Interesting conversation I had this afternoon at the launch
of the Woden Town Centre Master Plan.
The launch was attended by many v/senior ACTPLA personal,
including a leading light in the transport area. We started
to discussed the busways and light rail issue in Canberra.
Firstly it seems that the political decision not to send the
busway across the O'Connor ridge (as recommended) and
instead place it alongside Barry Drive, effectively kills
light rail in Canberra. All thanks to Save- the-Ridge and
their friends it seems.
Also mentioned was that the ACTLightrail coalition had sent
many letters to ACTPLA disputing the costing as proposed by
KBR to build light rail across Canberra (up to $1.3
billion, with the route to Gungahlin town centre alone
being $204 million). However, not one piece of verifiable
bit of evidence was given to show that the ACTLightrail
costing were accurate to convince ACTPLA that their figures
were wrong. Not two weeks ago I asked senior
representatives of ACTLightrail to place their contrary
costing on their website.
Finally, it seems that the bike lanes on Northbourne Avenue
will present a challenge to the busway to Gungahlin. A
solution could be found by placing the bike paths on the
side roads.