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Martin Lehmann - 13 October 2003
At a time when ambulances queue outside overflowing public
hospitals, young children swelter in schools without
air-conditioning and homeowners and businesses groan under the
burden of escalating taxes, Geoff Gallop’s WA government is rushing headlong into spending $1.5 billion on a crazily expensive scheme to build an electric railway system
linking Perth to
the sleepy coastal resort of Mandurah (population 60,000) some 80
kilometres to the south.
A recent report from a group of senior engineers warned of
impending cost over-runs that will push the final cost well over
$2 billion.
The money is not coming out of the pockets of the politicians or the bureaucrats, hence they have no concept of prudent expenditure. No
corporation would approach the matter in such a cavalier fashion. Instead it would call for tenders to provide a transport system that would deliver a set number of passengers daily in a prescribed degree of comfort, safety and time.
I guarantee no tenderer would in these circumstances, put forward a rail proposal.
This egregious waste of taxpayer’s money will see only a single rail line between Rockingham and Mandurah. It will also result in further
two years of frustrations for motorists as the freeway is dug up once
again to accommodate the railway line.
My enquiries reveal no sound reason for choosing the rail option to service the Mandurah region.
Buses are the ideal solution to providing public transport to the Mandurah region. Already, dedicated bus lanes provide high speed transport from Perth along the first 10km of the Kwinana Freeway. One of Australia's best freeways links central Perth with Safety Bay Road, 24 km north of Mandurah. The remainder is by modern dual-carriage highway. The dedicated lanes could be extended as and when required, at a fraction of the rail cost.
The real reason for the railway plan
The car-hating social engineers who have infiltrated government planning in recent years, implemented in 1996, the Metropolitan Transport Strategy to get more people out of cars and into public transport. They were concerned about (page 4 of the report) “unrestrained private car use" and the "deprivation of mobility" of people without cars (surely a very low number). A glamorous railway system seemed like a good idea to achieve this aim. Although buses were massively more economic, they were never seriously considered.
This mad scheme should be exposed for what it is - a gigantic punt, with taxpayers’ money, to achieve a social engineering dream.
The report’s own figures indicate the estimated patronage of the proposed railway in the year 2006, for all stations from Thomas Road to Mandurah ranges between 10,600 and 12,900 per day. Taking an average of 11,000 passengers and dividing it into the $1.5billion cost reveals a staggering investment of $136,000 in each passenger. Based on that figure, the government could afford to provide each passenger with a new Mercedes and tell them to find their own way to Perth. And there would still be half a billion dollars left over for an MRI machine and a desalination plant.
At the start of the project the government had two choices: to build an economically and environmentally sound system based on high-speed buses with the gradual increase of dedicated bus lanes as demand grew; or build an electric rail system with its attendant economic burden and years of disruption as the freeway and the city are dug up. The bus system could be ready in months at an estimated 10 per cent of the cost. The railway will not be operational until 2007. And how many hospitals, schools and police stations could operate on the $114 million annual operating costs of this ill-conceived scheme?
What a choice the government made.
To satisfy the whims of the socialist planners and to gain a few votes, the WA government is punishing home buyers and taxpayers with massive tax increases and saddling future generations of taxpayers with a massive economic burden.
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