Kevin Rudd announces public transport overhaul
July 1, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Possibly the first sign of good things to come, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has today hinted that climate change is not all about hybrids and fuel efficient cars.
Speaking to reporters today, the Prime Minister said his government is considering a national overhaul of the public transport system. Mr Rudd said it was “time to act” on the issue while confirming that the Federal Government would get involved.
“Ask yourself this question, how much do people waste each week sitting in unnecessary traffic queues?” he said.
“And how much … do they put into the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions because we have yet to evolve a large, long-term investment into urban public transport systems, with the national government playing its role as well? “I think it is time to act.”
With less congestion comes better fuel economy and better CO2 emissions. With more motorists opting to take the bus/train instead, fuel costs could theoretically be significantly reduced.
Nonetheless, if we are to come back to reality, what can the Rudd government actually do to improve public transport?
Cheaper/Free fares? More services? More direct routes? Tell us what you think.
Print it: 
He’s also going to stop whaling,put an end to nuclear weapons, and give every child a laptop.
Wait till it happens please!
Next!
Did I mention he was going to save the world?
First he will need to call a summit to discuss the matter and brainstorm ideas.
Committees will be formed to evaluate ideas and alternatives
Sub committees will need to evaluate media interest in whole idea and report to subgroups.
Subgroups will evaluate and respond directly to the minister responsible and forward details to all committee members and delegates.
Minister will realise that no-one is really paying any attention to whole matter and shelve his report.
Deputy Prime Minister announces new enquiry into the Lindy Chamberlain aquittal, and mentions that 20 km of shelf space holding documents will be examined.
Minister reports to local paper somewhere in the west of Queensland that public transport is a matter for the states. No other media picks up this story.
All is now forgotten.
Except for that bloody dingo.
Now that was helpful you two. A fart would be more interesting than what you just said…
I reckon it is a good idea to overhaul public transport. Put more into rail services (especially Perth) and light rail along the major traffic routes.
The Perth to Mandurah rail project shows that if a good service exists, people will use it. The use of the train along that line has exceeded what was predicted by a large amount.
Use trains as the main service with short regular bus routes acting as the street to street feeder to the trains.
yeah its rather good to see some planning begin.. australia is stuck in the 70’s
there is no reason for the eastern seaboard to be railinked. getting trucks off highways.
dredging port phillip bay.. what a stupid idea. we already have western port bay deep enough. and the rail out there.. invest in rail. get more stuff moving better
stop all these toll roads making it a maze to drive anywhere for free.. get trams “here in melb” half decent so you dont have massivly long cues stuck behind them on suburban streets
get trains running on time “is that so much to ask… and more of them
and mikey! HAHA billions wasted! ……..anyway
ideas have gota start somewhere. its just a shame they have to start at politians. cookie
dlr1 – I like the way you think!!! Sure you aintt the milky bar kid himself?
“Ask yourself this question, how much do people waste each week sitting in unnecessary traffic queues?” he said whilst he was sat in his 6.0litre state run Holden thingymajig gas guzzler. Of course all those poor tax payer types have to get the bus to work.
I suppose its a start, All hot air though. Over hauling the public transport system, great but not at the governments expense of course. Taxis i’m sure would be unfairly exempt “as they are a driving profession”. I’m of to register as a cab and of course never work.
So what exactly news worthy did the milky bar kid say??
didn’t he just state the obvious?? I wonder how much did it actully cost the taxpayer, just for him to say that?!!
Kevin you are a man with some vision for the future but 90% of australians will blame you for there problems in life and want those problems fixed in 5 minutes.It doesn’t matter what you do Kevin you did the greatest thing for this country you got rid of Hitler and his SS front bench so Kevin you will do no wrong in my eyes.
1. Little on follow through as mostly hairy fairy waffle
2. Plenty spin doctor PR pushing his name around world
3. The king of chairmans and summit meetings spends more time holding committees, summits, consultations and the like from all sides of politics which strongly suggests waffle and lack of power setting agenda
4. For someone who runs a supposed tight ship he sure has a nightmare as two of his backbenchers should be stood down pending police enquiry
5. Has achieved little in controlling wage rises and industrial relations is worse now then previous Government (CMFEU held demonstration at Mackay QLD recently as of this very reason)
6. Blames too many factors for his inability to control or better manage economy and government….NOT GOOD IN MY BOOK AND REASON WHY BUSINESS AND CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IS DOWN AND STOCKMARKET CLOSED OTHER DAY WITH WORST DAY SINCE 1982
Wage rises have been too many and not small which impact inflation and when combined with interest rate rises, it augers well for typical Labor scenario. Wage rises occur more under Labor – except this time Unions are getting POQ with a sour on nose bed partner in ALP! Trouble is only a handful see whats going on as too many sheep in Australia think all is great as!
