10 October 2016

ALP pledges $25m for light rail stage two scoping, design

| Charlotte
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light rail artist impression

A re-elected Labor government would start work immediately on stage two of its planned light rail network and offer a free trial of all new Rapid Bus services, according to Labor transport spokeswoman Meegan Fitzharris.

Labor would spend $25 million on scoping and design work for light rail stage two.

Ms Fitzharris says almost 210,000 Canberrans will live, work or study within 1km of the Woden light rail corridor by 2041.

“This important work will assist in understanding the stage two route alignment, develop the funding and financing model for the project, and determine the best procurement approach for the Territory,” Ms Fitzharris says.

Labor has responded to pledges from other candidates to make buses free by promising to also offer passengers on its new rapid routes a free two-month trial of the service.

The first new rapid buses to begin would be the Green Rapid from Woden to the City via Manuka and Barton, and the Black Rapid from Belconnen to Gungahlin.

“Passengers on these new routes will be able to ride for free for the first two months of service from mid-2017,” Ms Fitzharris says.

Labor will also rebrand its “Xpresso” routes as “Peak Express” services, backing the relaunch with a marketing campaign.

“On average these services carry around 13,000 passengers a week – 3.7 per cent of total bus patronage, but they could do better,” Ms Fitzharris says.

“A new Peak Express service will be trialled from Gungahlin to Tuggeranong, offering three express non-stop morning and evening services between the two centres.”

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wildturkeycanoe said :

Maya123 said :

The traffic was awful. I actually turned off and turned around, and decided to return when it wasn’t peak hour.

And there my friends is the solution to our traffic problems. Instead of everyone trying to get from point A to point B at peak hour, spread the start and finish hours around or get people to go to point C, D and E instead. It’s simple really, but for some unknown reason the world has to revolve around a 9-5 work day in an almost 24 hour a day society.

Totally agree. I live in West Belconnen and learned years ago to avoid leaving for work between about 7:30 and 9 am so as to avoid the traffic. So I arrive either super early or (more usually as I’m a night owl) later than most. Luckily my workplace is flexible enough not to mind, and it means much less stress and wasted time for me.

wildturkeycanoe said :

JC said :

You are still missing two words, work and study. How many people work and study in Civic? though yes places like ANU and maybe even CIT would be a tad over 1km outside the corridor.

Civic isn’t in the Woden tram corridor though, is it? What are we expecting the magic train to do, transport over 100,000 people between Woden and Civic twice a day? Not going to happen, ever.

Where do you think the Woden light rail will ‘terminate’ Albert Hall? And BTW it doesn’t say will transport 100,000 people it is talking the number of people who live, work and study along the corridor.

For what it is worth I think the figure is BS, but at least I can see it is not just talking about housing and that the corridor includes a chunk of Parl Triange and the City.

dungfungus said :

JC said :

rommeldog56 said :

bringontheevidence said :

It’d be good to see an opinion poll for the ACT election.

I’m sure the two major parties have done their own internal polling, so it’s interesting that they both see votes in their respective pro- and anti-light rail campaigns.

Interesting that one hasnt been undertaken. Not even one from the Canberra Times – yet.

They are an almost daily event in a Federal election.

There is also some sort of debate on the TV Wednesday – from the National Press Club – between Barr and Hanson. Thats all useless grandstanding now anyway – most people have already voted or have made up their minds already, I would think.

With the 5 electorate, multi member, system and small population it would cost a motza to do a decent poll. Hence why you don’t see one and most polling is based on community sentiment rather than who one will vote for.

Poll costs didn’t seem to be a problem to scope the enormous support for trams in the Capital Metro Agency days.

That would be community sentiment polling would it not, refer to 2nd part of my previous post.

wildturkeycanoe3:01 pm 12 Oct 16

JC said :

You are still missing two words, work and study. How many people work and study in Civic? though yes places like ANU and maybe even CIT would be a tad over 1km outside the corridor.

Civic isn’t in the Woden tram corridor though, is it? What are we expecting the magic train to do, transport over 100,000 people between Woden and Civic twice a day? Not going to happen, ever.

JC said :

rommeldog56 said :

bringontheevidence said :

It’d be good to see an opinion poll for the ACT election.

