No Labor government in NSW is going to convert busways into tramways. This
is what was out and about in CSELR heartland, SE Sydney, during the
election:
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.skyscrapercity.com/attachments/50adfa19-accb-4956-9ce6-c34df4297c75-jpeg.4855971/
I also think it's touch and go whether Parramatta light rail stage 2 will
be trams or buses, especially when they find out they will have a choice
between Australian made buses and imported trams and would have to break an
election promise to go with trams.
Your heavily qualified support for public transport options is worth little.
Tony P
On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 23:08:19 UTC+11 Tony Galloway wrote:
> I’ve moved on too mate, marching on the bones of the losers. I’m glad we
> have a new government, I’m glad they’re killing some of these metro
> abominations, and disappointed they aren’t doing more there. Really stupid
> road projects are getting canned too, so a big tick for that. It’s a shame
> they can’t stop the ridiculous cargo cult western airport as well, but
> that’s a crown of thorns for the federal government to wear.
>
> I note you’re still mired in the blinkered ideological delusion that
> modest, inflation matching wage increases for people literally struggling
> to meet living costs are a problem compared to the egregious price and rent
> gouging by greed driven business grifters and scumbag landlords when it
> comes to inflation. Maybe a bit more wage theft would cure inflation,
> there’s an idea. If paying a decent living wage to workers is a budget
> problem (more bullshit) it can be covered by sacking most of their useless
> bludging managers and savagely cutting the pay of the rest - whatever they
> got would be more than what they are worth. All the sacked bosses could
> then be press ganged off to do something useful, like cleaning up toxic
> mine sites or planting trees.
>
> And speaking of inflation, the kleptocratic toll regime that the last
> government imposed to allow tolls to match inflation above the 4% minimum
> increase is sheer pillage. If that’s the last government’s standard for
> what Transurban gets, it should also apply to the wages of frontline
> workers, but certainly not their bosses. That’s why the toll refunds are
> needed. No tollroads, no Transurban, no need for them.
>
> As for busways, they are on surface alignments that can easily be
> converted to light rail, something inevitable as BRT always proves to be
> inadequate. Even the Curitiba BRT in Brazil, hailed for decades as a
> successful operation, is being converted to light rail, as is the Orange
> Line BRT in Los Angeles. So if it frustrates the construction of over
> engineered, energy glutton metros intended to stimulate overdevelopment and
> unsustainable population growth, I’m for it, just as I’m for converting
> existing metro lines to low floor, street/surface running compatible
> tram-train operation that can be extended on to light rail surface
> alignments converted from busways.
>
> As for my ideological blinkers, they have a laser-intense focus on the
> environment above all else, and that means the last government, responsible
> for allowing Amazon level land clearing and destructive logging in
> endangered habitats, the raping of the Pilliga with groundwater poisoning
> gas wells, destruction of farmland with open cut coal mines, river
> destroying water theft, driving koalas and platypus, native fish and birds,
> and numerous flora species to extinction through deliberate malice, whether
> by subsidising an old growth destroying forestry corporation that loses
> $20,000,000 a year, to the absurd racist fetishisation of noxious feral
> horses in the Snowy watershed had to go, whatever their transport policies
> were. The environmental vandalism facilitated and perpetrated by the last
> government will take decades to repair, if ever. Another laser like focus
> is on that government’s vicious attacks on civil liberties and the right to
> protest, laws always made by losers on the wrong side of history.
>
> Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know I didn’t place a single vote for a labor
> candidate and I’m quite pleased with the performance of the two parties I
> did vote for - The Greens and Legalise Cannabis. Another good thing to know
> is Fred Nile is gone, and by the look of it will soon be dead. If, as I
> hope, the Minns government doesn’t get a lower house majority there is a
> good cohort of left wing, pro-environment minor parties to keep the
> blowtorch on the ALP, as it always needs. Same in the upper house.
