Poll: East West Link | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Poll: East West Link

Should it be Dumped?


  • Total voters
    71
Phantom said:
Another argument for EastWestLink today.
Citylink to the Monash is completely blocked this evening, no cars getting through.
Footscray Road around Etihad is completely blocked up too.

All the cars going around the Ring Road from north to south have nowhere else to go.
If the north east section of the Ring Road was complete, cars going from north to south could use EastLink instead.

That's how quickly we are falling behind in both our road transport.

My guess is that our public transport may be even further behind.

I never understood why it just stopped at Greensborough either. Maybe the hillbillies in Eltham and Warrandyte won't budge.

What a mess this City's become with roads and public transport.
 
1eyedtiger said:
Just the latest example of why I believe we live in what I describe as an 'elected dictatorship'

Major projects like this should always be decided at election via a specific question on the voting form and whoever wins should be legally bound by it.

Then we'd never get any major projects built.

My wife left Epping at 5.15pm, travelling along the Ring Road, Citylink & Monash to get home.
She gave up on Citylink and came home via Footscray Road.
She got home after 7.30pm.
Just over 2 and 1/4 hours!
 
Phantom said:
Then we'd never get any major projects built.

My wife left Epping at 5.15pm, travelling along the Ring Road, Citylink & Monash to get home.
She gave up on Citylink and came home via Footscray Road.
She got home after 7.30pm.
Just over 2 and 1/4 hours!

I suppose the far north is like Mars to you southerners.... ;D

She should've taken my path and gone down St Georges Road, Hoddle Street, Punt Road......to St Kilda/Prahran/ Elsternwick.
 
TigerForce said:
I suppose the far north is like Mars to you southerners.... ;D

She should've taken my path and gone down St Georges Road, Hoddle Street, Punt Road......to St Kilda/Prahran/ Elsternwick.

I drive the route daily to and from South Morang, and take Gorge Rd, Yan Yean Rd, through Eltham, to Fitzsimmons. Williamsons, Tram Rd, then Huntigdale Rd.
Takes me an hour in the morning and an hour & 1/4 in the evening.
But she feels safer on the Freeway.
 
Phantom said:
I drive the route daily to and from South Morang, and take Gorge Rd, Yan Yean Rd, through Eltham, to Fitzsimmons. Williamsons, Tram Rd, then Huntigdale Rd.
Takes me an hour in the morning and an hour & 1/4 in the evening.
But she feels safer on the Freeway.

Whatever suits her, but I notice freeways are sometimes more congested than roads are.

Your 1 hour sounds reasonable given the distance. It also took me 50 minutes straight down Burke Road from Heidelberg to Caulfield (30km)when I went to Monash a few years ago.
 
Phantom said:
Then we'd never get any major projects built.

Getting major projects built is one thing, but they should be the right solution to the problem. Witness Desalination for an example that we will be paying for for the next 40 years or so.

Much much worse is the present government's thinking that locking a dud project in before an election and committing us - the state's tax payers - to a $500 million cancellation clause that makes the contractor rich without doing anything.

That is a true scandal.
 
Phantom said:
Another argument for EastWestLink today.
Citylink to the Monash is completely blocked this evening, no cars getting through.
Footscray Road around Etihad is completely blocked up too.

All the cars going around the Ring Road from north to south have nowhere else to go.
If the north east section of the Ring Road was complete, cars going from north to south could use EastLink instead.

That's how quickly we are falling behind in both our road transport.

My guess is that our public transport may be even further behind.

that is also an argument against the EW link. Give it a few years and it will be the same gridlock as the Monash, which when it was built was going to solve those problems.

Big investment in public transport is the only way a city like Melbourne can reduce traffic congestion.
 
Brodders17 said:
that is also an argument against the EW link. Give it a few years and it will be the same gridlock as the Monash, which when it was built was going to solve those problems.

Big investment in public transport is the only way a city like Melbourne can reduce traffic congestion.

Yep, and for 20+ years of working in the city, I simply don't understand what these 2 clown parties are scared of?
 
Sintiger said:
What will happen if they lose is that the Feds will withdraw the commonwealth funding for anything else that the new Government puts forward in it's place because they will play politics and want the Labor Party to be blamed.
Such is politics in Australia now.

so true... but i'm confident victorians will see through abbott on this. abbott could always agree to divert the funds for public transport but he has the insane policy of not committing any govt funding for public transport. abbott will not be allowed to take the moral high ground on this even when the predictable murdoch media comes out and sides with him.