Let’s form a few committees then get some mirrors and we will look into it.AGAIN!
And we will invite all politicians, media, will source big wigs and famous actors and we will then roll up our sleeves and sit in audience and then comment…..WOW WE HAVE DONE CRAP ALL EXCEPT GET A WARM FUZZY FEELING OF TRYING TO DO GOOD. My other half went to Canberra and its true that Crud is chairman orientated and workers done there sick of him as he does things his own drawn out pathetic way…..talking of ditching him as one election wonder too!
This is why I have opinion that all burecrats are placed on a performance ethos or I would privatise as too much ea wood and over governed to the billy oh!
Us e biodiesel for public transport and give companies incentives for using it. It is better for the environment, better for our local economy and better for the people and school children who use public transport. With incentives for use, it may also lower the cost of travelling on public transport. Just make sure the Biodiesel used is truly sustainable
George Bush, I salute you!
Suggestions…?? What!?
Its not bloddy rocket science is it? Public transport and Rail in general should never have been left to rot as it has.
Now we have bugger-all when we really need it and as Dlr1 expressed it’s gunna take ages before anything happens.
I won’t hold my breath.
BTW, I am selling one of my cars and will start to catch the bus to work next week…..serious!! (wish me luck).
Public transport in NSW is crap because the state Labour government couldn’t organise a chook raffle. Now their federal brothers are going to come to the party and they expect us to believe it’s going to be any different?
Not sure about all of Australia, but my suggestions for NSW:
- Make the North-west rail link heavy rail, NOT a metro-style system.
- Build a metro-style system to serve the city and inner city suburbs or extend the Pyrmont light-rail
- Re-start the Parramatta to Chatswood line that was stupidly canned.
- Get rid of all the complicated ticketing on trains and buses, and replace with an integrated system.
All you NSW guys are just sooks. Come to SA and see just how public transport can really suck.
Barrosa train line CLOSED, suburban sevices CUT, busses LATE, trains that run on rotten sleepers @ 10 km/h.
OH but wait…. we have a $45mill tram extension that serves 0.07% of the population. And they plan to spen $2bill on more trams, so that they can serve up to 1.8% of the states population.
Media Mike Rann & Labor are stuffing it all up.
ruddy rudd rudd rudd!
Spend the money u got for Telstra lying in the future fund wholly on public transport improvements and other !!!!!!WORTHWHILE!!!!!! infrastructure improvements.
Ditch the FIBRE TO THE NODE !!!BULLSHIT!!! white elephant and let the Telcos pay for it and try and get their money back instead of giving them billions of dollars so kids can play World of Warcraft better u idiots!!!
Remember cable TV and how much money has been lost on that white elephant.
Fibre to the node is a complete waste of “OUR” money!!!!
Ruddy Rudd Rudd Rudd
I want to shake u!!!
A computer for every child at school. Parents cannot get them off their computers at home and u want them addicted at school as well.
What a complete waste of money and oh the ongoing cost of maintaining and updating all these PCs and the extra electricity used!!!
Spend this on more books and better teachers!!!
This is bloody madness!!!!!!!!!
Public schools already run computer specific subjects and have equipped computer rooms.
Telcos already going ahead with fibre to the node so don’t need to give them any money.ACCC will make them retain copper network if they don’t give access so it will be their LOSS no ours.
