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Sent: Sunday, 24 October 2021, 05:54:53 pm AEDT
Subject: Sat.24.7.21 daily digest
Surrey Hills up 8.33: P (red)-flatwagons (empty, just one half-height container)-P (Yellow).
Roderick
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Sat.24.7.21 Metro Twitter
Aircraft: No ramp access to platforms until late 2021 (pedestrian-underpass works).
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works.
Buses replace trains on sections of the Ballarat & Geelong lines until Sunday 25 July. Buses are not stopping at Footscray and Sunshine. Passengers should catch a suburban train to Southern Cross.
Buses replace trains Ringwood - Lilydale until 1.30 Sun 25 Jul (level-crossing works).
Mernda/Hurstbridge/Lilydale/Belgrave/Alamein/Glen Waverley lines: All trains direct to/from Flinders St all day (maintenance works). From loop stations, take a train from pfm 2 to Flinders St.
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: All trains will terminate/originate at Caulfield from 1.30 until the last train of Sun 25 Jul (works). Change to/from a Frankston train.
12.08 Because of a rally in the city
- Route 1 and 6 trams divert via La Trobe between Stop 22 Toorak Road and Stop 7 RMIT University.
- Routes 3, 5, 16, 64, 67 and 72 will run between the south-eastern suburbs and Stop 14 Arts Precinct
- 12.17
- Routes 12/109 divert via La Trobe St between Stop 12 St Vincent’s Plaza and Spencer Street.
- No route 11 & 48 trams between Stop 5 Elizabeth St and Stop 7 at 101 Collins Street.
- 12.27
- Swanston Street and Collins Street trams have resumed, with delays.
- Route 86 and 96 trams divert via La Trobe St between Stop 11 Melbourne Museum and Spencer Street.
Bondi Road, Bonbeach is closed in both directions until early-October, as part of the level-crossing removal. Edithvale Road level crossing also closes from Sunday. See http://levelcrossings.vic.gov.au/disruptions/bondi-road-bonbeach-level-crossing-closure-july
22.27 Cranbourne line: Major delays (police attending to trespassers near Lynbrook). Trains may be held/altered.
Stopping all marginal seats: A Melbourne guide to the car parks controversy. Shane Wright and Katina Curtis JULY 24, 2021
The Auditor-General has lashed the federal government’s $660 million commuter car parks scheme and found funding was targeted at marginal seats rather than those in need. A former judge described the fund as “corruption”.
So where are these projects around Melbourne, how much has the government promised and are they built?
Below is a list of every site promised for the Victorian capital and a description of the issues as they stand today.
Camberwell | Within walking distance of the office of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who proposed an upgrade to the station’s car parking as one of four projects in his electorate, there are more than 1000 free car park spaces in the area. Ahead of the 2019 election, the government feared the safe Liberal seat could be threatened by independents such as Oliver Yates. The Auditor-General’s report found it was one of two approved for funding where eligibility for funding under federal government law had not been addressed when it was formally proposed. The government first planned to put $20 million into the project for about 500 new spaces.
Canterbury | The government promised $15 million to add 500 spaces to the small station’s existing 130 spaces. The Auditor-General found that a site identified for another car park will not be attached directly to the station, but about 130 metres away. Planning is under way to make the proposed car park as accessible as possible to the station.
Surrey Hills | This car park was already in the sights of the Victorian government as part of its level crossing removal program. The state plans to merge the Surrey Hills and Mont Albert stations, which sit just 600 metres apart, into a new “premium” station with its own car park. That car park will have the same number of spaces as already available but with new lighting and CCTV and direct access to the new station. The heavily built surrounds, including suburban homes, means a multi-storey car park cannot be built at the existing site.
Glenferrie | Estimated to cost $15 million, this project was slated for a station around which there are already more than 500 free car park spaces. The Auditor-General’s report found it was one of two approved for funding that eligibility under federal government law had not been addressed when it was formally proposed for funding.
