Leap in demand for public transport

In the face of rapidly rising petrol prices, Sydneysiders are migrating to public transport at an astonishing rate.

Over the last eight months, public transport patronage has risen by 5.1 per cent across the CityRail network — an additional 10 million trips. Patronage at Inner West rail stations was an astonishing 8.5 per cent higher than for the same period in the previous year. Bankstown line patronage increased by 10.5 per cent.

Some bus routes in the Inner West have shown increases above 15 per cent.

The NSW government keeps quiet about these figures because they highlight overcrowding on the public transport system and are a powerful argument for its rapid expansion. Escalating petrol prices caused by the peaking of global oil output provide even more urgency for expanding public transport.

Extending the light rail service to Dulwich Hill will boost public transport capacity and improve the connectivity of the network by providing a fast feeder service between the two heavy rail lines.

Light rail … plus a greenway corridor for cyclists, walkers and wildlife

In addition to light rail services, the Rozelle line corridor should also be used as a cycle route, linking bike paths along the Cooks River in the south with those at Iron Cove to the north.

Local community groups have long advocated that the corridor be protected and developed as the Cooks River to Iron Cove GreenWay – a corridor of native vegetation providing access for cyclists and pedestrians and a sanctuary and migration route for native wildlife, including the recently discovered inner west population of long-nosed bandicoots.

The GreenWay will also enhance the amenity of the local environment for residents.

It would feature:

• Safe pedestrian and cycling crossings under busy roads such as Parramatta and New Canterbury roads.
• Cycleway infrastructure that will actually make a difference – not just pictures of bikes painted on roads.
• Bike racks at all light rail stations, making it easier to access the new services.
• A focus for native bushland preservation with increased community participation in local environmental regeneration.

There is sufficient space in the corridor to support segregated bicycle and pedestrian access, overcoming potential conflicts that arise from shared paths.

The greenway could also form the focus of a wider program of quiet “green streets” that have speed restrictions and streetscapes with appropriate surface and curb treatments to support cycling, walking and better community interaction.

For more information and GreenWay map go to the Friends of the GreenWay website: www.greenway.org.au

New mobility for a gridlocked neighbourhood

The now-disused freight rail line through the Inner West has many features that make it the obvious candidate for extending the popular light rail service to boost public transport capacity for a growing population. As the line has been in service until recently, the condition of the track structure hasn’t deteriorated through disuse, and relatively lightweight trams would have less impact than the heavy freight trains and locomotives it was built to carry.

A bonus is the electrification installed back in the 1960s for export coal trains. It is mostly intact, in good repair and is compatible with the trams when connected to 750v power supply in place of heavy rail’s 1500v supply. Metro Light Rail, operator of the Central to Lilyfield service, even has sufficient trams on hand to operate the service, at least as far as Lewisham. Only the signals need to be replaced.

The route intersects with bus services at Norton St, Marion St Leichhardt, and Parramatta Rd Lewisham. It passes between western Leichhardt and Haberfield, an area poorly served by buses, and under the main western railway near Lewisham station. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that a stop at this location could be linked by walkway or even moving footway to Lewisham station, providing an important point of interchange with the Western rail line.

The 413 bus to Campsie crosses at Old Canterbury Rd, there are more bus routes at New Canterbury Rd, and the potential terminus at Dulwich Hill is alongside the railway station, requiring only a bridge for an easy transfer to rail services to Bankstown and Liverpool. The 412 City to Campsie bus route also passes Dulwich Hill station. That’s seven points where the new line would interconnect with existing services.

These connections would greatly improve cross-suburban public transport access. From Lilyfield, likely stop locations would be Norton St / James St, Allen St and Marion St in Leichhardt, with the same stop serving Haberfield. Then Kegworth St, Longport St, Old Canterbury Rd, Davis St and Constitution Rd / New Canterbury Rd for Lewisham, Summer Hill, Abergeldie Estate and Dulwich Hill, with the terminus at Dulwich Hill Station near the end of Macarthur Pde. No doubt many users of the bus routes crossed would transfer to the trams (if a transfer ticket were available) to cut their journey time to the city.

As at Darling Harbour, the traffic once handled at Rozelle and White Bay has been moved out of inner Sydney leaving large areas of railway and industrial land ripe for urban renewal. Already, many former industrial sites once served by rail freight along the line from Dulwich Hill to Ultimo have medium to high density housing, and like the old Waratah flour mill, the Mungo Scott mill at Summer Hill will soon become a housing development.

