Page 2330 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2016
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MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Mr Hinder for his question. The light rail network plan builds on the transport for Canberra rapid frequent network and provides a vision and strategy for growing Canberra around a city-wide light rail network beyond the city to Gungahlin. As such, the plan will be used to inform decision-making for future light rail stages.
The multi-criteria assessment framework used to inform the light rail network plan can be used as a high-level guide to consider future light rail corridors and their relative performance. The light rail network plan considers not only how a stage might benefit the light rail part of the public transport network but also how it could improve the public transport network as a whole.
It looks at how all of Canberra’s transport modes can be integrated to provide a flexible and easy whole-of-journey transport experience. It is important to note that this work is not done in isolation. Creating planning documents like this moulds and shapes our future developments and decisions, with full community and expert panelling done on these routes.
We are now able to further investigate these four routes for pre-feasibility studies to make sure we continue to make the best planning decisions to provide benefit to the whole Canberra community for many generations to come.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary, Ms Burch.
MS BURCH: Can you inform the Assembly about what routes were found to be possible for the next step of the light rail project, with a particular interest in south of the lake, possibly to Tuggeranong?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Burch for her interest in Tuggeranong and the south of Canberra. Respondents to the light rail network consultation advised that reducing dependency on cars and increasing public transport use should be the top priorities when considering the light rail network extensions. As such, the primary reason people supported their preferred corridor was to improve the integration and efficiency of the transport network and to better service employment centres.
From the proposed corridors the community has now narrowed down the next stage options to four. These include Woden, where support for this option was driven by the strong benefits of a north-south Canberra connection and the opportunities it would deliver for the revitalisation of the Woden town centre. Another option is to the airport. The community indicated that an airport light rail connection was a priority to support tourism and to service the economic and employment centres of the airport precinct.
I know that you would be interested in Belconnen, Madam Speaker. A Belconnen light rail connection was seen as a priority to improve connections to higher education, health services and sporting facilities and to reduce congestion on Barry Drive. The fourth option is a light rail connection to the parliamentary zone, which is an important hub for employment and tourism. Its location provides a strong public
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