Way off track
LAST Friday: Outside it’s 43.6C and the mercury is still climbing.
Inside, the overhead fan is working a treat. The air conditioner is a last resort; a nanoscopic gesture in the bigger picture, but if everyone backed off the air a little, there would be more supply certainty for those truly in need, like the sick, aged and very young.
On these days, it’s a waiting game — not for a drop in temperature, but for a blackout. Usually these occur late afternoon when hundreds of thousands of frazzled workers return home from another challenge of Survivor (the commuter version) looking for respite.
Either they were caught in a horrendous traffic snarl, their train was cancelled or replaced by a bus that added to the road chaos, or the tram was overcrowded.
Meanwhile, the people elected to protect our interests and plan for our future appear otherwise engaged … more often than not, busy badgering their opponents as if their lives depended on it!
It may well be a game for politicians and their apparatchiks, but for most Australians it’s pathetic and not what the electorate expects, wants or deserves.
Take the weather. As more and more Australians believe there is a connect between climate change and extreme weather events — and a need to act — our politicians are arguing the toss about renewables, fossil fuels and emissions targets.
Public transport is another case in point, like the hit-and-miss Geelong-Melbourne rail service (and that’s putting it mildly). Now stick with me a moment because this is complex and confusing.
Without delving into too much detail, the mess started with trains being forced off a direct route through Werribee onto an outer link via the growth suburbs of Tarneit and Wyndham Vale.
This was a key component of a Regional Rail Link (RRL) project that, in turn, formed part of the Brumby government’s Victorian Transport Plan.
The intention was to increase capacity and reliability, particularly as regional trains would be separated from the electrified metropolitan network via two new tracks. The good folk of Geelong were assured travel times would be slashed. This guarantee obviously coincided with April Fool’s Day!
Not only was the vision of transport utopia shattered by funding shortfalls. but burgeoning passenger numbers and services led to congestion, delays and reliability issues. The new tracks were never constructed, meaning V/Line services shared the suburban lines.
And that remains the root cause of the current debacle, according to Public Transport Users Association Geelong convener Paul Westcott. He says the RRL is trying to be an express track for Geelong-Melbourne trains and a suburban service to Tarneit and Wyndham Vale: “It’s trying to do two things at once and when that happens you don’t do either of them well.”
Fast-forward to today, and debate and browbeating continues about a new underground rail network circling Melbourne suburbs, new tunnels, an airport link and ‘fast rail’ to Geelong. (Locals here have good reason to feel like the chooks former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen once fed at his news conferences).
The latest development — well, it was at the time of writing — is the revelation the State Government is considering a ‘gamechanging’ proposal for Geelong trains to swoop into Melbourne via a new Metro 2 underground connection.
The proposal is believed to have been presented to the Federal Government to win support for an above-ground airport rail link, which would mean ditching plans for a tunnel between the city and Sunshine. Yet the Morrison government has previously said a tunnel to Sunshine is crucial for delivering fast rail to Geelong, and pledged $2 billion. Also in the mix, the City of Greater Geelong is pushing a 200km/h commuter network linking Melbourne to Geelong and Ballarat.
Wyndham council wants more stations on the Geelong line to cater for that city’s booming west, which smacks of pure desperation as its growth spirals out of control. And two local MPs, Senator Sarah Henderson and Corangamite’s Libby Coker, are continuing their pre-election feud, this time over the crucial South Geelong-Waurn Ponds rail duplication.
Politics, of course, often takes precedence over common sense, an observation shared by Infrastructure Australia. It has identified the country’s three-tiered governance structure as a major challenge in delivering infrastructure and services in line with population growth.
Executive director of policy and research Peter Colacino said: “We absolutely see the alignment of the levels of government is a challenge. Governments understand the expectation around growth is complex and changing and it will require alignment and commitment from each level of government.”
When the greater good of the community is at stake, a bipartisan approach is imperative: for health, education, growth, housing affordability, climate change etc. But the chance of that in the current political environment is like saying ‘when pigs fly’. Much like Geelong’s ‘fast rail’.
Graeme Vincent is a former Geelong Advertiser editor.