Berwick | The government originally promised $15 million for 50 extra parking spaces that then infrastructure minister Alan Tudge said would “take more than 25,000 cars off the road”. The project, one of five promised for La Trobe, has run into major troubles with the government contribution soaring to $49.2 million. A proposal to fold the project into a state government plan to remove the nearby railway level crossing was dumped as the federal government took too long to confirm it would fund the car park.
Beaconsfield | One of only two car parks to be completed since the program was announced. It was incorporated into an existing state government station upgrade. The $15 million project added 150 car park spaces as well as extra lighting, CCTV and hoops for cyclists. It opened in December.
Narre Warren | The promised $15 million was for an unspecified number of extra car spaces. There are already more than 600 free car park spaces at the station. There was a near 5 per cent swing to Jason Wood in the Narre Warren booths at the 2019 poll. He won the seat with a margin of 4.5 per cent. The Narre Warren station sits on the border of the Labor-held seat of Bruce and the Liberal-held seat of La Trobe. It is officially defined as a project for both electorates.
Officer | The federal government only formally approved $5 million for the project in April. It is in the middle of one of Melbourne’s fastest growing suburban areas springing up along the Pakenham rail line. It is a 51-kilometre trip to Southern Cross station from Officer.
Pakenham | The government committed $15 million towards an undetermined number of new car spaces. The Victorian government had planned to upgrade this major station before the federal government’s surprise announcement. Planning has now started with the project likely to include more CCTV, lighting and bicycle parking areas.
Doncaster | Unlike any other project announced as part of the Commuter Car Park fund, the $6 million promised for Doncaster was for a park and ride car park adjacent to the Eastern Freeway. The project caused legal problems for the department because of the way it was tied into the pre-existing $1.8 billion North East Link Project with the Auditor-General noting the car park needed to be approved in its own right.
Eltham | The Victorian government was already planning an upgrade to the railway station car park which has 220 spaces. The Auditor-General’s report notes the Victorian transport department said Eltham was one of a number of projects where there was “no engagement” by the federal government before its election promise. There is doubt whether the upgrade will include additional car spaces.
Boronia | Boronia station is six stops from the end of the Belgrave line, just over 33 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. It’s in then-urban infrastructure minister Alan Tudge’s electorate of Aston where two car park projects were approved. Tudge won a further 2.7-point swing towards him at the 2019 election. There is already a state government-owned multi-storey car park next to the station with 180 spots plus several shopping centre car parks within a few minutes’ walk.
Ferntree Gully | Five stops from the end of the Belgrave line, about 36 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD the station already features two existing state government-owned car parks at the station with a combined 499 spots.
Heatherdale | One of five station projects on the Belgrave/Lilydale lines. Four of them are being built by the Moroondah City Council. Heatherdale is about 26 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. There are a couple of existing nearby car parks with a combined capacity of 515 spaces. The council is yet to choose a site for the new car park. Michael Sukkar held his seat by a 6.1-point margin after he suffered a small swing against him at the 2019 election.
Heathmont | Heathmont is about 28 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. There are two small existing car parks nearby with a combined capacity of 135 spaces. The council has bought the land for the new car park, formerly a commercial site for a swimming pool retailer.
Croydon | Construction has begun at Croydon on a multi-storey car park expect to provide 400 spots. The station is about 31 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. There are two existing state-government owned car parks nearby with a combined capacity of 205 spaces. Another existing car park, owned by the council, offers 185 spots.
Ringwood | A bottleshop occupies the site chosen for the new car park which has provoked a local stoush with the National Trust due to the historic nature of the site. Sukkar told Parliament in 2019 the plan was to build an extra 482 spaces. Ringwood is almost 26 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. There is one existing state government-owned car park at the station with capacity of 158 spaces.
Mitcham | A state government-owned car park exists at the station with 503 spaces. Sukkar told Parliament in 2019 the plan would provide nearly 500 extra spaces but the project was cancelled in April.
