Traffic jams won’t be going away

MT WELLINGTON CABLE CAR

WHAT will create more mountain traffic? The Disappearing Tarn, disappearing snow or a permanent summit restaurant, whisky bar, etc, operating seven days per week, 14 hours a day on weekends. Letters recently suggest the cable car will solve traffic issues at peak periods. However, building a mass tourism attraction on kunanyi/Mt Wellington will make the current traffic issues seem insignificant.

The complex will mean more congestion on Pinnacle Rd and on the summit. It will also add congestion to residential streets of South Hobart, new congestion on the proposed road, congestion in the tiny carpark, and congestion with queues of people waiting to board a ride. Night traffic, from the summit to the base, poses particular issues, including roadkill and disturbance of wildlife (not to mention humans). Rather than solving a problem, the cable car complex will create more significant issues, including traffic jams. Bronwyn Scanlon

Taroona and engineering labour, and construction jobs have been less affected than others. The Premier’s Recovery Council has warned the government’s construction blitz could lead to overheating. An overall increase in jobs will likely require flying in workers as happened with Crowne Plaza.

Even if MWCC specifies only Tasmanian workers they will create a shortage elsewhere. Most of the dollars for labour and materials would leave Tasmania. For the government, there are serious questions about directing stimulus to industries that already have skills shortages. Whatever our views of the cable car, we cannot justify it with promised jobs.

David Day South Hobart the fact a small collection of private investors are prepared to take advantage of an asset that in no way will belong to them, but will go on belonging, in perpetuity, to Tasmanians who will not benefit directly.

To think that successive governments (the Tasmanian people) won’t be taking advantage of an ongoing revenue stream in perpetuity frustrates me.

We need vision and political will. And no, I don’t have a one-track mind. I want freight and public rail to return and I’ll go on mounting a case for a publicly owned cable car. And Peter Gutwein, if you’re listening, I think you might just be the man to make these things happen.

Michael McCall Primrose Sands