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.