Re: V/Line Pass- Railways now forgotten in Government Policy?

["Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au>]

>Railways have gone right out of the equation of the Victorian Government's
>policy.
>The only transport policy the Premier espoused was a highway from Geelong
to
>Bendigo via Ballarat in order to snare votes from the forgotten people of
>rural Victoria.


Hardly surprising, among the first policies were released were education and
health which are politically sensitive areas. Lets face it, the people of
Victoria are equally guilty of this as much as the government, Joe Punter no
longer uses the train and couldn't care less. Whereas Joe Punter does care
about education and health. The ALP is no better, their website has no
mention of public transport either. And whilst the education union has TV
ads encouraging people to ring the political parties to find out what
they're promising for their kids, the railway union appears to have done
very little campaigning either.
      I have yet to see a public transport policy and am not expecting one
although I keep looking just in case.

>Why can't the same money have been used to upgrade the trackwork, or
>electrify the Geelong line?


The time to push this was when there was a discussion about spending lots of
money on building the extra lane for the Princes Freeway, it's too late now.
In case you were wondering, rail was never a consideration because the ARA,
the PTU and the general public never really pushed it. You won't see any
signs saying 'No Federal Funds spent on this passenger railway' unlike the
adjacent freeway.

>The Government now has washed itself completely from any funding of
Railways
>in Victoria.


What a surprise.

>When it was put in the 'Herald-Sun' last month, that better trackwork would
>benefit National Express's proposed new high speed DMUs, the Transport
>Minister said this was a matter for Freight Victoria as they now owned the
>track.  So in other words, Freight Victoria is under no obligation to
>improve the tracks for National Express, and it is not our problem now even
>though we(the Government) promised a better Public Transport System.


In some ways, Freight Victoria and National Express would do well to get
together to push railways cause in the community. The farmer that uses an
efficient passenger railway once and gets good service, will use it again.
The farmer who uses fast, clean reliable trains may be convinced to send
his/her parcels by fast, clean reliable trains. Everybody wins. Then again,
FV & NE will probably see each other as the rival or the enemy instead of
their real competition - road - and nonbody will be better off.

>The recent NSW Budget allocated $2 billion for Public Transport.  Did
>Victoria's even come close??  $2.6 million alone is allocated to railway
>heritage structures in NSW.
>(Source: Railway Digest August/September 1999.)


Does the Minister for Transport getting nice new expensive office space
count? If not, then bugger all.

>Could Melbourne's Trains have handled the 2000 Olympics as good as Sydney?


Yes. The lines are there and the government will spend money on public
transport if it has anything to do with building one of their circusses.
Route 70 tram is a good example of that, so is the Docklands tramway. If it
is merely used for commuters to get to work and back then no money will be
forthcoming.

>It is hard not get political when the Railway's equation in Victoria = 0,
>and the promises do not match actuality.


Or hospitals. Can't comment on education, like my job too much!

>However, I do hope that the new private operators do improve the service in
>Victoria, as that's all the hope that we left have in Victoria.
>
Agreed. Although the profit motive may help improve services, it's about the
only thing that may. The government couldn't care less, no votes in trains,
trams and busses.