Re: Airport rail link

[amorton@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Anthony Morton)]

>"Michael" <usenet.spam@gunzel.net> wrote in message

>> I totally agree with you there, but try explaining that to our "public
>> transport activists". They seem to think that 99% of everyone's journeys
>> either originate or terminate in the city, so for the 1% that may go from
>> say Reservoir to anywhere else in Melbourne, make them travel via the city
>> or catch a bus. I would personally drive if I had to go from Reservoir to
>> Ringwood (assuming I had a car in the first place), the Ring Road is
>> useful for that (almost).

Dave Proctor <daproc@spambait.ozemail.com.au> wrote:

>If it was based on Sydney (and I know Sydney and Melbourne are different,
>but they are also very similar) there are a large number of cross-suburban
>journeys which would be rail carried *if* the transport links were adequate.

Actually Melbourne and Sydney are quite different in their urban form.
Sydney has well-developed cross-suburban travel patterns supported by cross-
suburban rail links such as through Epping and Bankstown.  Melbourne on the
other hand has developed on a 'corridors and wedges' model.  The long-standing
planning framework for Melbourne had development occuring along radial
corridors, defined by the railway lines, and separated by 'green wedges' with
comparatively little development.

Some of these green wedges have filled in over time (most notably Doncaster/
Templestowe which still lacks decent public transport services), but it's
still true that most travel in Melbourne occurs in the radial direction.  You
have to distinguish this from the naive 'everyone wants to go to the CBD'
notion.  That's not what the 'public transport activists' believe; rather,
they point out that when you count people travelling _towards_ (but not all
the way into) the city, such as from Ringwood to Box Hill, you pick up a lot
of journeys that can still be served by a radial rail network.  Local and
radial travel together account for around 80% of trips in Melbourne.

A look at the census journey-to-work figures shows that the number of people
commuting from Reservoir to Ringwood across the Yarra Valley is vanishingly
small.  Ditto for travel from Ringwood to Dandenong or Frankston, which is
why the Scoresby Freeway shapes up as an expensive solution in search of a
problem.  The way to cater for Melbourne's particular travel needs is with a
high-capacity radial rail and tram system supported by a cross-suburban bus
network (albeit with frequencies and hours of operation similar to trams).

Cheers,
Tony M.

Public Transport Users Association       http://www.vicnet.net.au/~ptua/