It has been reliably estimated that the cost of this extension is less than $30 million. As an estimate of construction time needed, consider the Ultimo-Lilyfield extension. It was commenced in October 1999 and opened for service in August 2000, the work including the erection of overhead wire – already largely in place in the Lilyfield – Dulwich Hill section. So the Dulwich Hill connection could, and should, be in use within a year of a go-ahead being granted. This is an easily affordable and achievable project with substantial public benefit vastly outweighing its cost.

Compared to all the hot air and consultants’ fees expended on overpriced and over-engineered rail proposals that are unlikely ever to be built – for example the “metro rail” proposals now being hyped by the government’s advisors – this light rail extension is a quickly implementable solution with a proven track record. Its success is assured. It is endorsed by Metro Light Rail as the obvious next step. It can be paid for without selling the power industry and built without demolition of the surrounding area. It won’t need huge amounts of concrete poured, holes dug, or fuel expended during construction. The only obstacle is official stupidity.

Once we’ve got the Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill Light Rail extension sorted, the community can push for another extension back through the Rozelle rail yard site, under Victoria Rd to White Bay and Camerons Cove in Balmain. Here too, the rails are in place and they need to be used if we aren’t to lose them. If they’re lost we’ll never get them back. The prize is the community’s to claim.

Next stop, Dulwich Hill

Let’s extend the light rail service now!

Sydney is crying out for more public transport capacity and the Rozelle goods line is just sitting there, waiting to be used.

It’s a no-brainer really. If the NSW Government consented to extension of the current light rail service to Dulwich Hill, the communities of Leichhardt, Haberfield, Summer Hill, Lewisham and Dulwich Hill would get an additional six kilometres of fast, reliable, public transport that’s immune to soaring petrol prices and never gets stuck in traffic.

The streets of the Inner West were designed for light vehicular traffic, pedestrians, bicycles and trams, not for thousands of cars. Under the Carr and Iemma governments, public transport has been neglected, motorway development has been favoured, and, as a result, traffic congestion and air pollution have increased. We now have an opportunity to redress this situation and it can be done quickly, with little expense, and without the need to bulldoze heritage suburbs.

The light rail extension to Lilyfield was completed in less than a year. Extending to Dulwich Hill could be completed just as quickly. The line is already in place and having been built to carry heavy freight, requires only inexpensive, easily-constructed stops and minor alterations to signals and overhead wiring. Metro Light Rail already has enough rolling stock to provide services as far as Lewisham. With a guaranteed future, investment in more rolling stock could proceed quickly.

Clearing choked local roads
Extending the light rail would have the added benefit of providing interchanges with the Western Sydney rail line at Lewisham and the Bankstown line at Dulwich Hill. In the absence of this direct link, most people travelling from the Inner West to job centres like Parramatta, Bankstown and Liverpool are driving their cars – one reason why local roads are choked during peak periods. A further light rail extension into Balmain would greatly enhance this network effect.
The alternative motorway plans on offer from the NSW Government are the worst possible direction for the local community and a world struggling to deal with the double burden of climate change and relentlessly rising petrol prices.
Light rail can make a positive contribution to tackling climate change because it can be powered by electricity generated from carbon-neutral renewable sources.

The existing light rail service was partly funded by the Hawke and Keating governments’ Better Cities Program. The Rudd Government should reintroduce an urban public transport program to make our cities more sustainable. With this in mind, delegates to the 2020 Summit acknowledged the need to encourage public transport use relative to other modes. To do this, public transport must be provided in unserviced and underserviced areas so that people have a real choice.
The Rozelle line is no longer used for freight from the Mungo Scott flour mill, which is likely to be redeveloped for much-needed inner city housing. With as many as 200 new dwellings and commercial office space, more public transport services will be essential.

Light rail or an M4 East feeder?
With so much going for it, just what might stand in the way of the extension? While light rail is obviously the best, most sustainable, use for the Rozelle line, there are lobby groups that have other agendas in mind. The so-called Friends of Greater Sydney – a group headed up by Ken Dobinson, a retired senior RTA officer – has earmarked the corridor for a surface motorway to connect the RTA’s proposed M4 East with other proposed motorways and tunnels to the south.

The estimated cost of the M4 East has risen to $12 billion. Originally, the NSW Government proposed to raise this outrageously large sum from the sale of the State’s power stations. Hopefully this plan will be defeated by the ALP rank-and-file. The only remaining option is for the Federal Government to kick in around eight billion towards another private tollway but after the embarrassing financial collapse of the Cross City and Lane Cove tunnels, it is to be hoped that the Rudd Government will show some common sense and refuse.

