The Road that should not divides us but should conquer us

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Public Transport is an interesting topic in any conversation mostly its about how its not accessible for most people to get to and from work or other activities. However, for public transport advocates it’s a case of accessibility as well as frequency and where the service goes.
However, things get a little more serious when talking about the mode of public transport. Most advocates are vocal for heavy or light rail in most places but they know buses will always be the first mode of choice for many decision makers because it is cheaper to operate and the infrastructure (i.e. road) is already there in the first place. However, other modes like ferries get a brief mention but they already have ready-made infrastructure (i.e. river or harbour) so one would think the only logic thing would be to build more wharves and extend existing ferry services.

Heavy and Light Rail is expensive to build but does attract a huge amount of patronage with the “build it and they will come” philosophy. Once a heavy or light rail line is built it should theoretically last around a century if not more but the problems seem to be that Australia’s rail infrastructure has markedly increased in cost per kilometre in the past decade as opposed to road infrastructure- most big road infrastructure projects that involve a freeway or motorway inadvertently will have a toll put on when it opens which is supposedly to cover the cost of building it- however it is now seen by many motorists a tax.

When one looks at roads in the spectrum of public transport, I love watching advocates loudly crying there should be no more new roads built and public transport should take priority when the new roads that are being build will more than likely be used by buses or light rail (in the future) to operate new services to new housing estates etc. However, why are advocates so against new roads is anyone’s question but they fear more roads being built means less money towards public transport improvements.

Its more like a catch 22 for Governments because either they build a new road to housing estate or motorway to ease congestion (which as we know it doesn’t it because the off ramps are where the congestion occurs the most) or ignore building them and let the buses meander in and out around existing roads to get to their destination and let locals of new estates receive a dirt patch that looks like a road to get to where they want to go?

However, heavy rail and light advocates are sometimes right about one thing, that once a rail line is built, it should be built to accommodate extensions in the future. Two good examples I can think of recently is the Mernda Line can be extended to Whittlesea and the Seaford Line to Aldinga.

This is all very well in a city that is planning its future but politicians in Australia are very well known for planning in electoral cycles that is why you see budgets always saying funding $xyzzy for four years etc.
However, planning for public transport is another topic that I have been passionate about for the past two decades. I have seen plans come and go and gather dust only to be resurrected again but worded a little different.

The best public transport plan in the past twenty years would go to Transperth they produced an excellent publication Better public transport: ten-year plan for Transperth 1998-2007

“More train passengers can be found by extending the fixed-track catchment area through a feeder (bus) network and Park ‘n’ Ride provisions. However, this can reduce the overall attractiveness of public transport, since commuters generally consider it a great nuisance to have to transfer during their journey (particularly bus-to-bus- or bus-to-train). For this reason, some public transport experts have called for a complete overview of the concept of suburban public transport interchanges.
At this time, Perth has no option but to extend the catchment area for the metro-rail system by way of a feeder network. In fact, the proposed Services Improvement Plan is designed to strengthen the feeder network for longer journey where they speed and comfort of the train will outweigh the transfer inconvenience.
The inconvenience can be reduced by improving transfer connections and making information more readily to passengers. Also, more attractive interchanges are proposed at key locations on the Armadale, Fremantle and Midland lines.
The second constraint on extending the rail network is the fact that central Perth is increasingly being replaced as a commuter destination by other suburban activity centres. Less than 20% (1997) of metropolitan jobs are now in central Perth.
Therefore, it is essential that major multi-function activity centres are developed so as to be easily reached from the rapid transit network. At present strategic regional centres such as Cannington, Midland and Stirling do not provide sufficient access. Other major centres, such as Morley, Rockingham, the Bentley Technology Precinct, the UWA Medical Centre Precinct, and Garden City and not yet to the rapid transit system”.

As we know Rockingham is now on the Mandurah Line and Morley will soon have a rail line on its way to Ellenbrook. However, reading that quote time and time again you will get to realise that you could insert some suburbs in Adelaide that fall into a similar situation to Perth.

Perth’s public transport started to improve from the early 1990s when electrification was taking place on its suburban rail network. It has had numerous extensions since then and more of them are being built as we speak. Who would have thought Perth would have an airport line and cost the passenger the same as a Transperth ticket?

However, Adelaide is not only the only orphan for not extending its train lines and or extending sometimes bus services into new areas. At any given time if you read across the border in Melbourne, there is always a newspaper article claiming people are building in the urban spawl areas like Donnybrook or Bacchus Marsh and Tarneit and complaining there is not enough coverage of bus services to access railway stations or there is no bus service in place.

In Adelaide we currently have a situation which can be as difficult to understand but also what can the decision makers do to make locals happy. In July 2023 one bus route was merged into two separate ones to operate to the Riverlea Estate (Buckland Park), however, this spurned a debate about when is the Adelaide Metro service being extended to Two Wells and further to the Barossa Valley or even down to Murray Bridge or even to Strathalbyn. Two Wells yes is desperately needing soon an Adelaide Metro service but how can you facilitate this when you have to cost neutral? - in other words you have to cut a poorly patronised service to fund a new service

Patronage on Adelaide Metro services are quite low by other comparable cities and the problem is that the density of our population is low and to get around by car is still easier and cheaper. The only traffic jams that Adelaide has is during the morning and afternoon weekday peaks. However, North East Road west of Sudholz Road on a Saturday morning it can be like peak hour but I call it the Bunnings Peak.

We know advocates would like a heavy rail service to Two Wells and Riverlea but this would probably have two sets of difficulties. Firstly, it cannot be done in the short-term, the population needs to be there. You can’t say operate a rail line for a population of 685 (2024) forecast 22,700 by 2046 for Riverlea Park and 3,910 for Two Wells (2024)- source id Profile. Also, the current rail line to Two Wells is single line plus also is Standard Gauge and Adelaide’s suburban rail network is Broad Gauge and it would be an expensive exercise to standardise the whole rail network because advocates desperately want a passenger rail line from Two Wells to Adelaide.

Having said one group (Transport Action Network) have thought outside the box and suggested that a branch line would go from Salisbury (Gawler Central line) to service both Riverlea and Two Wells. However, they suggest the alignment along the existing Standard Gauge line but using part of the Port Wakefield Road alignment.

As we can see public transport is a difficult topic of discussion but if we sometimes think outside the box and also think not only what would benefit ourselves what would benefit others is the key to be a good public transport advocate. Too many lobby and advocacy groups want what their members or a particular committee person wants and they don’t think what do the community really want.

We know that it can be hard to think outside the square but the best people to talk to about public transport improvements I find those at the forefront and those are the bus, train and tram drivers they see what goes on each day and the challenges.

This is my opinion what do you think?