Article: The good, the bad and the chronically late

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The good, the bad and the chronically late

The good, the bad and the chronically late
September 20, 2009

Labor made big promises before being elected in 1999. Reid Sexton investigates what happened to them.

WHEN Labor unexpectedly won power in Victoria 10 years ago, its ambitious promises of a well-oiled, far-reaching, more reliable public transport system were almost enough to dry the tears of those lamenting the loss of Melbourne's tram conductors under the Kennett government.

Trains and trams had just been privatised and Labor's pre-election transport manifesto, Rebuilding the Transport Network, detailed plans for an extended rail network into the outer suburbs, a rapid transit link to Melbourne Airport and fast regional rail services.

To a public worn down by years of transport disputes and delays, Labor's vision promised a raft of major projects designed to get Melbourne's expanding population moving efficiently.

Fast forward to 2009 and most of the promises have fallen by the wayside; many ditched amid the realisation that promises made in Opposition are never as easy to deliver as the words that uttered them. And that talk is cheap.

Those that have been delivered - in full or in part - have often been delayed and come in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.

There is even a sense of deja vu in problems plaguing the public transport system. In 1999, a long-delayed and over-budget new ticketing system was causing confusion. We now have the myki fiasco - three years late and $350 million over budget.

Granted, the Government has had successes in the past decade, with transport experts telling The Sunday Age that Labor's biggest achievement for Victorian commuters has been the reopening of country train lines and the creation of the regional fast rail network.

In the city, upgrades to bus services have improved the transport options of thousands, but according to RMIT public transport advocate Paul Mees, these services are not co-ordinated with train or tram timetables, leaving huge swaths of Melbourne without the promised and much-needed integrated public transport system championed in Labor's pre-election document.

The Government's own statistics show that, a decade on, public transport chaos is as great as it ever was in the 1990s.

An unprecedented 35 per cent surge in patronage over the past five years - due in part to higher petrol prices and a growing population - has fuelled overcrowding on trains, trams and buses while rail punctuality has plummeted, sending commuters' satisfaction levels to record lows.

Only one election pledge to extend the suburban rail network, from Broadmeadows to Craigieburn, has been met.

''Instead of reforming the network, they've sat on their backsides and done virtually nothing for the suburban rail and tram network they inherited from the Liberals,'' Dr Mees said.

He said Melburnians were worse off than 10 years ago because the privately operated system was carrying more passengers without any substantial upgrade to services.

Few would argue that public transport across most of Melbourne has problems. But it's not as though the Government has turned a blind eye to the crisis.

Since its initial manifesto, Labor has released at least four transport-related plans, starting with the comprehensive Melbourne 2030 blueprint in October 2002, the Metropolitan Transport Plan in November 2004, the Meeting Our Transport Challenges document in May 2006, and most recently, in December last year, the $38 billion Victorian Transport Plan, which promises 38 new trains and 50 new trams along with upgrades on a scale never before seen in Melbourne.

The Government says it has secured $6 billion for transport upgrades this year - including much-needed maintenance and infrastructure work - compared with $60 million allocated in the Kennett government's last year.

But few will be holding their breath. Monash University transport expert Graham Currie said the Government had been unwise to promise to restore confidence in the public transport system a decade ago.

''In truth, the gigantic scale of the problems facing Melbourne's public transport system means it is difficult for any government ? to achieve big changes in a period of 10 years,'' he said.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen does not share his sentiments.

The Government, he said, received new trains ordered by the Liberals early in its tenure but waited until 2007 to react to the patronage surge by buying more.

The shortage was compounded by scrapping old trains, he said, and the Government had still not bought any new trams since coming to power.

''Melbourne's got a public transport network which is bursting at the seams with passengers in the inner suburbs, and unusable in most outer areas, leaving many with no choice but to drive, and chronic traffic congestion across much of the city,'' he said.

In Melbourne's outer east, a string of broken promises, including a pledge to identify a train route to Rowville, has left well over 100,000 residents reliant on overcrowded buses and cars, according to Eastern Transport Coalition spokeswoman Samantha Dunn.

The State Government claims that the additional 1500 weekly rail services it has added are helping to alleviate the problem. But the Government waited until two years into the surge before boosting services, and Sunday Age analysis last year found that at least half the tram network's routes were running fewer services than when it was privatised in 1999.

In the country, however, rail travel has undergone a revolution. Services to Bairnsdale and Ararat have been restored while fast rail - delivered late in 2007 and nearly $700 million over budget - has meant 400 extra services run weekly to regional centres. V/Line patronage has doubled in recent years to about 12 million trips a year, and country rail stands as the Government's greatest transport achievement in the past decade.

In the city, the Government has also rolled out five orbital and cross-town bus routes at a cost of about $400 million since 2002.

The SmartBuses have formed a key plank in Labor's policy of closing the public transport gaps created by Melbourne's radial network.

But Dr Mees said the project had failed because, despite promises to integrate buses with public transport, the timetables and routes rarely had train or tram services in mind.

Professor Currie said that while Labor should do more to co-ordinate bus services with trams and trains, the SmartBuses meant people in outer suburbs had high-frequency public transport where there had been none.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said Labor had ignored the plight of Melbourne commuters until the system had reached breaking point.

''(Premier) John Brumby's biggest failures and his legacy to Victorians are wasted opportunity.''