Page 379 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 16 February 2016
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We value being able to walk and cycle safely around our city. This all contributes to the quality of life here in Canberra.
Canberra is growing, and this presents challenges as well as opportunities. Over the next two decades, Canberra’s population will increase to half a million. We are a growing city that is becoming more attractive to people from interstate and overseas.
As Minister for Transport and Municipal Services, one of my top priorities will be overseeing the introduction of transport Canberra. Transport Canberra will coordinate transport modes across the city, from walking and cycling infrastructure through to buses and light rail.
The future of transport networks is a key part of every state and territory government’s economic and social agenda, the ACT’s included. We know that the more easily and seamlessly people can move around cities, the more prosperous, productive, healthy and happy they are. Many of us already use multiple modes of transport; we drive, walk, cycle and catch public transport. Transport Canberra will have a strong aim to make the use of such transport, and any changes, as seamless as possible.
Many of us come from larger cities where using multiple modes of transport is commonplace. On our trips to Sydney, most of us will likely catch the train, bus or ferry. In Melbourne we might jump on the tram—synonymous with Melbourne as a modern city that is easy to get around. At the Gold Coast, people in large numbers are travelling on the new light rail. And like the Gold Coast, Sydney and Adelaide both have light rail projects that are expanding. This government is committed to making sure Canberrans can soon add light rail to their transport options.
The Chief Minister, Minister Corbell, and my colleagues have spoken of the importance of the light rail as a transport investment and as a driver of economic growth and jobs. These are all important, and light rail has an important role to play in our city’s future. Yet light rail is just one component of an integrated transport network. Indeed integrated transport systems are essential to the success of modern cities.
To achieve this integration and align our transport modes, the ACT government will establish a new transport agency on 1 July 2016: transport Canberra. I am proud to oversee the introduction of this important agency. Transport Canberra’s goal will be to provide a transport system that is integrated, convenient, reliable and efficient. It will seek to ensure that our buses and light rail planning and operations are integrated with one another, and operate smoothly with other forms of transport, including our cycling and walking networks. It will also seek to operate with innovations for the community’s use of motor vehicles, innovations such as the introduction of ride sharing, and autonomous vehicles, that are likely to play a role in our city’s transport future. Transport Canberra will also forecast and meet the transport needs of a growing city, offering genuine alternatives to driving. And it will encourage innovative approaches to driving, parking and traffic management.
Across our public transport system, transport Canberra will deliver one ticket, one fare, one network across Canberra. It will have a strong customer service focus and a
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