Same old, same old

Yesterday's conference on the "Future of Public Transport in Melbourne" proved to be more about the past then the future.

Gordon Price was well worth listening to. He was engaging, informative and a rarity in players in urban transportation debates - not afraid to hedge his bets. As some have mentioned elsewhere he is very much an adherent of the urban formism school. "Geography is destiny" he said on more then one occasion yesterday, and he believes that land use is more important then than transport mode. As such he is a disappointment to the radical side of the current public transport governance debate, who would have been looking for an international expert such as Gordon to put all boots in.

The presentation and debate section of the conference was just downright annoying. There were three presentations by Paul Mees, Denis Cliche and Janet Rice, and all failed to do what a conference like this needs to do - reach out and explore positions.

1. Paul Mees gave his lecture (I missed part of it) arguing that the problems with public transport are due to private companies pursuing private interest. Paul believes that privatisation has cost Victoria $2 billion over 8 years. He also argues for the dismemberment of the Directorate of Public Transport, arguing that 150 staff do the job that could be done by 25 and that DPT has failed.
2. Denis Cliche's argument is that we should stop squabbling about governance and get on with the job of improving public transport service delivery and services. For him as CEO of Yarra Trams DPT has done a good job and the creation of a new transport bureaucracy is a second rate issue
3. Janet Rice did not buy into the governance debate, instead devoting her presentation to attacking Meeting our Transport Challenges.

There is a myopia about all players represented yesterday. All are devoted to their own quite extreme positions and seemingly can't get together to move forward.

A conference on public transport like yesterday could have worked if it brought a range of players in public transport together to plot ways of improving service delivery, government sector spending and implementation of infrastructure.

Instead it will be used as a rallying cry by the radicals such as Paul Mees, the PTUA and the Greens to unleash a civil war against the rest of the public transport lobby.

Such a waste.