Docklands warned on WestLink project

Greens State Parliamentary candidate Brian Walters has warned Docklanders that the State Government’s WestLink road project will dump up to 2000 extra motor vehicles into Docklands during peak hour.

Mr Walters says the project is unviable and he wants the money spent on alternatives such as rail transport.

While no routes have been announced, WestLink aims to create an alternative route to the West Gate Bridge for city bound traffic from the west.  It is proposed to link the Western Ring Road via a tunnel and freeway network to Footscray and Dynon Roads.

Mr Walters said Federal Government refused to contribute to the $5billion project because Victoria could not show a net economic benefit.

“There is, in fact, no overall transport or environmental benefit either,”  Mr Walters said.

“WestLink will in peak hour deliver another 2000 vehicles an hour - including trucks - into the Docklands area. This is hardly a way of removing congestion.”

“The proposal will also take money away from public transport - a far more efficient people-mover than any road. A road lane carries 700 cars an hour - tops - and in Melbourne each car carries an average of
1.1 people.”

“But a peak our train whisks by in seconds with just as many people, and you can have several of them in an hour. The proposed route of WestLink substantially follows rail lines all the way. For a fraction of the cost of WestLink, we could actually deliver an efficient rail service along that line,” he said.

Linking Melbourne Authority spokesperson Jo Weeks said she was unaware of where Mr Walters’ figures had come from.

“We’ll be doing comprehensive transport modelling later this year to get an idea of any impacts on the surrounding road network and how to best to design the roadway to suit,” she said.  “The extent of population growth we are experiencing in Melbourne is creating more travel demand across the entire inner-western road and rail network and projects like WestLink are being planned to cater for this growth.”

She said WestLink was part of an overall transport plan which included increased public transport services.