Frankston | Frankston station is an end of the line station, nearly 44 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. It’s one of three commuter car park projects promised in the seat of Dunkley, which Liberal MP Chris Crewther was fighting to hold onto after a redistribution made it notionally Labor. Labor’s Peta Murphy won the seat with a 2.7-point margin. The Frankston project is the only one of the three going ahead, with the other two already cancelled. An existing state government-owned car park at the station has 444 spaces. The state government is yet to identify a site for the new car park or how many more spaces will be provided. It told the Auditor-General it was already planning a car park project at Frankston before the federal government made its announcement without consultation.
Seaford | Seaford station is on the Frankston line, located two blocks from the beach and 39 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The government cancelled the project on April 15, 2021. The Victorian government told the Auditor-General it was already planning a car park project at Seaford before the federal government made its announcement without consultation. There are two existing state government-owned car parks at the station with a combined capacity of 471 spaces.
Kananook | Kananook station is on the Frankston line, about 41 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. An existing car park at the station has capacity for about 130 vehicles. The government cancelled the project in April.
North Brighton | This station is on the Sandringham line, about 13 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The existing car park at the station has about 25 spots in it. The project was one of six announced for Liberal MP Tim Wilson’s seat of Goldstein, the most in any electorate. The Labor candidate launched his campaign for the seat saying it had been a safe Liberal electorate and thus missed out on its fair share of government cash over the years. Labor shaved 4.9 points off Wilson’s double-digit margin but he retained the seat with 57.8 per cent of the vote.
Brighton Beach | This station is on the Sandringham line, about 16 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. An existing state government-owned car park at the station can accommodate 187 vehicles. The Brighton Beach project was cancelled in March after the infrastructure department advised it faced significant constraints and the state government would not be the delivery partner.
Sandringham | This end-of-the-line station is about 19 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD and its existing car park at the station has 107 spaces. The project is listed as being in planning.
Bentleigh | The Bentleigh station is on the Frankston line, located 16.5 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. An existing car park next to the station has about 200 spaces in it, and there are three more Glen Eira Council-owned car parks at shops within a few minutes’ walk. The local council is yet to decide whether to start a feasibility study for the project.
Hampton | This station is the second last on the Sandringham line, almost 18 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. Its existing state government-owned car park has 78 spots and there is a shopping centre across the road with more spaces. The project is listed as being in planning.
Elsternwick | This station is on the Sandringham line, about 11 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. An existing multi-storey car park next to the station, owned by the state government, has 148 spaces and another 75 spaces are available on council land at a nearby shopping centre. The local council is yet to decide whether to start a feasibility study for the project.
Craigieburn | The end of the Craigieburn line, this station is more than 26 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The planned car park is jointly funded with the Victorian government – which had planned the project before the federal government announcement – and will add 745 new spaces to the area. Construction has begun. An existing state-government owned car park at the station has 338 spots in it. Craigieburn is in the area that Infrastructure Australia predicts will have the most congested roads in greater Melbourne by 2031. The margin in the safe Labor seat barely budged at the 2019 election.
Balaclava | Located in the old seat of Melbourne Ports, a redistribution and the retirement of a long-standing Labor MP meant this electorate was in play at the 2019 election. It was one of two seats in the country where the endorsed Liberal candidate was asked for proposals under the fund. That led to a promise by the federal government to spend $15 million. But the local council had a year earlier announced a plan to build social housing on the proposed car park site. Labor’s Josh Burns won the seat with a swing of 5 per cent. Along with three other stations, the government has spent almost $2 million on planning for car park projects that were ultimately abandoned.
Hurstbridge | The end of the Hurstbridge line that is 28 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The existing car park handles about 100 vehicles with the Victorian government already planning to upgrade the car park before the federal announcement. The Coalition held the seat until 2010 but has struggled as more of the seat has urbanised. Construction started on the project with land readily available adjacent to the station for a new car park. There was a 5.9 per cent swing to Labor at the Hurstbridge polling booth at the 2019 election.