At an estimated cost below $50 million – less than half of one per cent of the RTA’s proposed motorways – an extended light rail service with parallel cycleway would provide an additional six kilometres of high quality public transport. Now that’s extraordinary value for money!

Petrol prices soar and climate change looms

By Gavin Gatenby & David Bell

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it at the close of the 2020 Summit: “We must take command of the future, or let the future take command of us” and the future is about to unleash two horrific problems on the world — peak oil and climate change.

In 2000, Australian oil production peaked at about 700,000 barrels per day. To make up the shortfall between domestic production and consumption, we imported around 20 per cent of consumption. By 2007, imports grew to 40 per cent. On current trends this will increase to 60 per cent by 2012 and 80 per cent by 2020.

As a result of the decline in domestic production, Australia’s petrol and diesel import bill is growing fast. To put this in perspective, in 2007, $24 billion was spent on oil imports while $21 billion was earned from coal exports. This is one of the reasons why Australia has started to run a large trade deficit despite the minerals boom.

Australia is not the only country where oil production has peaked and is now in decline. Of the 80 or so oil producing nations throughout the world, oil production has peaked in just over 50, and like Australia, many face a growing reliance on imports. In the meantime, discovery rates for new reserves have reached an all time low — the world is currently consuming oil five times faster than new reserves are discovered.

In response to this emerging crisis, Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said we must urgently find new oil fields within Australia. But the reality is that most territory has already been explored and we would need to find three new fields the size of Bass Strait just to keep Australia out of immediate economic danger. Governing on the assumption that significant new discoveries can be made is highly risky and puts off real action to protect the economy.

In the meantime, the threat of climate change has become frightening. Last year, the rate of Arctic ice melt was 10 per cent greater than the worst-case scenarios developed by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The need to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions is both real and urgent.

So what are the alternatives? Many industry types have voiced the view that business will carry on as usual – we’ll still drive lots of cars and use the expensive tollways that dominate Sydney transport policy. But what will fuel these cars when oil is running out and the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions is taken seriously? Lets look at the viability of alternate energy sources for motor vehicles.

Biofuels? Biofuels like ethanol, are often touted as a substitute for petrol. While small amounts of ethanol can be produced from agricultural waste, if ethanol production was used to replace petrol and diesel entirely, the necessary crops would compete with land needed for food production. This problem is already sending global food prices through the roof and causing food riots in developing countries like Haiti, Bangladesh, Mexico and Africa.

Oil from coal or shale? Australia has big coal and shale reserves, but conversion of these to synthetic oil uses up almost as much energy as the end fuel is able to put out. If we go down this path, we’ll find ourselves in a situation where we begin to cannibalise our own economy. The same problem arises with hydrogen.

Natural gas? Like oil, it’s a finite resource and also likely to peak soon. While Australia has large gas reserves, most of these have been earmarked for sale to China. It’s also where we get our fertilizers. If we use it all to drive cars, agricultural production will be hard hit.

Electric cars? There’s no doubt electric road vehicles will be part of the solution, but the electricity has to come from somewhere. Besides, Sydney has a fleet of 1.8 million cars that can’t be replaced overnight even if substitutes were available. Any widespread move to replace the current fleet with electric cars would create a huge surge in demand for electricity. We’d need a lot of new coal-fired power stations – ending any hope of lowering greenhouse emissions. And nuclear is too expensive and would take too long to implement even if it was economically viable.

Assuming we maintain fuel supplies to agriculture, industry and essential services, by 2020, Australian capital city motorists will have only one fifth of current fuel supplies.

If the state government had paid attention ten years ago, when the peak oil threat became very obvious, we would now be well advanced on the single most important step we could take to meet the crisis – extension of electric rail and light rail systems to service all parts of Sydney. We would also be extending our bus system (as a stop-gap measure) organizing car-pooling, and reorganizing our roads for cycling.

Delegates to the 2020 Summit declared that public transport had to be favoured over further development of other modes like motorways for car travel. But will the NSW Government make the right decision for our long term future? Will the public thank the government for an M4 East that costs $12 billion as petrol rises above $2 a litre?

All governments need to acknowledge that more of the same will not work. Wherever possible, our urban transport systems need to run on electricity generated from renewable sources. This will not only help to immunise our economy against the economic consequences of peak oil, but will also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.
This is the reality the Iemma Government desperately needs to accept and act upon.

FOR MORE on peak oil visit the website of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, Australia (ASPO):

www.aspo–australia.org.au