Dear Pippety,
Agree that the new Sydney tunnel to the airport put in before the Olympics certainly works well and dramatically changes travel times to the airport.
(On the side Sydney, Brisbane and I believe Melbourne E-Toll tags are interchangeable
---- On the way to an integrated east coast electronic toll system )
What is the aim of the tunnel ? It appears that the main focus is to keep traffic away from the city that doesn't need to be there in the first place. This is a different issue in my opinion to stopping people from driving into the city itself.
Agree there is credence in your line of thinking. Again with my comments above on the Sydney airport tunnel a similar project could be useful in reducing travel times. Another area to consider is that there is the Gateway Arterial road. Whilst this is a toll road :--------( it certainly is having an impact on reducing the amount of traffic going through the city. Perhaps the end of the centenary highway should be developed more to expidite a similar bypass road on the western side of the city? Maybe the public should be educated to utilise these types of roads more?
What concerns myself is the issue of how many projects can be pushed at once? Don't get myself wrong, multiple projects that develop infrastructure in a positive way are good. However governments only have limited capital available to them and must be linked to the best projects.
I totally agree that Brisbane needs to improve it's public transport and they seem to be taking reasonable steps to achieve this but certainly not doing everything they can.
Great. Yes rapidly growing cities can certainly learn a lot from overseas countries. Integrated ticketing certainly has it's advantages.
I suppose my point is that even in Sydney (with a fantastic public transport system in my opinion) I will not really consider public transport from one side of town to the other especially if it involves a change of trains or buses from the city itself. I will however drive on the eastern distributor and pay a toll for the convenience of not getting stuck in CBD traffic when I have no need to actually go to the CBD.
Agree that the eastern distributor has it's place. I also agree that if there is a change of buses that this would certainly discourage usage. For trains however as long as they have a high enough level of frequency I do not see a change of trains as being a barrier. In the US I understand that all local planes use a complex network of hubs (No lets not talk about United Airlines bankruptcy:-----) ) which means that frequent changes are necessary but also means a greater frequency of flights between destinations and a way of increasing the efficiency of moving people throughout the country.
Myself in Korea I have found that changing trains was not a barrier as trains arrive every 5 minutes (2 minutes in peak hour) so not a restricting factor.
Thanks as always for your valuable input.
Appreciate your input as well. Discussing important infrastructural development plans is healthy. Next step is getting more of the key decision makers to read this forum........... Where there is a will there is a way.
Cheers,
Sunstone.