I’m sure the two major parties have done their own internal polling, so it’s interesting that they both see votes in their respective pro- and anti-light rail campaigns.

Interesting that one hasnt been undertaken. Not even one from the Canberra Times – yet.

They are an almost daily event in a Federal election.

There is also some sort of debate on the TV Wednesday – from the National Press Club – between Barr and Hanson. Thats all useless grandstanding now anyway – most people have already voted or have made up their minds already, I would think.

With the 5 electorate, multi member, system and small population it would cost a motza to do a decent poll. Hence why you don’t see one and most polling is based on community sentiment rather than who one will vote for.

Poll costs didn’t seem to be a problem to scope the enormous support for trams in the Capital Metro Agency days.

rommeldog56 said :

bringontheevidence said :

It’d be good to see an opinion poll for the ACT election.

I’m sure the two major parties have done their own internal polling, so it’s interesting that they both see votes in their respective pro- and anti-light rail campaigns.

Interesting that one hasnt been undertaken. Not even one from the Canberra Times – yet.

They are an almost daily event in a Federal election.

There is also some sort of debate on the TV Wednesday – from the National Press Club – between Barr and Hanson. Thats all useless grandstanding now anyway – most people have already voted or have made up their minds already, I would think.

With the 5 electorate, multi member, system and small population it would cost a motza to do a decent poll. Hence why you don’t see one and most polling is based on community sentiment rather than who one will vote for.

Robert of Braddon said :

Oh surprise, surprise. A billion dollars becomes two billion for ‘stage 2’.

Meanwhile the city is falling apart — anyone notice how TAMS is now using cheap asphalt on the roads that karts only 18 months?

This tired and arrogant government really needs to get the boot. And they can take their stupid tram with them.

wildturkeycanoe said :

JC said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

“Ms Fitzharris says almost 210,000 Canberrans will live, work or study within 1km of the Woden light rail corridor by 2041.”
Is that with current arrangements and growth in place, or after Labor develops a high density corridor down Adelaide Avenue in order to justify the billions that need to be spent on a mass public transport system? Is it just for the link to Philip or all the way to Tuggeranong? The way it is right now, you’d never get that many extra people living there. Again, I state that Labor is creating a problem to justify spending on a solution we don’t need.

Think you have missed the words work and study in your haste to jump on the keyboard.

And BTW based on current growth rates, by 2041, there will be an extra 150,000 odd people living here for a total population of around 560,000. Those people need somewhere to live, work and study and it sure the hell isn’t going to be deep in more NCDC era endless burbs regardless of who wins on Saturday.

The population of the 1km inclusion zone right now would not be anywhere near 100,000 even with the 23,000 that attend CIT campuses across all of the A.C.T. Does that mean the extra 110,000+ are going to be squeezed into new high-rise apartments along the Adelaide Avenue strip? Or as I already queried, does this Woden corridor extend all the way to Tuggeranong? That is an awful lot of development, the entire population of Gungahlin twice over to fit into a 2km wide, 11km long piece of land that is currently occupied by mainly road, single story dwellings and open spaces such as sports ovals. I can see a bulldozer driven by the Labor party leader demolishing house blocks in order to create the only reason we will need a tram, because of over development. What does the Sustainable Australia party think about all this? Do we have enough water and power for this kind of growth? What are these people going to be doing in order to pay through the nose in rates to pay for these networks? Jobs! What jobs? How many more positions can the government create in different departments to attract workers to the territory?
All I can see from Labor in our future is development, development, development. More people to make more revenue. Has it all gone out of control? Who is going to get them to ease of the throttle a bit and tread a little more cautiously into the future. With interest rates only having one direction in which to change, surely growth has to slow down instead of speed up. Wages are stagnant, but costs of living in the A.C.T consistently rising. Something has to give eventually and I fear it’ll be the government’s purse and credit rating.

You are still missing two words, work and study. How many people work and study in Civic? though yes places like ANU and maybe even CIT would be a tad over 1km outside the corridor.

wildturkeycanoe6:38 am 12 Oct 16

Maya123 said :

The traffic was awful. I actually turned off and turned around, and decided to return when it wasn’t peak hour.

