Tunnel News updates: July 6th – 8th

Selection of local news and online reporting of the East-West Link Needs Assessment.

Star News Group: Transport in their own write (8th July, 2008)
An East-West Link Needs Assessment submission-writing workshop has been hailed as a success by Greens MLC Colleen Hartland. Ms Hartland said about 20 submissions had been written during the two-hour session, held at the Hyde St church last Wednesday. (more details in link above)

Star News Group: Workshop helps submission (8th July, 2008)
Greens Party members Colleen Harltand and Miles Dymott have organised a submission writing workshop for Sunshine residents tomorrow night. (more details in link above)

Star News Group: No word from Libs (8th July, 2008)
The Liberal Party has failed to respond to Sunshine residents’ requests about whether the party would support a proposed road tunnel that required compulsory house acquisitions by the State Government. (more details in link above)

Star News Group: Fear vision may destroy homes (8th July, 2008)
Battler Margaret Copeland fears she will lose her home, which she spent 45 years paying off while raising six children on her own, due to a proposed road tunnel to connect Melbourne’s east with the West. (more details in link above)

Star News Group: More information needed: Harrison (8th July, 2008)
Sunshine residents are being urged to not loose sleep over recommendations for a proposed road tunnel that could run through the suburb. Brimbank City Council engineering services general manager Leigh Harrison urged about 600 residents at a public information session last week to put in submissions on the East West Link Needs Assessment (EWLNA) by Sir Rod Eddington to the State Government voicing their concerns. (more details in link above)

Star News Group: ‘Let’s fight this tunnel’ (8th July, 2008)
Sunshine residents heard a call to lobby against a proposed road tunnel at a public meeting last week. More than 600 people attended the event, where calls were made to form an action group to fight the tunnel. (more details in link above)

Star News Group: Public transport, not a tunnel (8th July, 2008)
The western suburbs needs more public transport and no road tunnel according to many Sunshine residents and politicians at a public meeting on the East West Link Needs Assessment (EWLNA) last week. (more details in link above)

Herald Sun: John Brumby’s role to improve public transport, says Rod Eddington (8th July, 2008)
The onus is on the Brumby Government to end Melburnians’ love affair with their cars by investing in large public transport projects. That’s the view of international transport expert Sir Rod Eddington in a recorded chat with Premier John Brumby, posted online today. (more details in link above)

ABC Online: New freeway project being considered (8th July, 2008)
The Premier, John Brumby, says he will not rule out any submissions to the Government’s transport plan, including a link between the Eastern Freeway and the Metropolitan Ring Road. The so-called “missing link” is being proposed by freight and motoring groups. (more details in link above)

The Age: New orbital freeway plan for city
(8th July, 2008)
A contentious proposal to build the “missing link” in Melbourne’s outer ring road network will be considered as part of a wider plan by the State Government to deal with Melbourne’s transport chaos. (more details in link above)

Herald Sun: Rail tunnel gets big union push (7th July, 2008)
Melbourne risks becoming a backwater unless priority is given to improving public transport by investing billions in infrastructure. That’s the stark warning from the peak public transport union in its submission to the Government on Melbourne’s transport needs. (more details in link above)

Herald Sun: For whom the road tolls
(7th July, 2008)
There are troubling signs the $2.5 billion EastLink tollway has not been the yellow brick road to suddenly ease traffic congestion. Instead, there is mounting evidence that traffic snarls on the Eastern Freeway and its entry to Hoddle St have become worse. (more details in link above)