Article: $4.3b link won't cut travel times

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

$4.3b link won't cut travel times

$4.3b link won't cut travel times
CLAY LUCAS
June 15, 2010

ONE of Victoria's most expensive rail projects - the $4.3 billion Regional Rail Link from Werribee to Southern Cross Station - will not speed up regional rail services, a state government submission shows.

The state and federal governments are building the link, 47 kilometres of new track, to improve access for trains from Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.

The Brumby government argues it will allow a boost in the number of regional services to Melbourne and create capacity for an extra 9000 passengers an hour across the suburban and regional networks at peak times.

It also argues reliability will be boosted by separating V/Line from suburban services.

Premier John Brumby said last week that, while the final route for the link had not been named, the project was needed.

''It needs to happen so we can cater for the huge growth we are seeing in the number of people who want to use our public transport system,'' he said.

But a submission by the state government to Canberra in October 2008 showed trains would not travel faster than their current scheduled time.

Under a cost-benefit analysis of the rail line - which projected more than $6 billion in economic gains - time savings were listed as zero.

The submission estimated the proposed $5 billion WestLink freeway under Footscray and through West Sunshine would provide economic benefits of $1.1 billion.

The link must run through Footscray, but despite the Department of Transport having entered into 27 contracts with consulting firms to work on the project, no route has been named.

The department is considering building a new tunnel or widening the Footscray rail line, by forcibly acquiring homes in Railway Place, which backs on to the line. Residents say an existing and little-used railway tunnel under Footscray's Bunbury Street, built in 1928, should be considered instead.

''As far as we know they're not considering it at all,'' resident Elonie Prenter said.

The government has leased the tunnel to the Australian Rail Track Corporation, which schedules an average two freight or interstate trains an hour to run through it, timetables show.

The department has contended that regional trains need their own dedicated lines, and cannot share the Bunbury Street tunnel with freight trains because of the huge projected growth in rail freight and commuter train trips.