Transport Action

Transport  Action

Media Release

Western Suburbs Community Groups Pledge a United Response to December Transport Statement

No Freeways for West Footscray, Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association, Maribyrnong Truck Action Group, Brimbank Transport Action Group, and Save Holland Park have convened to coordinate a response to the transport statement expected in December.

The release of the Eddington report earlier this year has led to a flurry of activity and dialogue over the best measures to solve transport issues in the west. A number of different perspectives and competing interests have emerged.

Recently Sean Spencer, of Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association, convened a meeting of community groups to discuss issues and needs around transport with a focus on the Eddington Report and the looming transport statement.

The groups quickly discovered that there is more common ground between them than areas of disagreement.

“It’s a sign the west is changing,” said Mr Spencer, “people are coming together to present a united front to government rather than arguing about their differences.”

The meeting’s participants agreed that public transport should be the first priority of any transport statement. “We are woefully underserviced in the west and it’s time this was addressed,” said Sean Spencer, “the electrification of the Deer Park to Bacchus Marsh line, an urgent upgrade of the Sydenham rail line, and stations in new suburbs such as Caroline Springs would finally give us a real car alternative.”

Truck traffic was also high on the agenda with a consensus that on/off ramps from the Westgate are the most effective road infrastructure proposal for taking trucks off the streets without shifting the problem from one community to another. “Rail freight is important too,” said Maribyrnong Truck Action Group spokesperson, Elwyn Davies, “but it won’t be enough on its own. We need the truck ramps.”

While there was agreement expressed on the ramps there was a firm consensus that a tunnel under Footscray coming out near West Footscray station or further west, emptying thousands of trucks down Geelong Rd and Sunshine Rd would be a total disaster for our communities. “This would be the worst of all worlds,” said Anne Parsons from No Freeways for West Footscray. “It would involve large scale housing acquisition, destroy scarce parkland, and create massive amounts of diesel pollution in West Footscray, and Sunshine, and it would solve nothing for the residents of Yarraville.”

The groups have vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent this tunnel going ahead should it be part of the transport statement but Sean Spencer expressed optimism about what lies ahead: “We’re feeling hopeful that the government is on the right track and has heard the message that we want public transport and that we want targeted infrastructure designed to alleviate problems that people in the west have been putting up with for too long.”

“We look forward to working with government to achieve great outcomes our communities.”

Residents and Ratepayers Association, No Freeways 4 West Footscray, Braybrook ALP Branch and the Kensington Association. All groups are cooperating for the Anti-Road Tunnel Rally on October 26th (see below).

November 20, 2008

Contact

Sean Spencer

ph: 0419 350 416