Whittlesea Leader: East West Link campaign organiser Anthony Main says group will visit Mernda during suburban/regional tour. April 10, 2014
East West Link protesters say they will visit Mernda to explain how the $8 billion road will “suck” cash away from projects such a rail extension.
Campaign organiser Anthony Main said the group would take its pro-public transport message to Mernda this Saturday, April 12, as part of a outer suburban and regional tour.
Mr Main said it was “high time” Mernda — with its 50,000 residents — had a railway station.
>> Do you think the East West Link should be scrapped for public transport projects? Tell us below
“Our concern is that if the East West Link is built it will suck funds away from projects like the Mernda rail extension,” Mr Main said.
“We want to see the tunnel scrapped and instead funds directed to communities like Mernda and Doreen that are starved of public transport options.”
Mr Main said the campaign group’s tour would finish with a city rally at the State Library on June 28.
“We will be calling on people to help us build for a mass rally … so that we can keep the issue of public transport right up on the political agenda in the lead up to the state election,” he said.
Campaigners will meet residents outside Woolworths at the Mernda Villages Shopping Centre from 11.30am on Saturday.
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William
William
10 days ago
It is typical that Anthony Mainis supportive of a Destructive and costly one sided campaign to the communities of Mernda and massive devastation of local habitat easy to jump on campaigns beats talking to local residents and taking on board their concerns this is a campaign to serve a few with little regard for the people it supposed to serve and is being touted for personal and political gain. p.s. Mernda has three train stations a 10- 15 minute drive is you live in Doreen 7-10 minutes, there is also South Morang and Donnybrook stations so we do not have a rail line in Mernda but have access to two metro lines and a V/line service within a short drive what we do not have are bus networks servicing these routes, also costs of road infrastructure is being offset to developers causing long delays in construction
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James
James
13 days ago
To balance the development and the attraction of land of the west and east regions of Melbourne, the EWL is one of the surest ways to go.
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Robert
Robert
Apr 10, 2014
Bet my last dollar that these protesters will get to Mernda by driving on the Western Ring road and not getting the tram and then bus. And then they will drive all over Melbourne preaching how bad these roads are. When you buy a house you see what is in that area that appeals to you and guess what a train station wasn’t there when they bought there but there is other forms of transport. This East West link will happen and and I can’t wait.
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3MickstaJerryJodyLikeReply
Mark
Mark
Apr 10, 2014
The protesters want public transport because most of the scragly bunch do not have a car/license/job/prospects/clean clothes/soap and probably receive undeserved discounted public transport travel. The rest of Melbourne wants and needs the East West Tunnel, and apart from the fact that it should of been done 5 years ago, its going to be great for Melbourne road users! Come on Denis, lets get building! As for the few houses etc that have to go, its called PROGRESS!
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3MickstaJerryJodyLikeReply
Paul
Paul
Apr 10, 2014
Well of course they had to drive Mernda doesn’t have a train station!
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1JillLikeReply
Malcolm
Malcolm
Apr 10, 2014
I laugh at the petty protesters. Let them keep thinking they will make a difference. I personally can’t wait for the tunnel.
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4MickstaJerryJodyChris…LikeReply
Riddley
Riddley
Apr 10, 2014
The road system is now at, or nearly at, full capacity.
But even doubling the road space will not prevent massive gridlock. Each person driving on the road takes up 20 – 200 square metres of space. That is inefficient! So double the people does not double the road space needed, it requires 20 times the road space we already have.
Given that the growth is mainly in areas with very poor public transport, most of these people will drive to work and probably be forced into expensive and inefficient 2 car families.
However trains and trams offer transport at about 1 – 2 square metres per person.
Bicycles take up about 2 square metres per person.
One car takes up between 10 and 40 square metres of space to park.
Public transport takes up no parking space.
It is simple fact that there will not be room for more cars, nor roads to drive them on, nor space to park them.
Freeways return a loss of about 50 cents in the dollar, and fail in their defined purpose to move lots of people.
Public transport also loses money, but succeeds in moving people very well.
Bike infrastructure is cheap and works well in its goals of short to medium transport options.
The logic is inescapable; why are we even contemplating building these pointless roads?
The only solution to Melbourne’s growing transport problem is rail, tram, bus and bicycle. And we need to start that planning and building now. Already our Public Transport system has been held back for the last 20 years by large roads projects.
By failing to address this problem in an intelligent way, we build ourselves into the same structural problems from which cities like Los Angeles are now trying to extricate themselves.
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1Filomena.LikeReply
David
David
Apr 10, 2014
Try travelling across town, without this tunnel its a nightmare, public transport is useless and takes three hours, dig a hole, the sooner the better.
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6MickstaJerryMarkChris…LikeReply
D
D
Apr 10, 2014
@David digging a hole will make public transport worse. They wont have the money to spend tio improve it. Public transport is useless because they dont put anything into it – because of things like the East-West Tunnel.
If you think public transport is useless and needs to be fixed, then you should be with those protestors. If you think travelling across town is a nightmare now, it’s going to get worse after the tunnel is built. What are you douing, get down there and support them.
One thing about these guys that you can’t say about any of their critics: they put their money where their mouth is.
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Jason
Jason
Apr 10, 2014
Given Melbourne will be approaching a population of around 8 million people by 2053, it is even more important that the East West Link is built to accommodate the growth in this city.
This doesn’t mean that the government should disregard building new stations at Mernda and Doreen in the future but the reality is that there is a large percentage of people who don’t want to use public transport for various reasons so cars are here to stay. Plus this link is needed to ease congestion in the inner city suburbs.
