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Article: Lobby urges tram extensions to avoid dead-end trips

Started by ozbob, March 06, 2013, 03:14:10 AM

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ozbob

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Lobby urges tram extensions to avoid dead-end trips



QuoteLobby urges tram extensions to avoid dead-end trips
March 6, 2013 Adam Carey

It's mid-morning in East Malvern, and another route three tram lumbers into the terminus at the small shopping strip at the intersection of Waverley and Darling roads, just as they have for the past 99 years. One passenger alights and three get on board.

Just a kilometre further up the road is East Malvern station on the Glen Waverley railway line, transporting thousands of passengers in and out of the city each day, and two kilometres beyond that is Chadstone, Australia's biggest shopping centre.

The failure of the route three tram to connect to the nearby train line and retail hub - instead fizzling out at a quiet intersection - is a wasted opportunity to open up the range of journeys tram passengers could take, the Public Transport Users Association argues.

In its recent budget submission to the Baillieu government, the volunteer lobby group called for 15 ''modest'' extensions to Melbourne's tram network that would connect routes with nearby trains, buses and activity centres.
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''Where a tram line terminates in the suburbs, it makes sense for it to have a logical ending point which allows people to either transfer to a train or to get to a popular destination,'' association president Tony Morton said.

''Instead of the patronage on that line petering out the closer you get to the terminus until it's practically empty, you would actually get people using the tram to get to the railway station.''

Also on the association's wish-list is a call to complete the 2005 extension of tram route 75 from Vermont South to Knox City - still the most recent extension to the suburban tram network.

Dr Morton said some of the proposed extensions would require laying a kilometre of new track or less.

However, Ian Dobbs, the chief of Public Transport Victoria, said the biggest priority for Melbourne's tram network was increasing its capacity.

''Fixing capacity constraints on the system is the priority, and route extensions would have little effect there,'' Mr Dobbs said.

''The people who can't squeeze onto a tram on St Kilda Road won't thank me because there's a new kilometre of track at the end of the line.''

Mr Dobbs said the city needed more and bigger trams.

The first of 50 new, low-floor trams is due to arrive in late July, more than six months late. The E-class trams can carry up to 210 passengers, more than any at present in the Yarra Trams fleet.

Professor Graham Currie, chair of public transport at Monash University faculty of engineering, said many of the proposed extensions were logical and worth completing but that separating trams and traffic was more urgent.

''The biggest tram problem is still interference with traffic,'' he said.

Half baked projects, have long term consequences ...
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