From a tasmanian point of view…
More frequent buses (if the service is there, people will use it), electrify and rebuild/re-align the Hobart-Burnie rail line and run a proper passenger service on it, a light rail service for the suburban section of the Hobart rail line, a light rail service sharing the line between Devonport and Burnie, run the buses on biodiesel, repair the friggin roads so that travel is safer and smoother for all road users, run the Spirit of tasmania ferries on biodiesel, look at putting trolleybuses back on Hobart and Launceston streets. Of course all this will take political will (of which there is precious little at the moment).
hmmm must be a By-Election soon!!
laurie
this is all crap
nsw labor for 13 yrs has slowly stuffed the state now we are made to believe dudd is gonna be our survior??
we got 21 billion surplus budget last yr….australia should have the best of everything but it dont cause governments are only looking after themselves
he has already doing a back flip on the computer for every school kid scheme cause of the on going running costs states will have to endure..we need more trains and buses on the system now is the best opportunity for governments to do something now fuel price out of control
problem is here in nsw the government would love to run more buses and trains but who will pay for the all those useless overpriced motorways which have built….have 2 lanes each way and pay $5 each way…how pathetic
Does that mean the $35 million he gave Toyota [even though they were apparently going to build a Hybrid here anyway] was to build a Hybrid electric Train or Bus network..
I guess it makes sense really as Buses.Trains are about as exciting as your average Toyota.. apart from the bullet trains which aren’t powered by Toyota
He obviously doen’t realise that Public Transport isn’t actually a Federal Portfolio its up to the Transport Minister in each state to decide how much/little money is spent on Public Transport in that state.. for example not every state has Trams or an O-Bahn like VIC or SA
And if he thinks that if/when he gives the State Governments money to improve Public Transport that they will actually spend it on Public Transport; the man is a bigger idiot than Gearge W Bush
easy fix it is…bring the japanese over here to build/run our rail and buses, employ the best get the best but that aint ganna happen so i say ban all toyota’s and the problems fixed :p
Safe, clean, reliable public transport in Oz? Who do they think we are? Japan? Singapore? Our public servants are lazy and useless.
Here are two observations I’ve made in the past week which indicate to me we will NEVER have any top calibre public transport system:
1. Walking home from work last Friday I saw six guys “working” night shift – if you classify lying on a rug on the side of the road and snoring “working”.
2. Walking in the Sydney CBD on the weekend and I noticed it took about sixteen workers to replace damaged road lights – four to operate a crane and act as spotters and riggers, and twelve standing around watching and chatting.
If the govt provides money specifically for states to use on public transport projects then it is a good thing. At the moment we need more train services in QLD and cheaper. Having buses connect these is also a great idea. To the detractors, would you prefer that the current PM do what the last govt did for 12 years, ie NOTHING AT ALL!!!
Thanks Mr Rudd, some overdue initiative. You will have detractors but most people know this is what we need.
Steve & Cameron,
If you guys think that ANYTHING will actually happen you are misguided (and probably can be fairly blamed for all the mess that KRudd will make in the next few years).
In regards to the previous Govt., the massive Black Spot funding and funding for major road infrastructure (in SA at least) has been very welcome.
To date all KRudd has done is to cancell previously approved programs to redirect funding vote buying schemes.
What can he do?
1. Visit London.
2. Visit Singapore
3. Visit Hong Kong….and Seoul…and Paris…and…oh, you know. Anywhere but here.
Stop State Governments pissing $1bn on ticketing systems and make them start buying trams and trains off the shelf (good reason to start on Metro, sorry Mike! :-) ).
Stop new toll-road construction and stop anti-competition clauses in road construction that prevents public transport duplication. Do proper park and ride infrastructure, which means big, secure car parks under shopping centres with servicing, washing, shopping, the lot. Trains every three minutes in peak and lo and behold, stuff will happen.
Stop bloody urban sprawl and start building medium density homes that are big enough for families, not students, close to the city.
Oh, and make bicycling on a road a capital offence. They’re bastards, aren’t they?
Is it possible to move all the “kevin hate” posts to a forum thread or something? It’s tiring skimming through those posts to see if there’s actually anything relevant being said.
On topic, in Victoria there have long been plans for rail transport that covers all of and beyond what is currently populated. There’s land reserved specifically for numerous rail links and new lines.
The only things stopping them being implemented are funding and lobby interests. The state governments can’t fund it easily without tax payers going nuts about how much they’re spending. Special interest groups in particular business and automotive don’t like commuter rail upgrades. Rail doesn’t help business unless it’s freight and automotive (and auto-related) industry wants everyone to use cars.
If the federal government stepped in with additional funding then that would get rid of one of the problems. It’s governments trying to do things on the cheap that leaves us with half-assed solutions and patch-up jobs, but, governments will continue doing so since we don’t like them spending/wasting lots of money.