Article: Doncaster rail study may lead to more buses

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Doncaster rail study may lead to more buses

Doncaster rail study may lead to more buses
Jason Dowling
May 9, 2012

AN IMPROVED bus service along the Eastern Freeway may be the result of the Baillieu government's study into a possible rail line to Doncaster, which is now likely to be leap-frogged by plans for a multibillion-dollar road tunnel linking the freeway and CityLink.

Buried in the detail of the Doncaster Rail Study documents is an acknowledgement that rail is not the only option under consideration.

The documents say that, depending on the outcome of the rail study ''and the direction given by the government, other public transport modes may be considered in phase two''.

Asked if the end result of the study could be a beefed-up bus service, a spokeswoman for the government said: ''We can't pre-empt the outcome of the study.''

The east-west freeway proposal is a hot political issue for residents in Melbourne's inner north, and the government's enthusiastic support for the road could be a key issue in the coming byelection for the seat of Melbourne should the Liberals field a candidate.

When he was opposition leader, Ted Baillieu advocated strongly for the Doncaster rail link. ''The easiest thing to do would be to do exactly what this (Brumby) government has done and do nothing. We are not going to do that, we are going to ... find the funds and get on and build it,'' Mr Baillieu said in November, 2010.

He said buses were not the answer to an area poorly serviced by public transport. ''We already know the Eastern Freeway is clogged with vehicles so that makes it harder for buses themselves, so the more that we can get people on to public transport and not on the roads the better,'' he said.

But now the government will not say if the rail line is a priority ahead of a freeway link. ''All of the Coalition government's infrastructure projects are a priority. However, progress on the east-west [road] link and Doncaster rail will depend on future planning works and federal government funding,'' a spokeswoman for the Premier said.

Last week's state budget committed $15 million to the east-west freeway proposal. The government listed the freeway as its top priority in a November 2011 request to Infrastructure Australia for federal funding.

While engineering survey work and geotechnical drilling along a possible freeway route is expected to begin within weeks, the drawn-out $6.5 million Doncaster rail study will not be completed before next year.

The Doncaster rail proposal is also ranked behind two other massive rail projects - the regional rail project to add capacity in Melbourne's west, and the proposed rail tunnel from South Kensington to South Yarra.

Tony Morton, of the Public Transport Users Association, said the Coalition in opposition had campaigned on rail projects, not freeways. ''People didn't vote for them because they said they would build new roads,'' he said.

Greens state MP Greg Barber said a rail link to Doncaster would be much more efficient than a new freeway. ''For moving large numbers of people in our of the city, rail beats freeways hands down,'' he said.

Labor's public transport spokeswoman, Fiona Richardson, said it was clear the Coalition had ''thrown in the towel'' on fixing public transport, given that its first federal funding priority was for a road.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/doncaster-rail-study-may-lead-to-more-buses-20120508-1yb0e.html