Mon 13 March 2006 - The balance
The next time you hear the government making excuses as to why they can’t extend train and tram lines, and how they have to provide a “balance” between freeway and public transport expansion, keep this in mind:
(Current and past ten years dollars spent on freeway expansion: $7.2 billion. Rail/tram network expansion: $225 milion. Full figures here.)
March 13th, 2006 at 8:24am
That sure puts it in perspective! Good luck with the mess of extra bodies due to the Commonwealth Games. Ugh, so not fun, I bet.
March 13th, 2006 at 2:02pm
Daniel
that’s only the capital spending.
The Govt’s recurrent costs of propping up the old franchise companies is hundreds of millions a year (that’s why EastLink is a tollway to pay for the failure of Kennett’s privatisation experiment).
PS You could have changed Excel’s default colours to make the graph look nicer!
Rog.
March 13th, 2006 at 5:52pm
Roger, that’s true. It only answers the Government’s response to: The roads are full, the trains are full. Where should the new transport money go?. Roads and freeways, says the government.
It’s true that privatisation means trams and trains are costing the state too much, but if you want to compare the non-capital spending, check these figures.
March 13th, 2006 at 11:21pm
Can you add bike paths to your graph?? We took part in a Darebin survey that promised work to be done, and currently I have to avoid one part of path where the bridge has been out of action for what feels like 6 months…
March 13th, 2006 at 11:23pm
When you add the small change of that local government spending, the big amount of roads would look even bigger. Even more disturbing, and it is no wonder we all can’t breathe easily…