OK, so you wanna know why East-West Link is opposed by so many people? Why are these damn protestors shouting about it, more roads means less congestion right? OK one time only offer, in 5 points here are the major issues and why this is not true. Here you go: 1) It is expected that it would exacerbate congestion on Hoddle Street, Flemington Road and surrounding streets. More than 80 percent of all inbound vehicles on the Eastern Freeway would still seek to exit at Hoddle Street and other inner roads to reach their inner-city destinations. The East West Link will not help them. A Victorian Department of Transport briefing prepared for Mulder said only a small proportion of vehicles now using Hoddle Street were likely to use the tunnel as an alternative if there were no off-ramps to the city, while a report for the government by consulting firm Veitch Lister in July 2013 found that while traffic on parts of Hoddle St closer to the city would drop by up to 9 percent, the project could cause congestion on Hoddle St closer to the Eastern Freeway to rise by up to 35 percent by 2021. 2) It is a misuse of public funds that should have been spent on public transport which has a much larger capacity for removing cars and easing congestion. The project will deprive Melbourne of billions of dollars that were needed for the construction of the Melbourne airport railway, Doncaster rail line, Rowville line, Melbourne Metro and the Mernda rail extension. Polls conducted for The Age have found Victorians favour construction of the Metro rail project before the East West Link. A May 2013 poll found 47 percet of voters supported the rail plan, while 43 percent supported the road project. A similar poll of 1000 voters in February 2014 found the Metro rail project was viewed as the infrastructure project with the highest priority (42 percent), followed by removing level crossings (27 percent) and the East West Link (24 percent) A November 2013 Age/Neilsen poll of 1000 voters found that 74 percent believed improving public transport was a bigger priority than building the East West Link tunnel. People want trains, not tolls. 3) When the Government decided to withhold details of the business case for the project, including projected traffic levels, Infrastructure Australia sought more information, claiming it had not been provided with the information to assess whether the link deserved federal funding. The government was not interested in Infrastructure Australia analysing benefit-cost ratios because it was terrified that releasing the figures would show the road was not viable, which it is not. A senate committee investigation in February 2014 found that the state governments estimate, previously withheld from the public, showed a benefit-cost ratio of 80 cents per dollar invested. The federal statutory authority recommends only those projects with a benefit-cost ratio of at least 1.5. 4) TOLLS ON THE EASTERN FREEWAY! A study of international transport mega-projects led by University College London concluded that tolls on the East West Link would have to be a minimum of $10.50 to produce a profit for investors, and the government would come under pressure to toll the Eastern Freeway. The governments business case does not justify the road and the financial burden on the Victorian taxpayer will be so big that it will crowd out the states core responsibilities for funding schools, hospitals, rail transport and even other roads for at least a generation. 5) And now, the land grab to build it is turning out to be a whole MCG bigger than first described. There are good reasons that rate payer dollars are being spent by local councils trying to prevent decades of burden on Victorian taxpayers, PT users, and motorists. The EW-Link is a con job do not believe the lies about it being a saviour to all drivers, its the devil in disguise.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 12:16:35 +0000
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