Tunnel Vision or World Class Public Transport?

A landmark report into the East West Link has been released: Tunnel Vision or World Class Public Transport: How cancelling the East West Link can fund better transport alternatives for Melbourne.

The Age: Universities’ analysis shows East West link bill to reach $17.8 billion November 11, 2014. Royce Millar, Ben Schneiders and Josh Gordon

The Napthine Government’s signature infrastructure project will cost Victorian taxpayers as much as $17.8 billion, and will be a drain on the public purse until the mid-2040s, the first major analysis of the controversial East West Link shows.

A report by 10 leading transport planners and financial analysts from three Melbourne universities concludes the East West price tag will be “comparable” with the Wonthaggi desalination plant, the cost of, and secrecy around which, contributed to the defeat of the Brumby government in 2010.

Read the Report: Tunnel Vision or World Class Public Transport: How cancelling the East West Link can fund better transport alternatives for Melbourne.

This report is about Melbourne’s transport future. Our concern is the largest transport infrastructure project in the State’s history and the most expensive per kilometre in the nation’s history: the East West Link (EWL). We argue it should be abandoned, with savings being used to fund a new, more effective public transport policy direction.

The authors of this report are a group of transport planning and financial experts including from RMIT University, the University of Melbourne and Monash University. We share a deep concern over the way Melbourne’s transport future has been unduly captured by a single project, the proposed East West Link (EWL), where the ends (better transport) have been given second place to means, in this case a private public partnership involving a secret contract signed on the eve of a State election.

A public report authored by: Professor Jago Dodson, RMIT University, Professor Nicholas Low, University of Melbourne, Mr John Odgers RMIT University, Professor David Hayward RMIT University, Mr Roger Taylor, independent researcher, Dr John Stone, University of Melbourne, Professor Brendan Gleeson, University of Melbourne, Professor Graham Currie, Monash University, Dr Crystal Legacy, RMIT University, Dr Sophie Sturup, Jiaotong-Liverpool University (University of Melbourne to July 2014)