Victoria's new transport plan

Today the Victorian Government released their long awaited Transport Plan.

We won the east-west tunnel battle - there will be no road tunnel.

In fact there is much to like about the plan and it shows how far the forces for sustainable transport have come in the last ten years. Back then a document of this nature would have seen public transport relegated to a token train or tram extension or station upgrade along with all the roads projects.

There is however, much to dislike about the plan.

Number one is simply that this is not a plan or policy but a list of projects. Project based transport policy without a clear policy direction about how to manage transport demand is bad transport policy. The major policy imperative seems to be predict and provide - a mantra that says you should predict people's travel demand and then provide it.

The alternative approach, which has been largely ignored in the document, is transport demand management. That is the land use, sustainable transport infrastructure and service levels that encourage people to travel less via car and make more journey's via public transport, bike or their own two feet.

The Victorian Transport Plan (or VTP) does not chart out much of a vision for policy change. VTP is just a long list of projects which may, or may not, be delivered. Indeed the cost of many public transport projects are too high. For example, does anyone believe that a train extension to South Morang will cost $650 million. One can only conclude - absent of any other reasoning - that this cost includes significant road infrastructure which has been hidden on the public transport side of the ledger. One suspects that the road spending in the VTP is right on the money, if underestimated, and the public transport spending is overestimated, allowing the government spinners to argue that the spending ratio is 50/50 roads vs public transport when in fact the ratio is much higher.

The VTP also fails the believability test. Many of the projects won't be underway by 2010 and can't be justified as pump priming. The VTP depends greatly on federal funding and no indication is provided of what projects will be delayed if there is no federal funding (the cynic in me says public transport).

Buses and cyclists have been dudded majorly. The Smart Bus Blue orbital has been cancelled (the cynic in me reckons that it ain't a coincidence that it would run dead through a seat held by a major opponent of road building), and the green smart bus orbital has been delayed. Bus services have had an increase, but nothing like what is needed to achieve a quantum leap.

Cyclists have also been majorly dudded. This plan is pathetic on cycling and walking.

Last May I moved a resolution at ALP state conference calling for a metropolitan wide plan that would help us fight climate change, transport disadvantage and effect real change. This plan fails all these tests.