Fifty cent fares are all well and good, but have they put us on a one-way ticket to mediocracy?
A fast, clean, safe and frequent metro system linking 15 stations around the centre of Sydney shows what can be done with some determination and foresight. And as David Fagan reports, it’s even advertised on the billboards
It’s part of the ongoing modernisation of that city’s transport network that flowed from the 2000 Olympics which, despite their success, showed up some shortcomings in Australia’s biggest city.
It was something to learn from. So what have we learnt in Brisbane? And what have we done about it? Not enough.
Let’s look at the record. Right now, we have one new metro line which might open next year but, more likely the year after at the end of almost a decade of construction.
Its showpiece station, the Gabba, was placed beside what would become the city’s premier sporting oval – now cast aside for Olympic events to be held at……Nathan (can we at least change its name?)
The line will connect to the suburban rail network which runs to roughly the same timetable as it has since it electrified in the early 80s.
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And it will connect in places to a suburban bus network which, similarly, runs to the same timetable it has since the 80s – despite the shift to more inner-city living conducive to public transport use (if and when it’s available).
Four weeks out from a state election, I should be writing more about the current political issues but the pressing issue is really the limited imagination either side of politics brings to thinking about what might happen beyond 2025.
This election will be fought on crime with welcome promises to both apprehend and then punish more of the criminals that, as attested by this week’s poll in the Nine media, affect close to half the population.
It would be nice, however, to hear just something about a serious effort to find out what is behind the rise in youth crime – is it poverty, lack of education, poor parenting or mental defects caused, for example, by alcohol or drug damage to the brain before birth?
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And, if so, what do we do about that? In other words, some thought at least to what to do over the next decade or two to stop us going down the same track we are now on.
But crime is like everything else in politics. The long term policy thinking that might, just might, ease its impact is buried below the news grabs and tik-toks each side is allowing the other to get away with.
I’ve written before on this site about how Queensland can take some pride in its response to growth over the past five decades. We have achieved a lot – the road system is better, the hospitals and universities are modernised, our cultural and sporting facilities are fit for current purpose.
But it feels like we’ve just stopped advancing.
The opportunity of an early start for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been squandered and so has the opportunity to build the city-changing infrastructure that will principally be through the urban transport network.
I’ve spent a few recent weekends in Sydney, enjoying the convenience of the metro and its fast services that connect with the rest of the system.
I look forward to our own when it comes online but Sydney has one thing we don’t. And that is a detailed plan on how this will be rolled out through the city up until the mid-2030s. It’s even on billboards!
What do we have? One new line, the rest running on a half-century old timetable and no plan beyond opening date. The entirety of public transport policy is reduced to cheap fares meant to encourage more use but just reducing the capacity to invest in the improved metropolitan system we need as the population grows.
It’s an election strategy (and did I mention it’s on billboards), not a long term planning strategy.
Transport isn’t the only problem. I could write the same column about poor planning for future water needs and future energy needs. The same shallowness stretches into our health debate which needs more attention paid to the role the state can play in preventing disease that leads to the chronic conditions that will clog our hospitals (and maybe our prisons) in the future.
The shame is that our politicians and those who advise them generally understand this jigsaw of complexities that good public policy has to confront – but choose to overlook it, putting us all on a one-way ticket to mediocrity