And there my friends is the solution to our traffic problems. Instead of everyone trying to get from point A to point B at peak hour, spread the start and finish hours around or get people to go to point C, D and E instead. It’s simple really, but for some unknown reason the world has to revolve around a 9-5 work day in an almost 24 hour a day society.
How many public servants go to their office in the morning and sit in front of a computer terminal for 8 to 10 hours? How many of them could do the same job from the comfort of their own home using Skype to conduct face to face interviews, log in to databases via their own wi fi signal or answer on line inquiries with the speed of the NBN network?
How many people travel into Civic to do government business that could have been just as easily done from a shopfront in any other town centre?
How often have you needed to take time off from your job to take care of financial matters, loan applications, professional certifications, medical tests or any service you can think of that can only be done in the 8 hour window while the government is “open for business”?
If we thought outside the conventional bubble for once, we could do away with congestion and also make it easier to access services. We can adapt to daylight savings twice a year, but we can’t change our usual hours of business because we are stuck in the past.

HiddenDragon said :

It’s just a jump to the left
Without a step to the right
Dig your hands in your purse
And spend up big
But it’s the value capture
that really drives you insane
Let’s do the Tram Warp Again
Let’s do the Tram Warp Again

……………….etc. etc. etc………………….

We return to Tramsalvania
Prepare the Tramsit beam

LOL. Well done. Very good.

Maya123 said :

The tram can’t start all over Canberra at once. Where I live it won’t be handy to me either, but I can understand that the tram can’t be built everywhere at once to start with.

It shouldnt be being built in the first place.

Robert of Braddon11:03 pm 11 Oct 16

Oh surprise, surprise. A billion dollars becomes two billion for ‘stage 2’.

Meanwhile the city is falling apart — anyone notice how TAMS is now using cheap asphalt on the roads that karts only 18 months?

This tired and arrogant government really needs to get the boot. And they can take their stupid tram with them.

bringontheevidence said :

It’d be good to see an opinion poll for the ACT election.

I’m sure the two major parties have done their own internal polling, so it’s interesting that they both see votes in their respective pro- and anti-light rail campaigns.

Interesting that one hasnt been undertaken. Not even one from the Canberra Times – yet. They are an almost daily event in a Federal election.

There is also some sort of debate on the TV Wednesday – from the National Press Club – between Barr and Hanson. Thats all useless grandstanding now anyway – most people have already voted or have made up their minds already, I would think.

Masquara said :

I had to drive in from Belconnen during rush hour this morning – I live in the inner city so this was the first time I’ve experienced the bumper-to-bumper traffic. It was a pain! What was Labor thinking? The tram isn’t going to help Belconnen commuters one iota!

The tram can’t start all over Canberra at once. Where I live it won’t be handy to me either, but I can understand that the tram can’t be built everywhere at once to start with.
I was headed to Gungahlin today at peak time. The traffic was awful. I actually turned off and turned around, and decided to return when it wasn’t peak hour. They could do with a tram.

pink little birdie10:22 pm 11 Oct 16

Masquara said :

I had to drive in from Belconnen during rush hour this morning – I live in the inner city so this was the first time I’ve experienced the bumper-to-bumper traffic. It was a pain! What was Labor thinking? The tram isn’t going to help Belconnen commuters one iota!

Now try the same to city from Gunghalin, the from Woden, then from Tuggeranong. And then Belconnen to Woden
Then try it all again on the buses.
I think you’ll find many roads are bumper to bumper during peak hour.

wildturkeycanoe9:19 pm 11 Oct 16

JC said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

“Ms Fitzharris says almost 210,000 Canberrans will live, work or study within 1km of the Woden light rail corridor by 2041.”
Is that with current arrangements and growth in place, or after Labor develops a high density corridor down Adelaide Avenue in order to justify the billions that need to be spent on a mass public transport system? Is it just for the link to Philip or all the way to Tuggeranong? The way it is right now, you’d never get that many extra people living there. Again, I state that Labor is creating a problem to justify spending on a solution we don’t need.

Think you have missed the words work and study in your haste to jump on the keyboard.

And BTW based on current growth rates, by 2041, there will be an extra 150,000 odd people living here for a total population of around 560,000. Those people need somewhere to live, work and study and it sure the hell isn’t going to be deep in more NCDC era endless burbs regardless of who wins on Saturday.

