Start date announced for new ticketing system on buses, light rail

Some might think it’s ok to pay twice. I call it double dipping. Like once we just paid Tax on our Wages, then the Government invented GST an additional 10 cents in the $1, now we all pay up to 40 cents in the $1, rather than just 30 cents in the $1. Again the Government want more and we get less. AS they continue to raise their wages.

Pete McMahon I agree that public transport should be free, but it’s simply not true that we ALL voted against the light rail. We’ve had a number of “light rail elections” now, and the parties that supported light rail won each time.

And I don’t know how you came up with your $60,000 cost per person for light rail, but if that’s what you imagine it has cost to build 13 km of light rail, how much do you think it cost to build 6,000 of roads?

Pete maybe have a look at the Budget papers for a good visual on where your rates etc get used – schools and health get a good share.

Pete McMahon keep tilting at those windmills champ. One day you’ll hit one

Christine’s Comments 4 billion to build light rail from city to Woden. As of June 3023 there are 466566 estimated people living in canberra which is roughly $8573 per person. It gets even worse when you take out embassies and diplomatic missions. A better way would be to work it out per household which is roughly 187000 which equates to $21390 per household. This doesn’t include stage 1 or any other stage of the light rail. It doesn’t even include the raising of London circuit as the ACT government planned to do this and say they would have done it despite the rail needing it.

David Jackson If you’re going to just make up numbers, why pick $4 billion? Make it $20 billion. $50 billion! In any case, $8600 pp is a long way from $60,000. I guess that’s what happens when different people use different made-up numbers. Any idea of the actual per-person cost of the road network?

Christine’s Comments 4 billion is not a made up number. It’s been well publicised though out the election campaign. All the other numbers are factual as well. How can you compare thousands of kilometres of road to 13 km of light rail. A good start would be to compare rapid buses with the tram? But you wouldn’t like the end result.

David Jackson If it’s been well-publicised, then that makes it a well-publicised made-up number. And if your number is $8,600, why is Peter McMahon’s number $60,000?

Are you aware of any actual per-person costs, well-publicised or not, for the cost of the road network?

Christine’s Comments no they voted for the same party that just happened to be building the light rail. PS all too scared of loosing their jobs. Thats all that matters in this town. Keeping the status quo

Pete don’t forget inport tax and the fuel tax

Corey Karl Right, so the same people who keep voting to maintain the status quo are also the same people who keep voting for all the changes (light rail, same-sex marriage, densification, decriminalisation of drugs, a ban on dog racing, voluntary assisted dying, an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, access to government-funded abortions, etc) that make us the most progressive jurisdiction in the country? Make it make sense! 😉

Christine’s Comments no I am not able to tell you what the infrastructure of the roads in Canberra have cost. but I can assure you that a dual lane freeway is about $13 million to $18 million a kilometre so the City to Woden is about $234 million for 13 kilometres if you take an extreme example. Now Tell me how your tram stacks up.

Corey Karl Christine’s Comments only likes to have positive comments reflected at her. She is trying to do an influencer role on Facebook.

Christine’s Comments a ban on dog racing? No one in the ACT voted for this. The greens pushed it through without any consultation. Just like they are trying to wipe out horse racing. If you want to comment be very carefull as I don’t like people banning sports without even looking into the industry in this town.

David Jackson Given the reported cost of the Majura Parkway, I think your numbers are a little off, but even so, I think $675 million for Light Rail Stage 1 (12 km) stacks up pretty well against $234 million for a dual-lane freeway of similar length.

Over 370,000 passenger boardings in August (the last month before the MyWay shutdown), zero emissions, no serious injuries or fatalities. Mass public transit is a much more efficient, economical way to move large numbers of people from A to B.

Should we feel guilty for requiring newborns or households or however you want to divide the population to pay for the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on building the road network? Or just light rail?

David Jackson Be very careful if I comment about banning “sports” like dog racing because you don’t like it? Why do I need to be careful? What should I expect you to do in response if I’m not careful enough?

The Greens made it clear before the election, just like they’ve done with horse racing. That’s consultation. And people voted for them, and they won seats, and they worked with ACT Labor to get it done. Hopefully they’ll do the same with horse racing and other harmful “sports”. And with the harmful and abusive gambling industry more generally. That’s progress, not maintaining the status quo.

Christine’s Comments not everyone voted against it some can see more than a year a head for this town…..

Dave Bishop I definitely voted for it. And will vote for it again. And if it keeps taking a decade or more between the completion of each stage, I guess I’ll be voting for it repeatedly for a looooong time.

