Re: Airport rail link

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

Alex Pout <alpout@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

>OK, so wouldn't a link railway with regularly spaced stations (not to
>mention connections with all the main radial lines) be accomplishing the
>same goal, ie lots of short journeys?  Wouldn't that lead to a large
>utilization of the equipment, ie 80% or greater?  I could just jump on a
>train and go from Glen Waverley to Bayswater, if that was where I needed to
>go.  That would get me off the road, and stop me blocking space on two
>radial trains, the inbound and the outbound, while avoiding the unreliable
>bus services (which would probably become a lot more reliable with the
>reduction in traffic.... another chicken and egg situation...)

It comes down to a question of cost.  Part of the rationale for public
transport is that it's more economical than building and maintaining eight-
lane roads everywhere.  If I was prepared to burn money on railways the way
we currently seem to do on roads, I'd certainly be pushing for cross-suburban
links: Glen Waverley to Boronia, rail up Springvale Rd, Frankston-Dandenong-
Knox-Ringwood and so on.  The point is that with travel patterns as they are
at present they're just not economically justified, and there's no reason to
deliberately encourage more cross-suburban travel.

I'd sooner provide high-quality fast frequent bus services on these cross-
suburban routes and save the real money for schools, hospitals, local roads,
and radial rail links that fill important gaps, such as the East Doncaster
line, Huntingdale to Rowville, and the Whittlesea corridor.

>Also, with the exception of St Kilda Rd, Queens Parade/Kings Way, Royal
>Parade, and Flemington Rd, all the major roads in Melbourne are on a grid
>that does not aim for the city (try taking Burwood Hwy, for example,
>straight from FTG to the city).

Actually, if you stay on Burwood Hwy you wind up on Toorak Rd which takes you
into the city via Kingsway or St Kilda Rd.  (Though if you're sane you'd go
as far as Malvern then jump on CityLink.)  But your point's basically correct;
a better example would be Wellington Rd from Rowville.

This, as I've explained, is part of the reason the circumferential roads clog
up even though most travel is radial.  You have to cut across the grid at
some point.

> So there's a case here where the radial
>train network is good enough because everyone wants to get into the city (or
>can have journeys satisfied by a network with this layout), but the road
>network is designed to keep you away from and around the city.  Could this
>have something to do with the heavy traffic experienced on a regular basis?

It's all to do with economies of scale.  Generally, the more people there are
using a public transport service the better the level of service (because you
can afford to provide more capacity), while the more people there are using a
road the worse the level of service (because of congestion).  So the best kind
of public transport service is one that runs direct to where the majority of
people want to go and is used by many people; the best kind of road is one
that runs where you, and nobody else, wants to go and is used by you alone.

Of course there comes a point where public transport shows diminishing returns
to scale because of congestion, just like roads.  But we're nowhere near that
point in Melbourne and have so much rail capacity for a city of our size that
we aren't likely to approach it for a long long time.  If we ever do, that's
the time to start building lots of new lines.

>> >I know that there isn't much across the north east, out towards Bundoora,
>but
>> >that area is still expanding, so wouldn't it make sense to provide the
>> >access for it now, while there's time and space?
>>
>> That's what the rail extension to South Morang is for.
>
>So extend to Craigieburn as well.

Indeed.  I hope that happens ASAP.

>Also, when I looked into staying in
>Melbourne, I wanted to live in the northwest area (ie Greenvale), but go to
>uni at RMIT Bundoora.  How would a radial train/tram network help here?

It wouldn't.  But I'd give you a decent bus service along Cooper St.  Having
to go by bus instead of by tram or train is a factor you'd have to take into
account when deciding to live in Greenvale instead of somewhere like South
Morang.  But the experience from other parts of the world is people will
happily use buses if they're fast, frequent and not fifty years old.

>The same could be said for Brisbane,
>although it suffers from a similar problem to Melbourne, in having the
>radial train network, but at least the trains there are a bit nicer than
>either Cityrail or Melbourne (or so my Melburnian girlfriend commented to
>me, when we were up north in September).

Actually I believe Brisbane now has a higher share of trips by public
transport than Melbourne does (8% versus 7% or some such).  Seems crazy when
you compare the infrastructure available in both cities.

Regards,
Tony M.

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