South Morang | Already surrounded by hundreds of car park spaces, the upgrade was promised as part of a $70 million package that would also go towards Craigieburn and Hurstbridge stations. By early 2021 the federal government abandoned the South Morang project citing “significant constraints” around the area. The Victorian government noted the project could have gone ahead through an upgrade of an informal gravel car park.
Electorate: Kooyong [shift up]
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Camberwell $20m $20m In Planning
Canterbury $15m $15m In Planning
Surrey Hills $15m $15m In Planning
Glenferrie $15m $15m In Planning
Total $65mil $65mil
Electorate: La Trobe
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Berwick $64.2m $64.2m In Planning
Beaconsfield $4.7m $15m Completed
Narre Warren $15m $15m In Planning
Officer $5m $5m In Planning
Pakenham $15m $15m In Planning
Total $103.9m $114.2m
Electorate: Menzies
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Doncaster - park and ride $6m $6m In Planning
Eltham $6m $6m In Planning
Total $12m $12m
Electorate: Aston
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Boronia $20m $20m In Planning
Ferntree Gully $16m $16m In Planning
Total $36m $36m
Electorate: Deakin
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Heatherdale $15m $15m In Planning
Heathmont $18.9m $18.9m In Planning
Croydon $18m $18m Under construction
Ringwood $29.7m $29.7m In Planning
Total $81.6m $81.6m
Electorate: Dunkley
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Frankston $87m $43.5m In Planning
Seaford - - Discontinued
Kananook - - Discontinued
Total $87m $43.5m
Electorate: Goldstein
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Brighton Beach - - Discontinued
North Brighton $6.9m $6.9m In Planning
Sandringham $3.1m $3.1m In Planning
Bentleigh $9.1m $9.1m In Planning
Hampton $4m $4m In Planning
Elsternwick $9 $9 In Planning
Total $23.1m $23.1m
Electorate: Calwell
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Craigieburn $140m $70m Under Construction
Electorate: Macnamara
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Balaclava Discontinued
Electorate: McEwen
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
Hurstbridge $140m $70m Completed
Electorate: Scullin
Station Total cost Federal contribution Status
South Morang $140m* $70m* Discontinued
* Total cost of package of stations including Craigieburn and Hurstbridge projects
Source: ANAO
<www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/stopping-all-marginal-seats-a-melbourne-guide-to-the-car-parks-controversy-20210722-p58bxm.html>
* Misappropriation of public monies for personal gain. i.e. to get yourself re-elected.
* Should have specified criteria for how many car parks are required at various stations. I would know or care who funded the car parks - state, federal of local council - but anything that makes it easier for people to use public transport should be encouraged. Stations on the Sandringham line (our closest) were built when it was a day trip from the city to Brighton not a daily commute. All the car spots from Sandringham to Elsternwick are full before 7am!
* Ridiculous Heidelberg definitely needs a multi story car park upgrade but that won’t happen anytime soon as it is labour territory.
* you can just see them bribing us with our own money. What stands out apart from the Pork is the sheer incompetence the lack of understasnding of how to work with the States and Councils to get things built the lack of understanding of urban planning the lack of vision it is so obvious this plan is driven by fear of what the electorate was going to do but it is also obvious how out of touch the members were with their local elctorates. Announcements, promises yes achievements - no Very typical of the Federal Government
* A Federal Minister (rightly) lost her job because of an unnecessary helicopter ride. Why arent there heads rolling over this?
* When does pork barrelling become corruption?
* That map should be printed and posted everywhere to show how corrupt the government is.
* There seems to be some kind of relationship between the amount of money promised, electoral/seat margin and the importance/influence/power of the incumbent in the LNP. If the Federal LNP Government bothers trying to justify this spending, I think they will have a great deal of difficulty doing so. But, in the LNP way, I don't think they will put much effort into justifying it. A simple, "the spending is within the rules" statement and they are done.
* And sadly many life long blindly committed conservatives will just accept it and vote for them again
* Can someone remind the LNP that it's our money they're spending not theirs.