>
> Here’s a nice song to celebrate the victory :
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Tk9QxvZHo&ab_channel=FaithPetric-Topic
>
> Tony
>
> On 28 Mar 2023, at 19:48, TP histor...@...> wrote:
>
> Unlike you Tony, I've moved on. This is about how NSW transport
> infrastructure projects will be reset. Although the new government is
> cutting back $50 billion of project investments, $150 billion worth are
> continuing on through this term of government and beyond. So, fortunately,
> it's mostly business as usual and not the investment drought that occurred
> during the previous 16 years of do-nothing Labor government. The Coalition
> fortunately learned from that last disastrous experience and locked a huge
> heap of projects in place so they couldn't be cancelled. Regarding the
> present financial constraints though, Labor's intention to lift the 3% pay
> rise cap for public servants will lead to more inflation and interest rates
> hikes right across the country, so they're shooting themselves in the foot
> by worsening the financial situation for all Australians. With the largest
> public service in Australia, when NSW sneezes, Australia catches a cold. A
> pay rise during rising inflation and interest rates is not a pay rise at
> all, but a lot of people can't see past the end of their noses.
>
> A good thing that all those projects are continuing, because there's not
> much there that's new. Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 was already programmed
> by the Coalition, so Labor has committed to continue it (to help them win
> the seat of Parramatta) - good. Driving cars more to commute will be
> encouraged through toll relief and penalty point waivers. I'm surprised to
> see you supporting that one Tony, as well as the promised expansion of Bus
> Rapid Transit and likely reinstatement of some eastern suburbs bus services
> replaced by the Light Rail. Labor's bus-booster friends at ITLS will be
> rubbing their hands. It seems you've forgotten that there would be no new
> light rail at all if the previous Labor government had stayed in power.
>
> So you're letting your ideological blinkers force you to support a
> government that's going to do a lot less for public transport instead of
> the one that was doing a lot more. On the other hand, I don't let my
> political preferences stand in the way of acknowledging, for example, that
> Labor has been the best government for the major public transport
> improvements in Perth over the last 30 years. I'm interested in the best
> outcome, whichever political side it came from. For you, it's the side that
> matters, not the outcome.
>
> Next month, live through-running testing of trains and systems on the
> Sydney metro extension from Chatswood to Sydenham will start.
>
> Tony P
> On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 18:13:11 UTC+11 Tony Galloway wrote:
>
>> Jeez, if only Petey and Scotty and Barnaby had joined the campaign it
>> would have been all different, eh?
>>
>> Here’s some more merde-ox owned sooks that can’t accept they LOST :
>>
>> (20) The Sage on Twitter: "THIS IS GOLD 😂🤣 I’m running out of popcorn
>> 🍿 https://t.co/K7y0GY3Suw"; / Twitter
>> https://twitter.com/SarkySage/status/1639560997437579265
>>
>> (20) Mike Carlton on Twitter: "The Talking Pikelet loses it…it’ll cheer
>> you up no end. https://t.co/K0RXPBZNKd"; / Twitter
>> https://twitter.com/MikeCarlton01/status/1639921073428000769
>>
>> And Cruella isn’t too chuffed either :
>>
>>
>> Gloaty gloaty gloatitty gloat…..
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Tony
>>
>> On 28 Mar 2023, at 13:15, TP histor...@...> wrote:
>>
>> *Labor urged to keep city moving despite dumping $50b in projects*
>>
>> Stamp duty reforms new Metros and tunnels are among big-ticket projects
>> NSW’s new government will dump on the scrapheap. See the projects which
>> won’t go ahead here.
>>
>> Lachlan Leeming
>>
>> Daily Telegraph, March 27, 2023
>> 15 comments
>>
>> New Premier Chris Minns has been pressed to keep building the Sydney of
>> tomorrow and not to pull up stumps on the new Metros, highways and
>> infrastructure the city needs, despite $50 billion of projects going down
>> the drain.
>>
>> As the curtain falls on a 12-year Coalition government which got Sydney
>> moving by building WestConnex, the Sydney Light Rail and the booming Metro
>> network, top business leaders and peak bodies from across the city have
>> pleaded with Labor not to shirk from planning the city’s future.
