I caught the 16.45 ex Surrey Hills, and took the opportunity for a midweek
Parkiteer update.
The resident one in the cage had three companions (hhh), plus one spare
lock. The resident one at the subway was unvandalised.
The train was on time, but was held at the approach to Flinders St, then
crossed to pfm 1 to arrive at 17.12, to form the 17.08 Greensborough.

I reached Melbourne Town Hall with time to spare for the 17.30 start.
Chair: Terry Laidler, former ABC broadcaster and psychologist. He was good.

Speakers:
Martin Pakula, MLC and Minister for Public Transport
Terry Mulder, MLA and Shadow Minister for Public Transport and Roads
Greg Barber, Greens MLC Northern Metro

The same format as at Box Hill applied. These were top-level politicians,
and at showed. Mr Pakula went first. At the end of his speech, and
aggressive woman on a wheelchair rolled forwards to grill him; it took a lot
of effort for the chair to get her back and remind her that everyone in the
audience had to wait until question time. Her retort: 'But they aren't on
wheelchairs' did not do her cause any good.

There was far less emphasis on detail than at Box Hill.

The deputy mayor spoke, and quoted the current and projected populations in
City of Melbourne, with 770 000 people per day commuting into it for work,
recreation, culture, restaurants.

Mr Pakula: spoke mainly about achievements to date. integrated land &
transport policy; our funding for Coolaroo, now four new stations, Sunbury
electrification, South Morang committed. RRL will provide space for an
extra 9000 people/h, the Dynon - Domain underground will handle 12 000
people/h. $440m for stabling facilities was quoted as a plus, not a minus;
$220m for maintenance. Both in his talk and fielding questions he was
fluent, with instant recollection of facts, figures and people.

Mr Barber stuck mainly with philosophy. The two thrusts are that it should
be possible for anyone to live anywhere and not need a car at all, with the
immediate benefit that two-car families can sell one immediately, and gain
more benefits than from any tax cuts. What is needed as an accountable
transport agency, capable of enduring changes of political parties at
elections.

Mr Mulder started by being as party-political sniping as he his in press
releases, but did thaw. He doesn't plan to scrap everything in Labor's plan
if his party gains power; he did praise it for having some good points. I
doubt that he will scrap Myki: he was keen to attack fare evasion which he
claims has climbed from $50m pa to $120m pa. If anything, expect to see a
more-ruthless implementation. He wants two armed police on every station
from 18.00 to last train (~450 police). He attacked perpetual late running
on RFR lines, and the increasing cost of building even simple new stations.
Liberal Party is committed to a Rowville line. More has to be done on nuts
and bolts before moving forwards with grand plans.

The questions got bogged down with people who dragged on an on with
speeches; the chair had to gag two, including Ms Wheelchair. Her gripe was
with overall lack of accessibility, and particularly Ringwood station. Mr
Pakula responded with a statement of continuing achievement, and that the
forecourt of Ringwood will be redesigned (which does nothing for platform
access).

Franchising has not been an issue with metropolitan trains: infrastructure
and rollingstock remain in state ownership.

Mr Pakula stressed that buses are the transport of the future. There will
be few opportunities for heavy-rail extension, or even light-rail extension.
Buses are the only way to serve the low-density outer suburbs.

The spokesperson for Mernda extension is well known at meetings, and sought
a date commitment for the continuing extension beyond South Morang. None
was offered by any party.

The transport choir sang an a capella request for 17 improvements. That was
fun, but time consuming. Each speaker addressed just one point.
One was a request for windows on Bumblebees to be see-through. Mr Pakula
stated that if we could keep the Bumblebees, we will.
Another was a request for restoration of conductors on trams. Mr Pakula
stated that the removal is too far into the past, and that myki makes them
redundant. [I feel that the advocates are pissing into the wind, when there
are more important issues to address].

Connectivity got quite an airing. Mr Pakula again noted the difficulty of
interfacing services on different headways [heckled from the floor 'change
the headways then'] and of interfacing bus routes with trains when the buses
cross multiple lines.

I must have missed some points, as my notes look as if only one speaker was
responding, and it really was split 40-40-20. Trams and potential new
routes didn't get a mention all night.

They really were masterful politicians: they sounded as if they were saying
a lot, and said very little. In public, they all get along quite well, and
often shared points of agreement. It is only in print that everything comes
out as spin or deliberate opposition.

With 5 min to my 19.01 from Flinders St, I walked to Melbourne Central to
catch it an 19.07. Everything was 5-6 min late (but the one preceding mine
wasn't sufficiently late for me to catch it). A Sydenham Watergardens train
was 16 min late, delayed at Flinders St by police attending to unruly
passengers. My 19.07 came at 19.13, and was still 6 min late at Surrey
Hills.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor