Page 4207 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011
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Of course the high speed rail study released by the federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport has outlined a whole range of questions that now need to be explored around a high speed rail link along the east coast of Australia linking those four major metropolitan centres of Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
They include for the ACT issues about where stations could feasibly be located in each of those centres, where the rail corridor itself should go between each of those centres, and into and out of each of those centres, and for Canberra questions about whether or not it should operate as a loop coming from Sydney looping through Canberra and back up into the Hume Highway corridor or whether it should travel to the south and connect through a mountain connection under the Great Dividing Range around Tumut and out towards Melbourne that way.
There are a whole range of very important questions that need to be considered. The government will be actively engaging with the federal government in our submission through the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors to indicate our ongoing interest in this and our preparedness to work with them on this important project for the real opportunities it presents to our city.
On light rail and on high speed rail, the government is actively working in this space. For Ms Bresnan to suggest otherwise merely highlights that she has been caught napping on this issue, that she has not been paying attention to the announcements the government has been making. She has not been paying attention to the priorities the Chief Minister has set. Instead, she wants to try and get the Greens’ stamp back on this issue.
Of course, what Ms Bresnan’s motion does not recognise is that the development of rail is potentially a costly option for the territory and it needs to be assessed in terms of its economic, financial, social and environmental benefits. The government’s activities in terms of its examination along Northbourne Avenue are currently doing just that. But it is also important to recognise that we need to have the land use planning strategies to support the development of these types of transport corridors and we need also to recognise that a strong and viable bus network will remain critical to the performance of an effective public transport system for the city.
That is why the Northbourne Avenue corridor study is looking at a range of technology choices. It is looking at light rail along that corridor but it is also looking at bus rapid transport because both of those technologies can achieve the outcomes we are looking for in achieving dedicated right of way and in terms of achieving high volume passenger capacity that will deliver the benefits we need for rapid transit along these corridors.
We must also continue to plan to strengthen our bus network. We need higher frequencies along key corridors by bus. We need better frequencies and better connections from those high speed corridors out to regional centres and then the same again out into the suburban area. That is why as minister in the development of the new transport strategy I am placing a very high emphasis on making sure we have service guarantees about frequency and service guarantees about waiting times and
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