By The Australian, 12 May 2010 by Robin Bromby

Cities are desperately trying to catch up on delivering rail infrastructure

GRANDIOSE schemes have always seemed easy when it comes to railway planning in Australia, but fixing what needs to be fixed seems to be harderto achieve.

Big projects - the transAustralia line in 1917 or the Darwin railway in 2003 - achieve high status. Repairing vital city rail infrastructure, by contrast, is always done far too late and, seemingly, begrudgingly. Meanwhile, our cities become more congested, traffic grinds to a halt, commuters' quality ofJife diminishes, and we use more fuel and produce more emissions.

It is not just an Australian problem. Try to get on the underground in London at peak hour in the evening if you want to see infrastructure not coping: gates are shut at stations such as Oxford Circus because there is not enough room on the platforms, let alone the trains, for all those wanting to travel. On the Rome metro, you'll find carriages jam-packed even outside peak travel times. Even when an effort is made to improve things, the resultis not always
what was intended.

Adelaide has rolled out its new Euro trams, but now there are claims that the timetabling is such that the morning peak hour trip from Glenelg to Adelaide railway station takes six minutes longer than it used to. And, even when projects do finally get moving on improving infrastructure, things don't stand still. Parramatta's deputy Lord Mayor Chiang Lim was reported recently making two points that go straight to the point about rail infrastructure: Sydney is projected to add a new suburb each year for the next 30 years; and there is a failure to provide even projects promised for existing suburbs, in this case, the Parramatta to Chatswood rail link, only part of which ended up being built.

Every new suburb is a nightmare in waiting. No rails means more cars, more congestion, more wasted time,
greater economic cost. Promises are being made, of course, but they are seldom kept in NSW. The state government recently scrapped the CBD metro rail scheme, but said that it would instead resurrect the northwest
rail link to provide a heavy rail from Rouse Hill to Epping via Castle Hill. But no one is holding their breath: this project was first announced in 1998, scrapped and resuscitated, and rebirthed yet again.

The only prediction you can safely make about Sydney's rail infrastructure is that, by 2017, the picture is unlikely to be any prettier than it is now. You can probably put more faith in Brisbane's plans for new rail infrastructure, on the grounds that Queensland has delivered more reliably than NSW on its promises.

In December, the government opened the $324 million Robina Varsity Lakes extension, comprising 4.l km of electrified double track. Premier Anna Bligh's latest plan is to spend $8 billion tunnelling under t he state's capital and the Brisbane River to lay a new rail line from Bowen Hills to the Fairfield-Annerley area. It could possibly include a new underground station at Woolloongabba, and new platforms at the main city stations. Bligh says modelling showed the rail would be "desperately needed" by 2016, by which time it is estimated that Brisbane will need another 140 train services a day.

Brisbane suffers a typical city problem: there are not enough rail lines through the CBD to allow more services without building a new rail corridor. And the Queensland government is facing calls from suburbs that want a rail
connection. Not that this will be the end of the problem. The Sunshine Coast council is starting to make noises
about its area needing a high speed rail link to Brisbane.

Melbourne, too, is on the move. Part ofthe Hurstbridge line has been duplicated and North Melbourne station has got a new overbridge and platform system. Melbourne's rapidly growing northern suburbs have been acknowledged with a new station at Coolaroo on the Craigieburn line.

While Sydney commuters are as far from ever from the T-card concept, Adelaide train and tram travellers will get a Smartcard system by 2013. This comes on top of the recent $2bn commitment for a new transport plan, the main focus of which is an expansion of Adelaide's rail network, with electrification of several lines.

Perth is the latest Australian city to get awake-up call. Western Australia may have possibly been resting on its laurels after completing the Mandurah rail line, which has proven to be such aboost for the city's booming southern suburbs. But the real problem is that only 10 per cent of Perth workers use public transportto get to work. The state government is about to release a blueprint for Perth through to 2031.

According to reports, it will acknowledge that large sums of money will need to be spent on road and rail infrastructure, and that Perth people will have to face up to leaving their cars at home and catching buses and trains.

Like the other Australian cities, Perth needs to run fast on rail infrastructure just to keep up.

Click here for the original The Australian article.