The population of the 1km inclusion zone right now would not be anywhere near 100,000 even with the 23,000 that attend CIT campuses across all of the A.C.T. Does that mean the extra 110,000+ are going to be squeezed into new high-rise apartments along the Adelaide Avenue strip? Or as I already queried, does this Woden corridor extend all the way to Tuggeranong? That is an awful lot of development, the entire population of Gungahlin twice over to fit into a 2km wide, 11km long piece of land that is currently occupied by mainly road, single story dwellings and open spaces such as sports ovals. I can see a bulldozer driven by the Labor party leader demolishing house blocks in order to create the only reason we will need a tram, because of over development. What does the Sustainable Australia party think about all this? Do we have enough water and power for this kind of growth? What are these people going to be doing in order to pay through the nose in rates to pay for these networks? Jobs! What jobs? How many more positions can the government create in different departments to attract workers to the territory?
All I can see from Labor in our future is development, development, development. More people to make more revenue. Has it all gone out of control? Who is going to get them to ease of the throttle a bit and tread a little more cautiously into the future. With interest rates only having one direction in which to change, surely growth has to slow down instead of speed up. Wages are stagnant, but costs of living in the A.C.T consistently rising. Something has to give eventually and I fear it’ll be the government’s purse and credit rating.

Masquara said :

I had to drive in from Belconnen during rush hour this morning – I live in the inner city so this was the first time I’ve experienced the bumper-to-bumper traffic. It was a pain! What was Labor thinking? The tram isn’t going to help Belconnen commuters one iota!

A tram will be even slower wherever it runs.

I had to drive in from Belconnen during rush hour this morning – I live in the inner city so this was the first time I’ve experienced the bumper-to-bumper traffic. It was a pain! What was Labor thinking? The tram isn’t going to help Belconnen commuters one iota!

HiddenDragon5:33 pm 11 Oct 16

It’s just a jump to the left
Without a step to the right
Dig your hands in your purse
And spend up big
But it’s the value capture
that really drives you insane
Let’s do the Tram Warp Again
Let’s do the Tram Warp Again

……………….etc. etc. etc………………….

We return to Tramsalvania
Prepare the Tramsit beam

wildturkeycanoe said :

“Ms Fitzharris says almost 210,000 Canberrans will live, work or study within 1km of the Woden light rail corridor by 2041.”
Is that with current arrangements and growth in place, or after Labor develops a high density corridor down Adelaide Avenue in order to justify the billions that need to be spent on a mass public transport system? Is it just for the link to Philip or all the way to Tuggeranong? The way it is right now, you’d never get that many extra people living there. Again, I state that Labor is creating a problem to justify spending on a solution we don’t need.

Think you have missed the words work and study in your haste to jump on the keyboard.

And BTW based on current growth rates, by 2041, there will be an extra 150,000 odd people living here for a total population of around 560,000. Those people need somewhere to live, work and study and it sure the hell isn’t going to be deep in more NCDC era endless burbs regardless of who wins on Saturday.

bringontheevidence8:19 am 11 Oct 16

It’d be good to see an opinion poll for the ACT election.

I’m sure the two major parties have done their own internal polling, so it’s interesting that they both see votes in their respective pro- and anti-light rail campaigns.

wildturkeycanoe6:47 am 11 Oct 16

“Ms Fitzharris says almost 210,000 Canberrans will live, work or study within 1km of the Woden light rail corridor by 2041.”
Is that with current arrangements and growth in place, or after Labor develops a high density corridor down Adelaide Avenue in order to justify the billions that need to be spent on a mass public transport system? Is it just for the link to Philip or all the way to Tuggeranong? The way it is right now, you’d never get that many extra people living there. Again, I state that Labor is creating a problem to justify spending on a solution we don’t need.
Looking at growth figures estimated by the government itself, there will not even be that many people in the entire suburbs the rail corridor goes through, let alone within 1km of the line, so where has this imaginary figure come from? Those numbers are the total growth estimated for the whole of the A.C.T in the next 20 years. It is completely mad to believe well over 100,000 extra people will be living in this corridor without reclaiming land from the public and turning it into sky-rise apartments. But, that’s the aim of the government, to make Canberra more like Sydney and Melbourne and less like the “Bush Capital” it is renowned for. C’mon Canberra, are you going to let these developers ruin our city?

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