Christine’s Comments stop showing your IQ level. The greens get 10% of the ACT vote. So your telling me that ever person who voted Labor wanted horse and dog racing banned. Consultation might actually involve talking to the industry as well. Sadly the Greens want the infrast4ucture whilst also taking a percentage of the betting industry. They want their cake and they want to eat it. I wish the green nut bags were running this town because after 4 years they would be tossed out where they belong. Great until you run out of other peoples money and this is where the town is going. Have you ever wondered how much debt these muppets have put the ACT in? Or who much money goes out the door each day at an increasing rate? Since Barr and Rattenbury have run this town we have zero balanced budgets, more debt and less services despite record taxes. You go girl, keep voting for these numptys.

Christine’s Comments zero emissions? Your joking aren’t you. The ACT uses the same coal powered plants like the rest of Australia. When the sun is not shining as in night time we use coal. If you believe the number the government gave you for stage 1 then you are sillier than I thought. The electrical infrastructure around Mitchell was never added. Note the extra stop that was put in later so they could claim that the light rail was faster than a bus. The numbers you crow about is because every bus service that was doing the same thing was removed. Ask someone in Nicholls how their public transport needs are going.

Christine’s Comments this is probably because you’re not paying for it.

David Jackson This time around the Greens got 12% of the vote and 4 seats (16% of the 25 seats) in the Assembly, so I think that’s a pretty good job for a relatively-young, minor party.

No, I’m not telling you that every person who voted for Labor wanted that. I’m saying that enough people wanted that, and voted accordingly, that it was done. And they’re still voting for Labor and the Greens two elections later.

That’s one of the reasons why the horse racing industry is spending so much money trying to get more people interested in their “sport”. Because as more evidence of the cruelty and abuse (to both horses and people), it’s losing it’s popularity and social license.

Rant all you like, and try as hard as you can to be insulting and abusive. How’s that usually work out for you? Which parties are you voting for that are giving you the results you want?

I don’t wonder about the debt. I read the budget papers. I’ve got some ideas for cutting a few things, but other people have different ideas and priorities. And fair enough.

People voted for light rail. People voted to ban dog racing. People voted for same-sex marriage. People voted for voluntary assisted dying and all the rest of it. They didn’t vote to maintain the status quo.

Christine’s Comments glad to see your a bit triggered. Don’t worry about who is going to pay for your utopia. The greens get 12% of the ACT vote and you’re telling me that Canberra voted for banning dog racing? You might want to check your time lines on the ban versus voting as they don’t correspond. Zero consultation before an election then 2 years later they ban it?

Actually I pay through the nose with multiple rates and land taxes and this is only to the local government. You should see what I pay the federal government as well. I contribute way more than I cost and the question is can you say the same?

David Jackson Of course a majority of the electricity comes from the national grid. And the ACT pays for renewable energy generation to make up for the non-renewable energy we consume. And the national grid is using less and less coal. More and more solar. More and more wind. More and more batteries to store it for when we need it. Progress is a wonderful thing.

Funnily enough I know someone who lives in Nicholls and takes the light rail into the city regularly. Loves it.

Christine’s Comments they must like to walk. Wait until all the coal is gone and your beloved light rail stops. You might like to talk to people in broken hill who just went 3 weeks with intermittent or no power. And yes I have relatives that live there. Ask them what they think about your solar, wind and batteries. Thank god they actually had some diesel generators.

David Jackson I’m not triggered, but I can see why you like to think so. Noticed I said that you were TRYING to be insulting and abusive. Not that you were succeeding. It’s Facebook. Try-hard bloke who get their jollies trying to “trigger” people with insults and threats are a dime a dozen.

Good for you for paying your taxes. 👏 As you should. And yes, I do, too. As the saying goes, “Taxes are the price we pay for civilised society” and I don’t mind paying a bit extra for a little more civilisation. It’s much better than the alternatives.

David Jackson Walk and cycle, actually.

The coal won’t be gone. It’ll just get left in the ground because it’s not worth the cost required to mine it. And the light rail will still be going.

You might like to talk to people in Nottingham, UK. They shut down their last coal-fired power station six weeks ago. They’ve still got electricity, and life continues.

Or people in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, etc. all of which get a majority of their electricity from renewable sources. Australia’s behind at only 35% renewable, but we’re getting there.

Tania Shaw health obviously doesn’t get enough

Janine it is like a bottomless pit, no matter how much $$ you throw at it, it is never enough unfortunately.

Christine’s Comments $2.5Billion from Civic to Woden.