Page 2485 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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However, in recent months Minister Corbell has gone to great lengths to tell Canberra that bus rapid transit is not an option. He has gone to great lengths to say that bus rapid transit could not take place on Northbourne Avenue. It is interesting that Minister Corbell has absolutely ruled out bus rapid transit. If the government says they have not yet committed to light rail but Minister Corbell says we cannot do bus rapid transit because it does not work, where does that leave us? It leaves us with light rail or nothing.
If they go ahead with light rail, the people of Canberra will lose, because the people of Canberra will take on a $1 billion construction cost and, who knows, perhaps $50 million to $100 million every single year for operational costs, for finance payments, et cetera. This is a huge liability, all for just three per cent of Canberrans who will live within walking distance of the proposed tramline.
We heard the minister come out in the last month or so to great fanfare, saying that these passenger projections are just fantastic. It is interesting that the patronage projections are actually going backwards, because a year ago, when I asked a question about patronage between 7 and 9 am, he said that it was going to be 4,500 people. Last month he said it would be 3,500 people. The minister is going to be spending up to $1 billion on a light rail project for just 3,500 commuters. It is interesting that ACTION buses, along the same corridor, currently carry more than 3,000 people. So we are getting the same number of commuters on public transport, except that, instead of being on a bus, they are going onto a tram and we are spending $1 billion to get there. It seems to me to be an irrational proposition by this government and it just goes to the very emotional attachment that Minister Corbell has to this project.
In addition to the fanfare about the patronage projections, the government came out and said, “It’s wonderful news that we’re going to be able to take a tram from Gungahlin to the city in 25 minutes.” Isn’t that just superb—going 12.5 kilometres in 25 minutes? We have got a tram, state-of-the-art technology, going an average of 30 kilometres an hour. I am afraid that, if they are determined to get people out of their cars and onto public transport, a tram going 30 kilometres an hour on average is not going to cut it. It is simply not going to cut it, especially when the ACTION timetables show that the red rapid at peak hour does it in 26 minutes. So you have the same amount of time for a bus and for the tram, one involving $1 billion, and perhaps an extra $50 million to $100 million a year, and one that does not.
In fact, the bus timetable has the red rapid bus at other times of the day at 19 minutes. So you are going to have a bus which is actually faster. The current buses are faster than what the minister is proposing with the tram, yet somehow this tram is going revolutionise Canberra. Well, the only things it is going to revolutionise are the rates and the land tax, not just on the corridor but across Canberra. Madam Assistant Speaker Lawder, taxpayers in your electorate of Brindabella, in my colleague Mrs Jones’s electorate of Molonglo and in my electorate of Ginninderra are all going to be paying for Simon Corbell’s train set. It is an extravagant, irrational and emotional project of Minister Corbell, all because he latched onto the idea when the Labor Party signed up to an agreement with Mr Rattenbury.
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