Rowville rail plan gathers speed
KNOX Council will enlist residents’ help to ramp up pressure over the Rowville rail and Knox tram projects, ahead of November’s state election.
Residents will be asked to target local political candidates with demands for action on both projects, while making their feelings known with council-provided badges and bumper stickers.
The “Who’s on Board” campaign, to be launched this month, comes as opposition transport spokesperson Terry Mulder reaffirmed the Coalition would fund a $2 million feasibility study into the Rowville rail project if it won power.
The Greens are also behind the project, saying it would provide a “fundamentally positive change in transport patterns across Melbourne’s east”.
Labor says it has “no plans” to look at either project, instead pointing to additional bus services it has introduced.
Knox councillor Mick Van de Vreede, who is deputy chairman of the Eastern Transport Coalition, has promised to take the fight to both major parties in the lead-up to the election.
And the ETC had things off to a powerful start last week, tabling in State Parliament a 13,500-signature petition demanding better eastern suburbs rail services, including construction of the Rowville rail.
A 2004 pre-feasibility study found the line would cost between $353 million and $413 million, moving up to 2350 passengers every hour, while removing a lane of freeway traffic from the roads.
The study’s author, Professor Bill Russell, told Leader the line could link Rowville to the CBD, servicing Chadstone Shopping Centre and Monash University’s Clayton and Caulfield campuses on the way.
With huge development going ahead in the south-eastern suburbs, he said it was essential that residents have public transport options to get to jobs, education and leisure.
The professor said Ballarat residents could presently reach the CBD faster on public transport than Rowville residents, who face a 70-90 minute bus trip. A Rowville rail service would take half an hour.
Prof Russell said the railway’s cost would be more than predicted in 2004, but would likely be well under the $1.35 billion the state government spent on its bungled myki ticketing system.
Source: Knox Leader
 |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
Would you like to see your service listed on this page? |
click here |