Treasurer promised car park for a train station that soon won’t exist. Shane Wright, Katina Curtis and Chloe Booker July 24, 2021
A $65 million election promise by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to deliver 2000 car spaces at four railway stations in his own electorate may never be delivered, with one car park pledged for a station that will soon not exist.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald can also reveal even if the projects are delivered, the cost will balloon and in some cases may require the compulsory acquisition of properties in some of the most expensive parts of suburban Melbourne.
Treasurer Josh Frydenber pledged $65 million for 2000 car spaces at four railway stations in the seat of Kooyong ahead of the hotly contested 2019 election.CREDIT:PAUL JEFFERS
And while the government faces cost blowouts in Melbourne with its commuter program, in Sydney people are losing their homes to make way for car parks promised more than two years ago.
The federal government has come under heavy criticism for the way it has used its $660 million Commuter Car Park Fund ahead of the 2019 election, with 77 per cent of its projects located in Coalition seats.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and ministers including Alan Tudge, who was the minister for urban infrastructure at the time, signed off on $389 million worth of projects the day before the 2019 election was called.
Four of the projects with up to 2000 car spaces were promised for Canterbury, Camberwell, Glenferrie and Surrey Hills railway stations in Mr Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong. At the time, there were fears Mr Frydenberg, who held the seat with a 12.7 per cent margin, could lose to independent Oliver Yates.
But two years after the election, none of the projects – which are all in heavily built-up areas – are under way.
One proposal, for 500 spaces around the Surrey Hills station, is problematic as the Victorian government plans to merge this with the nearby Mont Albert station as part of its level crossing removal program. Two crossings will be axed as part of this project.
The federal Infrastructure Department was warned by its Victorian counterparts of the “logistical implications” of trying to shoehorn extra car spaces around the new Surrey Hills-Mont Albert station.
The area is surrounded by suburban homes, some of which would have to be acquired by the state government to enable the construction of a car park.
A multistorey car park, proposed for some stations under the program, would be on such small pieces of land up to half the floor space of each level could be taken up by access ramps.
A spokesperson for the state government said just acquiring the extra land for 2000 spaces around the four railway stations would cost more than the $65 million earmarked to build the car parks themselves.
“It is simply impossible to provide the number of car parks they have committed to at these sites for the funding they have allocated,” they said.
Mr Frydenberg said he had discussed congestion issues with the local council before suggesting the proposals that were approved for financial support. The Boroondara council had identified a lack of car parks around railway stations as a major issue for the community.
He said even Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, announcing the Surrey Hills-Mont Albert project in December last year, had argued the state would work with the federal government if possible.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews reviews plans of the proposed Surrey Hills-Mont Albert premium railway station. The federal government had promised 500 car spaces towards the Surrey Hills station in 2019.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
“I consulted my local council who made it very clear that there was a significant lack of parking at railway stations in the area, with an opportunity to expand the parking available,” he said.
“This is why I advocated for more car parks in Kooyong, which will get cars off the road and local commuters to and from home sooner and safer.”
But around Surrey Hills station, locals and visitors who knew of the promise for 500 commuter car parks at the soon-to-be demolished station, were either angry or bemused.
“It’s a classic case of pork-barrelling,” Geoff Dwyer, who was walking a dog alongside the station, said.
“And also a lack of coordination between the federal and state government, and probably local as well. It’s a really poorly executed plan.”
His friend, Glenn Nicholson said it sounded like the policy had been announced before determining the need.
“It is a case of Yes Minister,” he said. “Do first and ask for forgiveness later.”
Over at the Union Road shopping strip, Merrilyn Whitecross said there was a need for more car parks in the area but that she believed the promise for more was an empty one.
“None of the government promises come true as they are offered,” she said. “They come up with all sorts of excuses at the last minute to not give us what they promised, especially around election time.”
Five hundred spaces are being built at Berwick railway station, almost 40 kilometres to the south-east, at a cost of $65 million. The Berwick station is already surrounded by car parks, making the addition of more spaces much easier and less costly than what faces the four Kooyong projects.
