ACT Light Rail Public Meeting this Thursday

bigred:pay that

As long as the TWU owns ACT Labor it won’t happen. Don’t waste your time going out on a cold winter’s night just to get an inner glow. You can get the same warmth from p#ssing in your pants.

It wont be snaking through Palmerston.

Build it to Belconnen 1st.

“The only areas of Canberra which have anything like the population density needed to make light rail viable…”

As reported recently, Palmerston already has 3 times Canberra’s average population density. Flemington Road will likely be substantially higher again, and there should (after some lobbying work) be a substantial employment density at the head of a Civic to Gungahlin rail link.

My point being, that while what SNS says about density may be reasonable for some areas, for the Gungahlin link the density most certainly will be adequate to make it stack up.
And then there are the other cost savings, etc.

@sexynotsmart – I encourage you to read the light rail website. I’m a convert to the light rail cause.

I mean, look at the price of petrol and the increasing population. Light rail is at least something that should be examined. It may not be necessary now, but you can’t build such infrastructure overnight.

And nobody will force you to use light rail if you still want to use your car, bike, etc.

Great post sexynotsmart. I agree that light rail is a neat idea, but it’s simply not a good use of money. Increasing the number of dedicated bus lanes and express services would have the same effect and would be a lot cheaper and more flexible. The only areas of Canberra which have anything like the population density needed to make light rail viable (eg, the areas around Civic and the town centres and the Manuka-Kingston area) already have good bus services and are within walkable distance to most things.

Light rail kills:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/29/2289003.htm

Dammit I’m about to break another longstanding rule, and contribute to a ‘political’ thread. Don’t you hate yourself some days?

‘Big Ups’ to everyone who supports their chosen cause. But I’ve seen the ‘light rail’ proposal trotted out for a few years now, and it’s not worthy of my support. Canberra is not big enough to make passenger-only rail (light or otherwise) cost effective. The capital cost is insurmountable. The ‘twice per day’ peak is not enough passenger movements to justify the investment.

If the outcomes you want from ‘light rail’ are environmental and community-oriented, then please bring your same vigour and enthusiasm to improving bus services. Passenger buses are like trains, but don’t need the expensive rails!

Please note I don’t think the same argument holds for larger cities. Rail is REALLY important for passenger and freight movements. The only way to get that happening in an ACT context is to increase the scope of the project – give it a freight angle, so there’s an opportunity for costs to be recouped all day and night.

If the tired old ‘light rail’ proposal is changed to something like tying new rail links for Canberra passenger services to reparative work to facilitate freight movement from Canberra to Sydney, and enabling Canberra set up as Sydney’s second airport and 24/7 freight hub… now that might (barely) be big enough to generate sufficient return to warrant the initial investment.

Here endeth the soliliquy. Best wishes to everyone trying to make Canberra a better place, including those them there ‘light rail’ supporters.

An absolute waste of people’s time.

Obviously wordpress does not like safari – all my formatting has disappeared!

Thanks Damien.