If it means that a few homes need to be sacrificed inner city to accommodate this project in order to build our future, then this is a small price to pay.
You had the same number of protesters when the Eastern Fwy was built many decades ago and who complains about it now? We are all dependent on these freeways now.
It’s history repeating itself.
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3MickstaJerryMarkLikeReply
Ecoengine
Ecoengine
Apr 10, 2014
@JasonMelbourne’s population bursting to 8 million by 2053 is what must be avoided! That’s the whole justification for the East West LInk – to link up the east and western suburbs for a “big” Melbourne and supply road access for business supply chains! They will be the big beneficiaries of the road/tunnel, not the public. The $8 billion or more will mean our State’s infrastructure building will stagnate, but nothing is being done to address our State’s porous borders and bulging suburbs! It’s a heavy cost on our communities that are crying out for public transport, such as trains, trams and buses. While Melbourne’s population is being “projected” dizzy heights, for the benefit of property developers, nothing else in our city is growing – such as schools, hospitals, ambulances, TAFEs, social housing or public services.
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1JodyLikeReply
Riddley
Riddley
Apr 10, 2014
@JasonWith respect, trying to fix traffic congestion by building new roads just does not work. We have seen this with Citylink – which has already reached capacity and had to be widened – with the effect of increasing traffic even more. Same goes for the Eastern – at peak hour it is now a carpark.
The EWL will only make matters worse. Most modern cities are realising the problem. It seems those in power in Melbourne are unaware of that.
Here’s just a couple of examples:
The closure of Broadway at Times Square between 42nd and 47th Streets has not only improved traffic flow in the area, but also improved business.
Portland has removed the freeway along the riverside and replaced it with parklands. Far from being “impossible” as the traffic engineers insisted for decades, Harbor Drive was closed in 1974. Interstate-5 from the east side of the Willamette River is next on the list of freeway removals.
Paris closed the roadway on the Rive Gauche and turned it into parkland.
Seoul: About 15 expressways have been demolished since 2002, most notably the Cheongyeccheon freeway which is now a park with a river running through it. The city council plans to remove one near the main railway station and another at Seodaemun, also in the city centre.
When the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco fell down, they didn’t replace it, they turned the area into a tourist precinct.
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1JillLikeReply
Jill
Jill
13 days ago
@Riddley @Jason Brilliant, @Riddley. When I visited Embarcadero I went round on a bus and the whole area reminded me of scenic StKilda. I had no idea it was an urban renewal project created from the space that a freeway had taken. And now the government is trying to acquire a park equivalent to Central Park or Hampstead Heath for a freeway which will reach capacity within 10 years and which all Victorian taxpayers will be subsidising for 30 years given its unviable financial basis – all top secret, mind you.
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Jerry
Jerry
Apr 10, 2014
If labor hadn’t wasted 10 years of government we would have a great transport system , unfortunately I don’t think we will ever catch up .
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Riddley
Riddley
Apr 10, 2014
There is no economic justification for building the east West Link. Even their own modelling states it will be redundant after only 12 years. My view is that the money should be spent on public transport improvements which will do much more to reduce congestion than any inner city road building.
But even if you spent 8 billion on roads – there are 100 smaller projects needed across Melbourne – each of which would return more benefit than the EWL. Dealing with the level crossings – there’s 200 of them that need to be fixed – Furlong Rd, the Murrumbeena set, Westgarth, Victoria, Station and Grange, etc.. Chandler Highway. Possibly even the ring road in Greensborough. area.
What about all the new estates? Williams Landing, Point Cook area have only ONE exit road! That is ridiculous, not to mention dangerous.
The ewL is a rushed and ill-conceived project. I understand why some people want it – I’ve been driving through the Elliot Ave – Princes St run myself recently. But the reality is, and has been very well understood by urban planners for decades is that roads such as this increase congestion, not decrease it.
And then we are to destroy 100 homes, 36 playing fields, and 5,000 trees, some of which were planted by Baron von Mueller!
This is not progress. This is public vandalism writ large.
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2Filomena.NeilLikeReply
Jerry
Jerry
Apr 10, 2014
Public vandalism ? Is that anything like economic vandalism or treachery shown by our last federal and state governments?
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Craig
Craig
Apr 10, 2014
Couldn’t agree more.
Govenrment letting people into country, they move to North and nothing is done to assist them.
Are there not more people moving into these regions than inner city
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1Filomena.LikeReply
Neil
Neil
Apr 10, 2014
The government and councils allow these estates to develop with any thought on the infrastructure that will be required spending 8 billion on one project is insane
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2JillFilomena.LikeReply
Michael
Michael
Apr 10, 2014
Yes – a railway extension to Mernda and duplication of Plenty Rd where it is only ONE LANE each way through Mernda/Doreen with stupid amounts of roundabouts and new developments with NO WAY OUT in the event of a fire… Great Planning there Matthew Guy! 🙂
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1Filomena.LikeReply
Ray
Ray
Apr 10, 2014
@Michael You were going well with your argument Michael until you blamed the current Planning Minister. The whole Plenty Valley Corridor was initially planned in the Cain years and most of the development started in the Bracks Years except possibly Laurimar which became a epic battle with Planning somewhere in between. When they were building the rail line to South Morang we were even offered a Bus Trail by Brumby. It is now Guy’s job to get an action plan now but some bipartisan political assistance would be of some help. Unfortunately this continuous election campaign both major parties operate these days does nothing for voters across the country
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5MickstaJerryFilomena.allanLikeReply
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