North East Link to shift 25,000 rail passengers a day to cars, says Andrews government report

Twentieth Century problems cannot be resolved in the twenty-first century with solutions as dated as the troubles.

The idea of spending huge amounts of public money to solve something that evolved in an energy-rich era more than half a century ago is simply wrong, short-sighted and panders to populism.

The world’s road network, and by implication that of Victoria, was built at the behest of the private, profit orientated motor industry, engendering a state of mind among the public that their lives would sharply improve if they owned and drove their own motor vehicle.

In the middle of last century that idea seemed to have some credence, but decades of experience now illustrate the folly of that thinking with even a cursory look at what is happening in societies around the world, and here in Victoria, illustrates that the damage done to the health of communities, and the world generally, by the privately owned motor car far outweigh the convenience they bring.

Those conscious of the troubles, and aware of the need for human movement, understand that as we increase our investment in fine-grained public transport, there need to be an equal disinvestment in the infrastructure, the road network, that supports a profit-driven private enterprise system.

Any suggestion that there be a shift from building and maintaining the State’s road network will bring a howl of complaint about the loss of jobs, a protest that, however, is hollow and without substance for most of the jobs used to build and maintain the State’s roads transfer easily to the creation of public transport and the staff need grows exponentially as does the service itself.

It’s a complex shift that will not happen quickly, but our need to end our carbon dioxide emissions and so slow global warming make such a change essential and because this didn’t happen when it should have some thirty years ago, we need to determine and understand way to do it within less than a decade.

The idea that the Victoria Government intends to spend massive sums of public money to simply do nought but drive people from public to private transport is wrong and Premier Daniel Andrews and his government cohort need to listen to their advisers and act accordingly.

Read the story by Clay Lucas in today’s Melbourne Age - “North East Link to shift 25,000 rail passengers a day to cars, says Andrews government report.”