Media 17 October 2007

Rudd a dud on transport

A group advocating sustainable transport is outraged at Kevin Rudd’s short-sighted and counter productive approach to funding transport in southeast Queensland.

Community Action for Sustainable Transport (CAST) have called on Rudd to immediately withdraw the proposed funding for the Northern Link tunnel in Brisbane ($500 million), Pacific Motorway upgrade ($455 million) and Ipswich Motorway upgrade ($1.1 billion).

“For this amount of money we could have 182 new train carriages to deal with overcrowding issues and to accommodate for the huge increases in patronage that will occur as fuel prices increase,” said CAST spokesperson Tristan Peach

“The ALP’s transport approach is totally flawed and socially inequitable, and will lead to increased congestion, pollution and car dependence at a time when fuel prices are rapidly rising and transport related greenhouse emissions are a huge concern,” said Mr Peach.

“We need major Federal investment in sustainable transport so we can deal with current public transport capacity issues and make it easier for people to walk and cycle,” said Mr Peach.

“Mr Rudd has demonstrated a complete lack of vision, we believe that the money would be far better spent on sustainable transport projects such as buying more train carriages, buying back Brisbane’s Airtrain and extending rail lines from Petrie to Kippa Ring, Beerwah to Maroochydore, Robina to Cooloongatta and Springfield to Ipswich,” said Mr Peach.

“And our cities need comprehensive bikeway networks, not wider roads,” said Mr Peach.

“Labor say they want to ease gridlock, but their policies will increase it,” said Mr Peach.

“This is climate change hypocrisy from Labor – acting like they’re concerned but then adopting policy that will make it worse,” said Mr Peach.

“If Rudd is genuine about his supposed concern for working families then he would be investing money in affordable transport solutions for our suburbs, rather than keeping people in their cars,” said Mr Peach.
“The best way to save lives on the Ipswich Motorway is to give people a better option to driving – putting more cars and trucks on the road does not make it safer,” said Mr Peach.