Council backs rail report

– Paul Pickering
KNOX City Council has seized upon a new State Government-commission-ed paper on city sustainability, using the findings to strengthen its campaign for improved public transport in the municipality.
Last week the Commissioner for Sustainability, Dr Ian McPhail, released the paper entitled Creating a City That Works, in which he implored the State Government to extend its rail network and impose road levies to discourage car usage.
Knox’s Public Transport Consultative Committee chairwoman Karin Orpen endorsed Dr McPhail’s findings and was keen to reiterate the need for a rail line to Rowville.
“In 2004 council carried out a pre-feasibility study which showed the need for a rail link to Rowville but the State Government has yet to act on this,” she said.
“With rising fuel prices, roads becoming more congested and with the environmental impact of increased car use, we need to look at encouraging greater public transport usage now.”
Despite Dr McPhail’s recommendations, a spokesman for Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky last week declared that “we welcome his input and will take his views into account”.
Declining to comment on the need for public transport infrastructure in Knox, the spokesman said: “The Bracks Government is working hard and spending an unprecedented amount of money to meet Victoria’s transport challenges.
“However, we need to unblock bottlenecks on the network before we can extend it.”
Public Transport Users Association vice-president Alex Makin, though, was convinced that the paper would be damaging to the Government.
“For someone who is so internal to Government to paint such an honest and bleak picture clearly demonstrates how the Government has lost the plot,” he said.
Noting that his organisation had lost patience with the Government’s public transport strategy, Mr Makin said: “We call on Minister Kosky to start afresh and work on a new vision separated from the failings, cost blowouts and broken promises of her predecessor.”
He said that the commencement of work on the Rowville rail line and the Knox tram extension should be part of that vision.