Phantom said:
My wife left Epping at 5.15pm, travelling along the Ring Road, Citylink & Monash to get home.
She gave up on Citylink and came home via Footscray Road.
She got home after 7.30pm.
Just over 2 and 1/4 hours!

perhaps if citylink was done properly the first time around this wouldn't be an issue. the monash should have been 5 lanes each way.

edit: have people seen the western entrance design? what a dogs breakfast that is. i also noticed the tunnel entrance is right where the upfield train tracks are located. i'm hearing the upfield line will be closed for 6 months as a result. as a coburg resident, this is gonna be a nightmare.
 
Ian4 said:
<snip)

edit: have people seen the western entrance design? what a dogs breakfast that is. i also noticed the tunnel entrance is right where the upfield train tracks are located. i'm hearing the upfield line will be closed for 6 months as a result. as a coburg resident, this is gonna be a nightmare.

Don't worry about it Ian, the last article I read said the project won't be starting for 20ish months anyway. Oh hang on, then I read that it would be within five months but then another said between 6 and 12 months... Hmmm, but then there is the need to get some seriously heavy duty power supply equipment in and an upgrading of the power supply to the work areas.

I'm just glad the Libs have it all under control and are investing in such a crock of crap when compared to whacking train lines along the Eastern to actually make a marked improvement to accessibility of reaching the city for people.

It is just good that us poor folk don't drive cars much else this could get really ugly!
 
I didn't take much notice of the actual design. However, I did notice that the number of vehicles using the road in the pictures was rather low :hmm
 
Brodders17 said:
that is also an argument against the EW link. Give it a few years and it will be the same gridlock as the Monash, which when it was built was going to solve those problems.

Big investment in public transport is the only way a city like Melbourne can reduce traffic congestion.

I agree with you on public transport.

In WA, they've done some amazing things with public transport lines running alongside the major freeways.
This is something that we seem to overlook.

A few years ago, State government policy was all for building up the city and ending the sprawl.
Unfortunately, vested interests, like Stockland, Australand, etc, managed to change government policy to re-encourage the sprawl.
In Japan, Hong Kong, etc, I've seen some wonderful things done with public transport.
Hopefully, it is built re-encouraged too.
But I'm not holding my breath with this Napthine government.
But, then again, Bracks & the fellow after him did nothing for public transport either.
 
Phantom said:
But, then again, Bracks & the fellow after him did nothing for public transport either.

they did start up the regional rail link which will improve suburnan train capacity in the north and the west once complete.
 
Must admit that it would have been nice to have heard that there was a public transport line, running along the side of the EastWestLink that linked the east and western suburbs without having to go through the city.
How much more to add extra public transport lanes to this project?
 
Phantom said:
Must admit that it would have been nice to have heard that there was a public transport line, running along the side of the EastWestLink that linked the east and western suburbs without having to go through the city.
How much more to add extra public transport lanes to this project?

How about doing such a thing instead of a road at this point? I have a memory of estimates on a train tunnel from the Eastern through to either Nth Melb or Spencer and it was about 1/4 of the costs for the road.

As a tax paying Victorian, I would be happy for the kill switch to be pulled on the EW link and the massively 'should not have been included' $500,000,000 payment to Napthines mates paid out. All flack should be forwarded through to the Liberal HQ for such a disgraceful effort on cashing your mates up.
 
I like fast trains and all, but is a fast train really better than aeroplanes for travel to Brisbane?

Fast trains really only come into play when you add up all the airport time with the actual travel time and it's faster/cheaper to get a train rather than a plane. That will never be the case for a fast train between Melbourne and Brisbane or even Sydney. For a smaller country like Japan they work better.
 
antman said:
I like fast trains and all, but is a fast train really better than aeroplanes for travel to Brisbane?

Fast trains really only come into play when you add up all the airport time with the actual travel time and it's faster/cheaper to get a train rather than a plane. That will never be the case for a fast train between Melbourne and Brisbane or even Sydney. For a smaller country like Japan they work better.
Would sure beat the bus travel I endured going to S.A.

Bum lost a layer of skin.
 
antman said:
I like fast trains and all, but is a fast train really better than aeroplanes for travel to Brisbane?

Fast trains really only come into play when you add up all the airport time with the actual travel time and it's faster/cheaper to get a train rather than a plane. That will never be the case for a fast train between Melbourne and Brisbane or even Sydney. For a smaller country like Japan they work better.
I liked the idea of the fast train until I saw an episode of Utopia on it a few weeks ago.

The rumour is that many Public servants call that show a documentary ;D