ACT Light Rail Meeting - Thursday 4 December

Damien, I’ll ignore the bodyline

A falling $AU, a limited pool of money and cost blow outs have caused other Federal Government projects to be scaled back.

Oh have you managed to see what the ACT Governments brief was to put forward light rail in the ACT? When is the brief due?

BTW: I don’t drive 4 cars unlike you.

bigred; i refer you to my comments every other time youve made that argument.

this time i’ll also point out that even if i accept your ridiculos premise that the TWU and CFMEU have the final say; your reasoning doesn’t even make sense, no one thinks the buses (and jobs) will go away, light rail (if it goes ahead) will service a spine of transport hubs, buses will still be needed elsewhere. and as for the cfmeu line, thats the stupidest thing i’ve ever seen written here. building lightrail will not cause people to abandon their cars and the road network (and it follows road works will still need to happen); all it will do for the construction industry will be adding a large govt project….more jobs= happy union.

next time you put up this bizarre conspiracy theory of yours i think you should mention the role the UN and the elders of zion are playing in blocking lightrail for canberra. you just cant have a good conspiracy theory without jews and the UN.

toot toot.

Just ask any ACTION bus driver if light rail will happen. They will tell you very clearly the TWU will not allow their jobs to be sacrificed. And the CFMEU is just as scared because there would be no more road building projects. So it dead. No point meeting to get a warm inner glow. Stay at home and p$%^ in your pants instead guys. Same result. Toot Toot!!!!

1) Mass Transit Systems require population density and employment density. Until we accept we have to live more compact lives in a bigger city, no mass transit system will work here.

2) People value their time and so unless the Mass Transit System saves them time, they will actively avoid using it.

3)Interruptions increase the perceived “cost” of travel. If people have to drive to the Mass Transit Entry Point, they will just keep driving.

4)Affluent Customers Will Not Use Mass Transit. The higher your salary, the more personally wasteful mass transit is. The only significant exception is commuter rail provided the fares offer a savings over driving and parking and the comfort and privacy allow relaxation or work en route.

Trains/trams work really well in other cities – i think it would be great.

Just because action sucks, doesn’t mean light rail won’t work.

As canberra grows and grows it is time for a bit of planning vision in transport.

Infrastructure spending will hopefully be targetted at projects which, apart from benefitting the economy immediately, will also generate a proven benefit in future.

I am unsure that light rail has even come close to proving itself a benefit. I would be happy to be proved wrong, but the expenditure appears massive for what is really the duplication of an existing money pit.

Your stunning grasp of international trade and finance and its impact on domestic infrastructure projects continues to amaze all the economists that follow your published work closely.

If Im hearing federal politicians correctly, infrastructure spending is a mechanism to promote spending and stimulus in the Australian economy.

Global ecnonomic recession with the Australian dollar tipped to bottom out at 45c to the $US by mid 2009 may have some bearing upon it.

With a majority government a thing of the past, election promises are things that governments need to be held to.

The current light rail business case is being put forward for federal funding. I understand that the business case suggests phased implementation, with suggestions for initial routes, as an option.

A woman called and asked “Why don’t you build light rail Mr Stanhope?”.

Now I know it is Labor policy to look at light rail, but Mr Stanhope did not sound exactly that enthusiastic about it.