Re: [Vic] Govt plays down concerns over fast train plans

[Vaughan Williams <ender2000@my-deja.com>]

Basically we are concerned that the project has stalled.

The consultant's reports were prepared months ago, and the government
is (for reasons best known to it) sitting on them. Most likely its been
found that more than $80mil will be required and National Express is
not prepared to cough up the balance. PTUAs view on this is that,
firstly, $80mil should go a long way and could well be enough (tho we
haven't done detailed studies and costings), and secondly, if there are
funds to continue the expansion of the freeway network in Melbourne,
funds can be found for the country rail network.

We applied for the "reference group reports" on 6 July under FOI. The
govt has now replied saying, paraphrased, "the reference groups didn't
write any reports, consultants wrote reports for the reference groups.
the documents you've asked for therefore do not exist". In other words,
theyre playing funnybuggers with the names of the documents (whenever
you apply for something under FOI, its always a little unclear what
exactly you want because you haven't seen the document and don't know
exactly what its called. All you have to do is provide enough
information for them to know what you're after, which we've done).

We will be taking them to VCAT to get the reports out of them, then we
can see what they say.

Our concerns are heightened by the fact that Batchelor has been going
around to the regional centres hosing the fast trains down, saying they
aren't going to happen for another thousand years or something like
that.

Vaughan


In article <7ono5.8025$Xg.78691@news-server.bigpond.net.au>,
  "Daniel Bowen" <dbowen@custard.REMOVE.net.au> wrote:
> "David Bromage" <dbromage@fang.omni.com.au> wrote in message
> 5slo5.152$GM2.3741@news0.optus.net.au">news:5slo5.152$GM2.3741@news0.optus.net.au...
> > The State Government has moved to play down growing concern about
delays
> > in releasing a report on proposed fast train services to Bendigo and
> > Ballarat.
> >
> >
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/regionals/bendigo/monthly/regben-21aug2000-
1.htm
> >
> > [Daniel, what's the PTUA angle on this?]
>
> Who? Me? I am but a humble member.  Vaughan, what's the PTUA angle on
this?
>
> Daniel
> --
> Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia
> dbowen@custard.REMOVE.net.au
> http://www.custard.net.au/bowen/daniel/
>
>


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