Yarra Council has launched an attack on the Victorian Government’s planned East-West Link project, calling for it to be abolished
By Ruza Zivkusic-Aftasi | June 18, 2013
Melbourne’s Yarra Council has launched an attack on the Victorian Government’s planned East-West Link project, calling for it to be abolished.
The council kicked off its Trains Not Road Tolls campaign last week to register its opposition to the multi-billion dollar road project.
Mayor Jackie Fristacky says the link will see an increase in truck travel from Port of Hastings through the city’s inner suburbs.
She also believes the project will leave little money for other critical developments such as a Doncaster rail link.
“We should be working on shifting more freight transport to rail and the focus should go on that to take more trucks off the road,” Fristacky says.
“We haven’t got enough young people who want to be truck drivers to take on the freight tasks without rail, and rail is much more efficient for the long and middle distances.”
Fristacky says a Doncaster rail link will remove up to 800 vehicles per train from the roads and service up to 100,000 passengers each day.
She says the rail link can be built “at a fraction of the cost” to build the East-West Link.
“This will allow other critical public transport projects to be funded at the same time,” Fristacky says.
The Federal Government’s advisory body, Infrastructure Australia, says it has not received a submission for a business case for the East-West Link.