Not only did the Treasurer promise 2000 car spaces for his electorate, he also pledged to spend $600,000 on upgrading the intersections of busy Burwood Rd with both Glenferrie Road and Auburn Road.
Both intersections are heavily built up. When the Victorian government was told after the election of the Treasurer’s plans, they found it impossible to do any physical upgrade work - such as an extra turning lane - for $600,000.
A Commonwealth government sign promoting a “signal upgrade” in Burwood Road, Hawthorn.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
The intersection includes the 151-year-old Immaculate Conception Church, and would have required the compulsory acquisition of church land.
Instead, new lights were proposed, but these already exist, so the federal government paid the Victorian government $600,000 for an “assessment of the traffic light sequencing” for the two intersections - something done almost daily across the entire Melbourne network.
The price of that cash was the installation of two signs noting the “Burwood Road Signal Upgrade” brought to local residents by the Australian government.
In evidence this week to a Senate estimates hearing, deputy auditor-general Brian Boyd agreed there was never a “proper” estimate of the costs for the works.
“No, there was nothing of that ilk,” he said in answer to questions from Labor’s shadow finance minister, Katy Gallagher.
Mr Boyd said the lack of engagement with councils and governments, especially in Victoria, was a problem on top of the proposed location for many of the projects.
The audit office’s Brian Boyd told a Senate inquiry there had been no proper costings of planned railway station car parks ahead of their pledge by the Liberal Party at the 2019 election.CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN
“We’re not building car parks out in areas where there’s a lot of surplus land. Invariably, if you’re not extending or increasing an existing location, you’ve got to find somewhere to construct it,” he said.
In Sydney, the car park fund also leaned heavily towards a handful of Coalition-held seats or those it believed it could win. Three were promised to Lindsay where Labor’s Emma Husar was retiring after turmoil within the party.
Another four were pledged in the Banks electorate where frontbencher David Coleman was sitting on a wafer-thin margin of 1.4 per cent with fears he would lose the seat.
One of the promised car parks was for Riverwood. Two years on, three families face losing their homes to make way for a 150 space multistorey car park.
One of those families is Sam and Monika Charan, residents of Webb St in Riverwood for the past 28 years.
Sam ran Vinnie’s Ice Cream parlour at the neighbouring Riverwood Plaza for 15 years before retiring.
It was Monika who opened the home’s front door at 7.30 on the morning of February 16 this year to be told by officials from NSW Transport of plans to compulsorily acquire the property plus two adjoining ones for the planned car park.
Sam and Monika Charan, with neighbour Elane He, will lose their homes to a car park as part of the federal government’s Commuter Car Park Fund.CREDIT:JANIE BARRETT
Their son Vineh Charan says the small community of families, all with migrant backgrounds, faced a deeply uncertain future with a deadline of mid-December before the department takes ownership.
“Given the lockdown environment we are in, and their age, it’s going to be very difficult and stressful,” he said.
“Their GP is only 400 or 500 metres away, this has been their home for the last 28 years.”
RELATED ARTICLE Ringwood railway station car park in the Melbourne seat of Deakin ... planning is still ongoing for an work on an upgrade that was promised at the 2019 election. Car parks targeted government list of marginal electorates, inquiry told
RELATED ARTICLE The Croydon railway station in Melbourne is one of the car parks promised to be upgraded as part of the government’s program. Car parks program shows country on a ‘corruption slippery slope’
RELATED ARTICLE David Harper QC said the car parks program certainly appears to be an instance of taxpayers’ money being spent with a view to advancing the interests of the government. Former judge labels $660 million car park fund ‘corruption’
<www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/treasurer-promised-car-park-for-a-train-station-that-soon-won-t-exist-20210722-p58c45.html>
* I never thought when I used to watch Yes Minister all those years ago, that style of political waffle would actually become reality
* Frydenberg also promised to remove the Glenferrie Rd level crossing in Kooyong, it is still there.
