Numbers worry for fast rail

NOT enough people would use Geelong fast rail to argue it would take the heat off Melbourne’s crammed public network, experts say.

Research from the Grattan Institute revealed of 14,000 people travelling from Melbourne to Geelong each day, only 3400 took the train.

Transport and cities program director Marion Terrill said even if train passengers doubled under a fast rail proposal, it would amount to a fraction of Melbourne’s annual growth.

“It’s an overstatement to say it would take pressure off Melbourne,” Ms Terrill said.

“Geelong is actually pretty well connected to the CBD by public transport already. There are some suburbs of Melbourne, like Frankston, that have an hour commute into the city.”

The report concluded if “Geelong’s 3400 public transport commuters to the Melbourne CBD doubled, that would be just 3 per cent of Melbourne’s population growth in a year”.

Ms Terrill supported the proposal for a business case exploring fast rail, but said numbers were too small to make a major difference.

Geelong was the regional city with the most daily commuters to the state capital, edging out the Macedon Ranges by more than 5000 people.

The report also pointed to different preferences of State and Federal governments.

“If there isn’t clear alignment on the problem to be solved, it will be hard to judge whether a rail upgrade is a success,” it read.

Public Transport Users Association Geelong convener Paul Westcott said it was important planning continued.

“The importance of this project is less to do with speed as it is to do with capacity and frequency,” Mr Westcott said.