Leaking Eddington

Page 5 of today's Herald Sun gives a snippet of details on the Eddington report - widely believed to be slated for public release this week (maybe Wednesday).

Details are not available on-line but it mentions that the report will include:

• a rail tunnel between Footscray and Caulfield via the Domain interchange
• a road tunnel from the eastern freeway to the western suburbs via the Tullamarine freeway with no CBD interchanges.
• A new western suburbs railway line - the Tarneit line
• proposal that the state government should take up powers over parking and other restrictions on tram routes
  

Previous reports also suggest that there will be no plans proposed for rail to the Doncaster corridor - which will disappoint residents in that part of Melbourne.

Clearly Eddington will present a politically inconvenient report. His model for the road tunnel is not what the merchant bankers and road builders wanted. By mandating no CBD interchanges he takes away the utility of a tunnel for well over 85 percent of all traffic flowing from the eastern freeway. This would decrease its value as an investment for financiers keen on another big PPP road project in Melbourne.

Clearly the battle over a road tunnel is about to enter a new phase. In one corner is Connect East, Macquarie, VECCI and the RACV. In the other is almost all other sectors of opinion in transport policy - from public transport companies to planners to local government to community and Melbourne's academic community. The outcome of this battle could be transformative for the prospects for real change in public transport funding in Victoria - if won. But if lost the outcome could be catastrophic - politically, environmentally, socially.