* Cart parks at stations are not always the best solution. Better co-ordinated and more frequent bus services serving the train stations' catchment areas are a much better and probably cheaper solution. They just don't lend themselves to the erection of self congratulatory, utterly pointless signs announcing them....
* I am disappointed. With the Federal Government’s continuing stuff ups, I thought they were at least getting pork barreling right.
* The rorting with this governement just never seems to end.
* The old joke is that politicians will build you roads that go to nowhere you want to go and dams and bridges where there are no rivers. Joshie just added carparks where they ae not wanted to the list.
* Remember also that Commuter Car Parks was a Labor initiative in the 2019 election, properly funded, located and costed, that the Coalition realised was a winner and so nicked it off Labor and put it on steroids.
* I bet those people are not offered ten times the value of their property like some of the other acquisitions by the Coalition. Could you imagine the volume of outrage if Labor had built a new school hall with the BER stimulus if that school was slated for closure? During the GFC, the Coalition and their media mates would fixate on one problem and hammer it for weeks and weeks and weeks till they cut through and damaged Labor. These days the Coalition is coming out with brand new waste, rorting, incompetence and scandalous dealing every week. People have become desensitised by the sheer weight, frequency and volume of outrages that it is now almost 'normal' and nothing to worry about.
* Is anyone surprised?
* The "gold standard" in abuse of power and misuse of public funds -- like we have not seen. The elections can't come soon enough.
* This is typical Liberal party procedure, promise lots and deliver little. Same as here in Brisbane where Peter Dutton has promised all these road improvements for his electorate but delivered little. Bring on the election as this country desperately needs a change of federal government.
* Labor should be signing up all those property owners whose houses will be compulsory acquired to follow Morrison around the electorate trail and keep on asking why you are acquiring my home for a car park.
* Looks like they forgot to price the ingredients before making up their menu.
Climate crisis poses threat to world’s underground transportation Hiroko Tabuchi and John Schwartz July 24, 2021
Terrified passengers trapped in flooded subway cars in Zhengzhou, China. Water cascading down stairways into the London Underground. A woman wading through murky, waist-deep water to reach a New York City subway platform.
Underground train systems around the world are struggling to adapt to extreme weather brought on by climate change. Their designs, many based on the expectations of another era, are being overwhelmed, and investment in upgrades could be squeezed by a drop in ridership brought on by the pandemic.
A growing problem for subway stations. Floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy below Grand Central Station in New York in 2012. CREDIT:HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
“It’s scary,” said Sarah Kaufman, associate director of the Rudin Centre for Transportation at New York University. “The challenge is, how can we get ready for the next storm, which was supposed to be 100 years away,” she said, “but could happen tomorrow?”
Public transportation plays a critical role in reducing travel by car in big cities, reining in emissions that contribute to global warming. If commuters become spooked by images of inundated stations and start shunning subways for private cars, transportation experts say it could have major implications for urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Some networks, such as London’s and New York’s, were designed and built starting more than a century ago. While a few, like Tokyo’s, have managed to shore up their flooding defences, the crisis in China this week shows that even some of the world’s newest systems (Zhengzhou’s system isn’t even a decade old) can also be overwhelmed.
A train sits in floodwaters in Kordel, Germany.CREDIT:AP
Retrofitting subways against flooding is “an enormous undertaking,” said Robert Puentes, CEO of the Eno Centre for Transportation, a nonprofit think tank. “But when you compare it to the cost of doing nothing, it starts to make much more sense,” he said. “The cost of doing nothing is much more expensive.”
Adie Tomer, a senior fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program of the Brookings Institution, said subways and rail systems help to fight sprawl and reduce the amount of energy people use. “Subways and fixed rail are part of our climate solution,” he said.
The recent flooding is yet another example of the kind of extreme weather that is consistent with changing climate around the world.
