Government. Why did Tony Abbott not pledge funding at this announcement as he said he had consulted with Infrastructure Australia!
Then there is the road network. The fact is the majority of congestion on the road network including the Gateway is because the Public Transport network is not appealing due to decades of underfunding. Much of the congestion is due to people driving into inner parts of Brisbane them being Charmside(north), Carindale (east), Indooroopilly & St Lucia (West) or Garden City (south) points that should be the easist to access. A perfect example of under funding is the recently opened Northern Busway. Busways are excellent forms of public transport infrastructure and make bus travel as pleasant as rail travel but are suppose to be dedicated with no interaction with the general road network but the newest section has a 1.5km gap where buses have to mix it up in general traffic again. Now this was to be a BUS LANE to make it a little faster but politics got in the way and they have not been installed as required. Now this would require on last estimate around $1 billion to provide the required tunnel and Busway station at Windsor Train Station. This current gap heavily limits the busway capacity and decreases it's appeal.
Then there is the bikeway network or lack of it. Many tens of thousands of trips a day could be taken off the Public Transport and road network if there was a network for safe travel and I bet the funding towards the Gateway does not include a bikeway even though it is travelling through metropolitan Brisbane. To say it would not be used is an out and out lie. The current parallel bikeway that only runs as far as Toombul to Boondal is used by commuters. It is a long route and does a dirty big dog leg but it is used and is quite fast with it being almost dead flat and reasonably straight. It is used mostly by people of the North Eastern Bay suburbs to access the inner northern parts of Brisbane and even some going further into the CBD.
The fact is a single lane of
rail line = 30 000 people per hour
Busway = 18 000 people per hour
bikeway = 1800 people per hour @ the fraction of the cost of a roadway
freeway lane = 1800 cars per hour @ 1.2 people per hour that is 2160 people per hour
All this points to one simple fact, even if the new upgrade to the Gateway widens it from 2 to four lanes only 4320 extra people per hour can be carried per hour in each direction. This is less then the capacity of the current services on the South East Busway in the counter peak direction! or just over current capacity of counter peak services on the rail line between Central and Northgate. All in all a waste of scarce funds at uncertain times like we are currently in. Then there is the fact that people that have to live in car dependant areas have to dedicate more of there limited funds especially if they lose there job to transport because they have no other options!
As far as I am concerned this $1 billion should of gone towards the Cross River Rail project. Funds should directed to where they are needed most and where they can give the most benefit to everyone. Giving funds to a road project when a cities Public Transport system is about to meltdown is about as stupid as one could get!
And this guy wants to become the Next Prime-Minister of Australia!
here is some footage from You tube of the Cultural Centre Busway station during afternoon peak.
And the gap of the busway
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