3AW: Save an hour a day the East-West way. Posted by: Katie Hodge | 6 August, 2014
A report by engineers TraffixGroup claims the average trip along the East-West Link Stage One will be seven or eight minutes each way.
Dr Napthine said the current average morning travel time for Eastern Freeway to CityLink route is 34 minutes, and the reverse trip in the afternoon was 41 minutes.
LISTEN: Anthony Main tells Tom Elliott why these predictions can’t be accurate
“That’s a whole hour extra that commuters will have to spend with their family.” Said Denis Napthine.
While the report based these figures on 800,000 people using the new toll road, the government is yet to revel how much it will cost to travel on the proposed road.
Anthony Maine, East West link protestor, says knowing the toll figure is vital for study’s like this to deliver accurate figures.
“If you are one of the minority of Victorians that use the eastern freeway… I’m sure it would reduce your travel time a little bit,” he told Tom Elliott.
“There will be a real minority of people that are going to use this… these (reports) don’t mean much unless they are looked at in conjunction with the business case… what is the toll? That’s really important in terms of how many cars they are predicting will use the tunnel.” He said.
Business groups have welcomed the modelling saying the reduction in congestion will boost productivity.
In a related issue, the Melbourne Zoo has requested parts of Melbourne Park be dug up to make way for car parks.
LISTEN: Anthony Main tells Tom Elliott investing in public transport would solve alot of the city’s issues
Anthony Main told Tom Elliott he was surprised by the move.
“It’s not something I’m in favour of. Royal park is one of the most beautiful parks in that city and every square inch of it should been protected.”
“It’s the same thing we are saying about the tunnel… if we pumped $8 billion worth of funds into public transport, there’d be no need for extra road and extra car parks and you’d go a long way to solving a lot of the inner city issues of congestion, parking and those sorts of things.” He said.
“Public transport doesn’t just benefit this in the outer suburbs but we think it can also help some of the inner city issues as well.” He added.
