One of the new light rail vehicles at Alinga Street in the city. Light rail is just one component of a modern public transport network. Photo: Amy Jelacic/X.
After three elections, one would expect the light rail haters would move on to something else, but like zombies that keep coming no matter what, they won’t be deterred.
By now the light rail argument should be about delivery, not about how it will be the end of Canberra as we know it or that it won’t really fix the city’s transport issues or that buses are better.
Yet the Canberra Liberals have not been able to bring themselves to accept that the people have spoken and that they should be focusing on making sure it is delivered on time and on budget, not dodging questions about whether the light rail wars are over.
Given that the entire network will take decades to complete, the chances are that if they get their act together, they will return to government at some point and have to oversee its development.
Not that they have been that vocal recently. That’s been left to others convinced they are fighting the good fight.
The construction of the extension to Commonwealth Park, finally getting under way, has stirred it all up again.
The business owners along London Circuit don’t welcome the disruption, especially in the current hospitality downturn, but they realise that the connectivity light rail will bring to that side of the city will be a good thing and good for business.
For example, New Acton – one of the city’s most amenable precincts – will no longer feel so isolated from the rest of the CBD.
The government overuses the word, but the light rail extension will be transformative, particularly in the context of the development going on around it on the law courts car park, the old clover leaf block and the Acton waterfront.
Light rail will bring change to more of Canberra’s suburbs, being a catalyst for new housing along transport corridors, but the trend towards medium density infill has other drivers and is well in train already.
London Circuit east will be a construction zone for the next couple of years. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
As much as it might seem desirable to maintain the aesthetic of Canberra’s leafy, garden city (and wealthy) suburbs, what that means is locking less wealthy, younger people out and forcing them to live further away from employment and recreation.
The other driver is the sheer prohibitive price of property – to buy or rent. Some will blame the ACT Government’s land release and tax policies, but it was the Howard government that opened the housing casino with its capital gains tax changes that favoured investors and sent prices skywards.
It is no surprise that for many an apartment or a townhouse is all they can afford these days.
That may be a shame when families need and would prefer a house, but unless you’re prepared to cop a collapse in property prices, don’t expect young people to be forced into exile.
Light rail is not meant to operate in isolation, but as part of a multi-model network of it, including buses and active travel. It is preferred because it can move lots of people far more efficiently than buses, which also contribute to congestion on the city’s main arteries.
Almost all of Australia’s capital cities have some sort of rail network.
If Canberra is not to be choked by cars, LA style, it will need a workable public transport network that gets buses off main roads and can handle the morning and evening peaks.
When thousands of Commonwealth public servants take up roles in Barton in coming years, light rail will be needed, which is why it will attract Federal funding no matter who is in government.
It is a visionary project and one that will leave a legacy for those who come after us. Putting one’s head in the sand now and finding all kinds of excuses to not build the network while the corridors are available is just plain short-sighted.
It is costly, but not doing it will also incur costs, and little thanks from generations hence, who would be left to deal with the mess.
Canberra was never going to stay a city of a few hundred thousand public servants enjoying cheap housing, lavish gardens and the wonderful planning of the Griffins. It is not a museum.
The job now is to make sure that there is well-designed and sited development, that the current light rail projects are built properly and that planning is under way for future lines, particularly between the Airport, the city and Belconnen.
By all means keep watch over the project and government to ensure accountability and rigour of process, but stop the ‘Can the Tram’ hysteria.
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