Increasing port freight and congestion on Monash CityLink Westgate corridor leading to unsustainable amount of traffic, Hartland says
November 13, 2012
Victorian Greens MP Colleen Hartland is calling for an inquiry into trucks and the impact they have on Melbourne, saying an alternative freight route is needed.
Hartland wants the Victorian Government to commit to the issue and investigate the impact, saying it has shown no action to the problem to date.
“We’ve had a horror few weeks for truck crashes ranging from fatal crashes to those that cause serious commuter traffic havoc,” Hartland says.
“Information [we] obtained under Freedom of Information laws has revealed that truck numbers on our streets are projected to more than double from 290,000 current trips per day to 690,000 trips per day – that’s four times as many trucks on our streets as there are cars on the Monash CityLink Westgate corridor every single day.
“This is a result of the government’s efforts to expand the [Melbourne] Port which will double the freight volume from 2.5 million containers a year to more than 5 million by 2025. Our streets just can’t sustain this volume of truck traffic,” she adds.