Re: State Rail - No, State Joke. [NSW]

["Bradley Torr" <truenorth@one.net.au.SPAMTRAP>]

Colin Weaver <colingw@my-deja.com> wrote in article
<b1afa9a1.0105311621.7eb3deac@posting.google.com>...

> Here in Brisbane we have an all powerful council such as you suggest,
> and it has achieved very little.  Just look at Brisbane City Council's
> record, under administrations of either political persuasion:

How independent is the BCC from State Government policy though? My
knowledge of local government is mainly confined to NSW and Victoria,
states in which local government is very much under the thumb of their
respective State Governments, what with forced amalgamations,
corporatisation of council structures and property tax rates which must be
approved by the State.

> Rapid and completely unjustified abandonment of a superb street
> tramway system (1969)

The State Government in NSW did the same too. Private companies across the
United States did the same. I'm not sure that we can blame that on the fact
that Brisbane has a large and fairly powerful city government. We can also
probably blame that on the Paddington Depot fire, and Clem Jones, the Mayor
of the time.

> A dilapidated system of diesel buses, many of them without air
> conditioning, and in many cases duplicating routes already served
> extremely well by QR CityTrain.  (Ok - I admit that Brisbane's bus
> system isn't that bad compared to other cities, but it barely achieves
> the same patronage as the trams did when Brisbane's population was
> much lower than today).

We can also blame bad urban planning policies for this too. Brisbane seems
to be the most sprawl-infested and low density city in the country. Even
within the city boundaries there are giant swathes of land separating
developed areas from other developed areas, and islands of urban
development in the middle of nowhere separated from the rest of the City by
semi-rural land (e.g. the Inala development, Bracken Ridge area, etc.) Such
sporadic development - not to mention the maddening rate of urban
development outside the City, in Logan, Pine Rivers Shire and the two
Coasts, is not terribly conducive to good public transport.

I'm not entirely sure whether the State or the respective Councils are to
blame for this.

> Outright obstruction of at least three QLD Government attempts to
> re-introduce Light Rail into the CBD and inner suburbs.

Did the BCC ever justify their opposition to this?

> Axing of weekly and monthly bus tickets, causing an immediate drop in
> bus Patronage at a time when rail patronage is growing steadily.

That was stupid. Were there any complaints against the City Council about
this?

> Little or no cooperation with attempts to introduce integrated
> ticketing.

Well, there's some now, could be a lot better. At least Brisbane Transport
isn't a privately owned monopolist in western Sydney, which have
consistently blocked moves to bring in integrated ticketing! Only ONE bus
company (Busways) has introduced any kind of seamless multi-modal
ticketing.

> There is no way I would hand public transport policy to local
> councils, although State and Federal governments are little better. 
> In my opinion, the only answer is regional transit authorities, with
> the ability to raise funding via levies restricted by law to no more
> than a certain level.

Which is how many major public transport improvements in America were
funded - a half-cent sales tax across several counties in metropolitan San
Francisco funded the construction of the BART rail network, for instance.

> I hate to think what would happen if CityTrain ever ended up under BCC
> control.

So would I. But my desire is to see local control of local projects, and
local accountability. Has anybody tried to hold the Council accountable for
its poor public transport policy? Has it ever been an election issue? I
would much rather deal with a lower sphere of government than hand over
control over a certain area of policy to an even more remote, bureaucratic
and uninterested level of government. Brisbane Transport isn't privately
owned - it's in public hands. Brisbanians should stand up and make them
accountable for the abysmal transport provision you write about.

Regards
BT