Page 3387 - Week 09 - Thursday, 24 August 2017

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Woden through to the city or whether, in effect, it will be a “stopping at all stations” type service and therefore diminishing the transport benefits for people who are travelling the full route. One way or another, we hope that the ACT government will make it very clear as to which of these they are going to run with and, importantly, how they are going to demonstrate benefits of that service over the existing bus, travelling pretty much non-stop down Adelaide Avenue.

In the 2017-18 budget the Labor-Greens government committed to spending $53.5 million on design and procurement for stage 2. This initiative is to fund a business case to be prepared following investigations into route selection, design and procurement methodology. It also includes associated works such as an urban renewal strategy and how it will get the relevant uplift.

To date we are yet to see the business case for stage 2, but we hope that it will be as thorough as the business case for stage 1. When I questioned whether the results of the economic viability studies for stage 2 would be released, the minister responded that “decisions regarding the light rail stage 2 business case have yet to be made by the ACT government”. Perhaps the minister can shed some light on the situation as to whether the full business case and all associated documents are actually going to be made public or not.

I believe the need for a public and comprehensive investigation into the benefits of the entire light rail network cannot be underestimated. The necessity for due diligence and release of critical information has come to light, especially during this consultation phase for stage 2.

The ACT government presented four route options to Canberrans, with the majority voting for route 2b, which had stage 2 terminating at the Canberra Hospital. The government have now said there are technical constraints that prohibit the public’s favoured route from being chosen, which begs the question: what was the point of doing that whole exercise if, indeed, one of the options—in fact, the preferred option—is not even feasible? Perhaps they could have said, “We’re going to extend it down to Tuggeranong,” and then, “Oh, by the way, it’s not feasible.” Or, “It’s going to go over the lake.” “Oh, by the way, it’s not feasible.” Who knows? The details remain to be seen.

The ACT government presented the four route options, as I mentioned. The light rail update released this week stated:

Further investigation of the possible route to the Canberra Hospital has identified potential technical constraints to the future southern expansion of the network and potential operational and hospital access issues.

That does not bode well for Tuggeranong, does it? It does not bode well for anybody that lives south of Woden. I repeat:

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