Page 3589 - Week 11 - Thursday, 23 October 2014
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As has been the experience in cities all over the world, we expect that investment in light rail will stimulate business activity whilst increasing population densities and employment opportunities along the transport corridor. We look to other cities, such as Minneapolis, where over $2 billion of investment was poured into the Minneapolis-St Paul transport corridor before the light rail even opened.
In the UK, Manchester’s metro link expansion facilitated over 300 permanent new jobs and stimulated the local economy by over $117 million per year. Manchester council responded by investing over 75 per cent of their infrastructure budget into light rail over recent years.
In France, well-integrated public transport networks with light rail at the core are common in the cities of similar size to Canberra. Valenciennes, in the north of France, is a small city with an industrial past and a semi-rural hinterland. The city has fewer than 43,000 inhabitants, while the surrounding region has a population of around 390,000. Stage 1 of their light rail system became operational eight years ago. Angers opened a 12.3 kilometre light rail line in 2011 with a population of 147,000.
It is also worth noting that Melbourne started investing in its iconic tram network when it was a similar size to Canberra. Sydney, which had the largest tram network in the Southern Hemisphere, is now clearly regretting its decision to rip out its tracks, and is spending billions putting them back in. These examples demonstrate that investing in permanent high quality public transport is essential for the prosperity of growth of cities, and that even relatively small cities like Canberra can benefit greatly from light rail.
We anticipate billions of dollars in economic, social and environmental benefits to Canberra. This project is not just about moving people from A to B. To put the light rail investment in context, it should be noted that the government’s planned infrastructure program over the next four years is budgeted at $2.5 billion out of a projected budget expenditure of over $20 billion.
A public-private partnership is a sensible and responsible way of delivering this major infrastructure project. The government will seek an experienced consortium that will design, construct and operate the system. This ensures that we bring the skills and experience that we need into the ACT. The impact on the budget will be minimal over the construction period, with an agreed availability payment paid annually following completion.
This makes light rail an affordable project and makes sure the cost of the project will be spread across generations of users. To put the $783 million estimated cost into perspective, the territory’s economy has almost doubled in size over the last decade. Despite recent federal government cuts and impacts on our economy, the ACT is still one of only two states with a AAA stable credit rating.
The time is right to invest in a high quality integrated public transport system. Light rail is an affordable and necessary project for our territory. It is a project that will help stimulate our economy at a time when we need it most. It is a project that will continue to bring benefits to the territory over the next 20, 50 and 100 years.
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