>>
>> Mr Minns, who will be sworn in alongside his leadership team of ministers
>> on Tuesday, campaigned on a platform of being financially conservative amid
>> soaring inflation and interest rates, with Labor’s pledges including not
>> pushing ahead with $50 billion of Coalition projects they claimed were
>> unfunded.
>>
>> Labor’s election means projects the Coalition steadfastly backed will be
>> axed, including raising the Warragamba Dam wall, building two Metro
>> extensions in Sydney’s west, and a tunnel under the Blue Mountains.
>>
>> Dominic Perrottet’s signature stamp duty reforms will also be repealed,
>> while his plans for a superannuation-style Future Fund for children will
>> also fall into the ether.
>>
>> Labor will instead back a mandate including hospital upgrades and new
>> schools in western Sydney, while lifting the stamp duty concession for
>> first homebuyers to $800,000.
>>
>> Eamon Waterford, CEO of the Committee for Sydney, said the new government
>> had to continue the Coalition’s ambitious streak.
>>
>> “We’re still playing catch-up on transport infrastructure – especially in
>> the west, where the network still connects best to the Sydney CBD, not to
>> the west itself,” he said.
>>
>> LABOR’S SCRAPHEAP:
>> -Stamp duty reforms forecast to cost $729m over four years
>> -$260m for business cases for Metros linking Westmead to the new Western
>> Sydney Airport, and Glenfield to Bankstown
>> -$2b plan to raise Warragamba Dam wall
>> -A tunnel under the Blue Mountains from Blackheath to Little Hartley
>> forecast to cost $8-$11b
>> -A $10b tunnel linking the Northern Beaches to north-east Sydney
>> -A weekly cap on public transport of $40 down from $50
>>
>> LABOR’S PROMISES:
>> -Lifting the stamp duty exemption for first homebuyers to $800,000 and
>> concessions to $1m
>> -An extra $200m into Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 and $300m to make
>> train stations disability friendly.
>> -A $60 weekly cap on tolls
>> -$1.1b package to upgrade local roads
>> -Introducing staffing ratios for nurses and hospital upgrades at
>> Fairfield and Canterbury worth $340m
>>
>> “It is critical for the new government to stay the course on the size of
>> the infrastructure pipeline – and to deliver a network that gets people
>> quickly, safely and efficiently where they need to go.
>>
>> “If we get it right, it’s a platform that will drive the state’s success
>> for decades to come.”
>>
>> Business Western Sydney CEO David Borger said Labor should reconsider its
>> pledge to dump business cases for two Metro extensions – one linking
>> Westmead to the new airport and the other linking Bankstown to Glenfield.
>>
>> “You’ve got to see infrastructure as a way of enabling housing and
>> housing’s the biggest issue in our city at the moment,” he said.
>>
>> “The only way you can compare which (Metro) lines are beneficial is to do
>> the studies.
>>
>> “Having said that, we’re at peak infrastructure now, we’re running out of
>> money, big inflation factor, (and) there’s a hunt for infrastructure
>> workers.”
>>
>> Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) President Barry
>> Calvert said his group would pressure the government over infrastructure
>> for the booming region.
>>
>> “What we’re going to be doing with the new government is calling them in
>> and saying we want forward planning – don’t let 10,000 new homes go into an
>> area until the infrastructure is planned for.”
>>
>> Labor’s incoming Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said they had been elected on a
>> transparent platform which included detailing which projects they would
>> dump in a bid to balance the books.
>>
>> “We made a deliberate point of being very upfront with the people of NSW
>> about what we will build and equally about the tough decisions we need to
>> make at a time where interest rates are rising, debt’s up and people are
>> under immense pressure,” he said.
>>
>> Mr Mookhey said Labor was looking forward to upgrading hospitals in
>> Canterbury and Fairfield, building a swathe of new schools in booming
>> western Sydney, and building local infrastructure.