Just days before the China subway nightmare, floods in Germany killed some 160 people. Major heat waves have brought misery to Scandinavia, Siberia and the Pacific Northwest in the United States. Wildfires in the American West and Canada sent smoke across the continent this past week and triggered health alerts in cities like Toronto, Philadelphia and New York City, giving the sun an eerie reddish tinge.
Flash floods have inundated roads and highways in recent weeks, as well. A portion of California’s Highway 1 collapsed into the Pacific Ocean after heavy rains this year, a reminder of the fragility of the US’s roads.
But more intense flooding poses a particular challenge to ageing subway systems in some of the world’s largest cities.
In New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has invested $US2.6 billion in resiliency projects since Hurricane Sandy swamped the city’s subway system in 2012, including fortifying 3500 subway vents, staircases and elevator shafts against flooding. Even on a dry day, a network of pumps pours out about 14 million gallons, mainly groundwater, from the system. Still, flash flooding this month showed that the system remains vulnerable.
“It’s a challenge trying to work within the constraints of a city with ageing infrastructure, along with an economy recovering from a pandemic,” said Vincent Lee, associate principal and technical director of water for Arup, an engineering firm that helped upgrade eight subway stations and other facilities in New York after the 2012 storm.
London’s sprawling Underground faces similar challenges.
“A lot of London’s drainage system is from the Victorian Era,” said Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in London. And that has a direct effect on the city’s Underground system.
“It’s simply not capable of dealing at the moment with the increase in heavy rainfall that we’re experiencing as a result of climate change.”
Meanwhile, the crisis in China this week shows that even some of the world’s newest systems can be overwhelmed. As Robert Paaswell, a professor of civil engineering at City College of New York, put it: “Subways are going to flood. They’re going to flood because they are below ground.”
To help understand how underground flooding works, Taisuke Ishigaki, a researcher at the Department of Civil Engineering at Kansai University in Osaka, Japan, built a diorama of a city with a bustling subway system then unleashed a deluge equivalent to about 11 inches of rain in a single day.
Within minutes, floodwaters breached several subway entrances and started to gush down the stairs. Just 15 minutes later, the diorama’s platform was under more than two metres of water — a sequence of events Ishigaki was horrified to see unfold in real life in Zhengzhou this week.
There, floodwaters quickly overwhelmed passengers still standing in subway cars. At least 25 people died in and around the city, including 12 in the subway.
Ishigaki’s research now informs a flood monitoring system in use by Osaka’s sprawling underground network, where special cameras monitor aboveground flooding during heavy rainfall. Water above a certain danger level activates emergency protocols, where the most vulnerable entrances are sealed off (some can be closed in less than a minute) while passengers are promptly evacuated from the underground via other exits.
Japan has made other investments in its flooding infrastructure, like cavernous underground cisterns and flood gates at subway entrances. Last year, the private rail operator Tokyu, with Japanese government support, completed a huge cistern to capture and divert up to 4000 tonnes of floodwater runoff at Shibuya station in Tokyo, a major hub.
Still, if there is a major breach of the many rivers that run through Japanese cities, “even these defences won’t be enough,” Ishigaki said.
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<www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/climate-crisis-could-overwhelm-world-s-underground-transportation-20210723-p58cha.html>
Melbourne City Council expanded bike lanes without using traffic modelling. Tess Ikonomou July 24, 2021 [With AN; ~80 comments from car drivers who would never think of using public transport]
<www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbourne-city-council-expanded-bike-lanes-without-using-traffic-modelling/news-story/e632f72ca36f7aec6fd9407b66e9c914>
* Most letters to HS come from car drivers. Demanding to drive to the cbd is complete arrogance, and the least-efficient use of scarce inner-city land. Likewise, on-street parking wastes a scarce resource. Roads have to be for movement. Melbourne needs a lot more clearways, and for peaks in both directions. In a different article, the journalist noted that parallel parking is the most-hated skill which drivers need, and trying to do that in a busy road is even worse, and fouls the rest of the traffic. A driver who makes the mistake of going in nose first can block traffic for 5 min while trying to untangle the mess.