THE ROAD TO NOWHERE

I have two things to blog about today, but you lot are only going to get one.  Both things I have been meaning to talk about for a little while, but instead of doing the one that requires more work, I’m going with the slack arse option, as it is the weekend and I can’t be stuffed.

The State government in Victoria recently announced the re-announcement of a previous announcement, that dates back to an announcement they made during the announcements of what they promised to do during the 1999 election. Yes the finally announced the extension of the Epping Railway Line to South Morang.

It has only taken 10 years to get to the point of doing what they said they were going to do, and some might say that is a fine effort. But they still haven’t delivered on the project. When it is finally finished, as they claim it is going to be done this time, it will all be over in 2013. Now I am not going to get into the whole pork barrelling in an election year stuff. Just because the project starts in 2010 (an election year) and finishes in 2013 (an election year), doesn’t mean they are just doing this, or claim to be doing this as a political stunt. No matter which political party is in power, they all do this shit, and it is a worry that so many people believe what is shovelled up to them. But I digress.

The project is slated for $650 million worth of funding, and that to me is one of the crocks of this project. The fact it has taken so long, to get the funding for such a short extension (3.5km) is a joke.

Road projects which are currently being undertaken, for which funding details are available, are listed below.

• Deer Park Bypass, $331million
• Calder Freeway - Kyneton to Ravenswood $404 million.
• The Peninsula Link $750 million
• Geelong Ring Road $321.5 million
• Monash-CityLink-West Gate upgrade $1billion
• M80 Ring Road upgrade $2.25 billion
• Western Highway realignment – Melton to Bacchus Marsh $200 million.

In total that is over $5.25 billion worth of road projects. And I remind you, that is just current projects, which have received funding, that have been given the green light. Yet it took the government 10 years to find $650 million for one rail project? But the worst part about that is, it’s a cost blow out.

In Western Australia, they recently completed the Mandurah rail line. A project that survived a change of government, and a change in the alignment. It was a major project, building over 70km of double track along a new alignment, including major tunnelling under the city of Perth. All up the project cost $1.6 billion.

Now just think about that for a minute. $1.6b for 70km’s, equals $22,857,142 per kilometre. But the Epping extension, which is only double track for 3.5, but including the 5km of duplication to Keon Park works out to $108,300,000 per kilometre.

How is it that a project along a former railway alignment, can cost nearly 5 times as much as a brand new line? The $650million earmarked for the project is just the basic funding, it is expected to cost more than that! Time to get in a different builder I say, the government is being ripped off.

As I said, this project is along a former alignment. The line itself use to go out to Whittlesea, but was closed in 1959 and ripped up in the 1970’s. Whittlesea is 22km’s past Epping, and for the cost of the project, we should be able to build all the way to Whittlesea, and still have change. That would cost $28 million per kilometre, still $6million per kilometre more expensive than building to Mandurah from Perth.

A line all the way to Whittlesea would provide a far greater service, cut down on the number of cars using the Ring Road (M80) and provide a rail line through an already expanding area of metropolitan Melbourne. But instead we get a ripped off short extension, with future planning to extend the line another short distance. If we ignore the rail motor stopping places, and just extended the line to the named stations (South Morang, Mernda Yan Yean, and Whittlesea) ignoring the 8 other places the rail motor stopped, it is an alarming proposition. All up it would take another 30 years, just to get back to Whittlesea.

It really makes you wonder what the hell is going on in the planning department, when they are not looking at rail projects as an integration of already planned expansions to the metropolitan area. The V/locity project that was undertaken, providing improved rolling stock and revitalised trackage to major regional centres around Victoria, has proven people will travel by train. That project has been so successful they have had to extend the rolling stock, because of the massive increase in patronage.

At the end of the day, while the project to South Morang is needed, it really is too little too late, and will be seen as not great value for money. The critics will be right too, it is a waste of money, when the project could offer so much more.

The project should see the line going underground at Lalor, leaving the current alignment in place to service short services to Epping, and the current Epping yard. It would partially eliminate the level crossing at Lalor, as only trains going into or out of service would use the crossing. A duel level Epping station can be provided, and the line resurface after Epping, to go along the original alignment. This project can be done, should be done, and can be done for a lot less than the current project announcement. We can see the shambles the government did with the Craigieburn electrification, and now they are being let loose on a bigger project. It is like the line has been set up to fail, so it can be used and an example as to why rail shouldn’t be extended, and more roads should be built.

It just doesn’t add up, and it doesn’t make sense.