>>
>> “We‘re mindful of the fact that so many communities have felt like
>> they’ve gone without the essential infrastructure that they rely upon,” he
>> said.
>>
>> Bathurst Mayor Robert Taylor however described Labor’s dumping of a
>> proposed 10-kilometre tunnel on the western side of the Blue Mountains as
>> “absolutely devastating” and feared the bush faced a lack of investment in
>> coming years.
>>
>> “We’ve got an inferior arterial road … to pull that funding for the
>> tunnel is absolutely devastating. We’ve been advocating for this major
>> upgrade for 20 years,” he said.
>>
>> “We’ve got nothing major proposed for regional areas … it’s just like the
>> bush is being forgotten.”
>>
>> “Obviously the people have spoken, but I just don’t hope they forget
>> people do live on the other side of (the Blue Mountains).”
>>
>> Comments:
>>
>> Hayley
>> 5 hours ago
>> Labour will pour billions into pet left wing projects like climate
>> change, a NSW voice, funding the LGBTQI + museum
>> Matt
>> 5 hours ago
>> So instead of all this infrastructure spending, NSW should see by the end
>> of Labors first term no shortage of nurses or teachers as they will have to
>> do something.
>> Frank
>> 5 hours ago
>> So the main Highway feeding food into Sydney from the central west, will
>> be again left to deal with one of the most dangerous passes in Australia
>> (Mt Victoria) which still utilizes a bridge built by the convicts.
>> Abandoned by federal Labor and now State Labor. It’s a joke.
>> Steven
>> 6 hours ago
>> I'm sure Labor will find some climate change myths and other fairy tale
>> idealisms to waste money on
>> Joe
>> 7 hours ago
>> Welcome back to the Carr build nothing do nothing years again
>> George
>> 7 hours ago
>> Our extraordinary infrastructure growth has been the envy of the western
>> world. The amount of global investment it has attracted has so many flow on
>> benefits for taxpayers in NSW amd Australia. Hopefully these projects can
>> continue under public private partnership models - they have worked so well
>> to deliver so much.
>> Schnauzer
>> 12 hours ago
>> Northern beaches residents will have to wait at least a decade before a
>> tunnel link is back on the menu. Never go near the ALP, they just don’t
>> care about God’s country, never have, never will. The LNP were stalling
>> also, but at least they didn’t scrap the plans altogether, take it off the
>> menu completely like the ALP/Greens have just done.
>> Oh well, next time eh?
>> Ray
>> 14 hours ago
>> I hope Minns isn't planning on building a hospital downstream of
>> Warragamba?? Business advice for investors of the future !! Candle
>> industry, Pushbikes and Rickshaws but they still need Chinese manufacturing
>> from Australian Coal and other mining. Blessed are we in NSW that
>> industialism will be closed down and we can rely on China to supply us our
>> needs from Australian products!
>> Raymond
>> 14 hours ago
>> why cant we have nice things.
>> Anthony
>> 15 hours ago
>> Back to the Bob Carr days of 11 years of inaction and a hefty blow out
>> that the Liberals cleaned up ...again
>> Matt
>> 5 hours ago
>> It was 16 years.
>> Helen
>> 15 hours ago
>> This could be a very short honeymoon
>> David
>> 16 hours ago
>> Labor built nothing last time they were in power in NSW and the lefty
>> leopard won't change its spots this time in. Regressive, union puppets
>> James
>> 16 hours ago
>> First sign of the return to Bob Carr days of deliver nothing. In the
>> meantime, wages will blow out, state taxes increase, followed by the
>> interest rate remaining high due to wages blow out. Good luck NSW for the
>> next 8 years. Fancy asking Dom for guidance on governing. You are now
>> captain of the ship, figure out your own course Minns. NSW will be governed
>> by a bunch of school kids.
>> David
>> 16 hours ago
>> It's always Sydney that gets everything.. We too pay taxes outside Sydney
>>
>> [Tony P]
>>
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