Gungahlin Light Rail Community forum a tremendous success

The Gungahlin Community Council and Canberra Loves 40% jointly hosted a community forum on Monday 8 Sep 2014, where members of the community could come together and speak to planning and transport experts, and representatives from Capital Metro, about the light rail line from Civic to Gungahlin. It gave the community the opportunity to have input into some design aspects, and from their experiences, offer suggestions and solutions. 

ABC news covered the event

As did WIN Canberra

It was a valuable opportunity for members of the community to speak directly to Capital Metro and other ACT Government officials on the impact of light rail and how it may affect their community. The day began with presentations from Capital Metro and other light rail and planning experts, and after lunch attendees participated in a Design Workshop, giving residents the opportunity to ask questions, and offer advice about quite specific parts of the proposed route. This outstanding example of community driven consultation will ensure that the delivered product will meet current and future needs. 

ACT Light Rail promoted the event on our Facebook page. If you are interested in attending other events like this, please join the Facebook group Light Rail for Canberra. 

Emma Thomas meets the public for the first time as Capital Metro Project Director

Picture from Canberra Times

Emma Thomas, the new Project Director for Capital Metro, attended the Gungahlin Community Council meeting on Wednesday 12 November to talk to the public about the project. She handled her introduction to the community on such an important project very competently. She stood up and talked about what she saw as the benefits and challenges of Capital Metro - without a powerpoint display - just talked and then invited questions.

Most of the questions from the crowd of about 50 people (including a strong turnout by  members of ACT Light Rail) were reasonable, there were a few light rail sceptics in the audience and she answered those as well as the questions from believers. One person (who was having their questions texted to them) asked the predictable 'do we have enough density' question (we do, especially along the Northbourne Flemington corridor). Some discussion about the challenges (such as the Flemington/Northbourne intersection) involved several people and I'm sure that the duo of communications staff that accompanied Ms Thomas captured those comments for later study.

I especially appreciated her mention of how buses and light rail are used differently by passengers. Bus passengers tend to ride from end to end and not get off along the way, whereas light rail passengers hop on and off and visit multiple places on their journey. Several mentions of Dickson and a transport hub there, were also made. This is not by accident.

It is clear that the project team is still considering several options such as the placement of the Gungahlin terminus, and also taking into account future expansion (including from the town centre) of the network. 

She also assured one person that reading a book on light rail was far easier than on a bus! 

After the Capital Metro team left, and much later in the meeting, the GCC were discussing how they had setup a stall in the Town Centre and were surprised how many people they spoke to weren't Gungahlin residents, but visited to shop. I think that when Capital Metro starts operations, Gungahlin will benefit from more people from Dickson and along Northbourne visiting the Town Centre. 

I was impressed at the way Ms Thomas introduced herself to the Canberra public. It is vital that this project be delivered properly by the ACT Government. They do have form in poor project delivery. Capital Metro so far, seems to be the exception. The senior staff that have been recruited to date (Glenn Bain and Emma Thomas) have track records of success, and have been managing their interactions with the public very competently. This bodes well for Canberra. 

Read the Canberra Times article 'Light rail will benefit all Canberrans' here

Visit our facebook page for more frequent updates and discussion on light rail in Canberra.

Forum on 'Transport for Canberra' plan in Weston Creek

On Wednesday 26 October 2011 the Weston Creek Community Council is hosting a Public Forum on the ACT Government’s Transport for Canberra plan. The Forum will give residents an opportunity to discuss the transport strategy with one of its authors, Kristin Blume from the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate.

The Public Forum will be held at 7.30pm at the Weston Club, 1 Liardet Street, Weston. If you’re interested in transport issues and seek to influence or know more about the future direction of transport policy in Canberra – come along and have your say!!!

On 7 October 2011 the ACT government launched the Transport for Canberra Draft Policy for public comment. The government is encouraging ACT residents to input into transport strategy, which will guide transport policy and planning in the ACT between now and 2030.

The draft report and information on how to provide feedback as part of the consultation process are available at http://timetotalk.act.gov.au.

Submissions are due by Friday 11 November.

(note - text copied from a post on Riot Act)

Gungahlin buses exceed capacity - solution - light rail

At Wednesday nights Gungahlin Community Council meeting Paul Peters - Director of Transport Planning, advised that the outcome of the Northbourne Transit Study (which has somehow become a defacto light rail study) will be available before the next election in October 2012.

What an amazing coincidence! Perhaps the ALP can go to yet another election saying they are in favour of light rail - then do nothing except build more roads for another 4 year term.

Although Simon Corbell, ACT Minister for Transport,  didn't attend, a staff member from his office did attend the GCC meeting. He was dismissive of light rail when raised as a solution to the suggestion by Paul Peters that ACTION would have to double current bus numbers to tackle the peak hour overcrowding problem. The Ministers staffer dismissed light rail on cost grounds.

One thing that became clear from the meeting was that peak hour buses into and out of Gungahlin are at capacity, and there is no surge capacity built into ACTION to tackle it. At least three people at the meeting reported buses failing to stop and collect them due to the bus already being full.

ACT Light Rail are not anti-bus, we are pro-public transport. We consider the fact that ACTION buses are at capacity to indicate that the passenger volume justifies a modal change to light rail. The main Gungahlin to Civic transit route should become light rail, tripling passenger capacity, and ACTION buses can be re-tasked to feed passengers to the light rail.

Clearly Light Rail needs to be built - immediately.

Valley Voice light rail article

The Tuggeranong Community Council have published an article on light rail for Canberra in their magazine 'Valley Voice'. 

You can download the PDF from here.

ACT Light Rail talk to Tuggeranong Community Council

On March 1st I was the guest speaker at the Tuggeranong Community Councils monthly meeting. The topic I spoke on was 'Is Canberras Light Rail Still On Track?'. I ran through the benefits of light rail for the ACT and the Capital region, then talked about the current state of light rail in ACT policy and how it can be progressed. 

Title slide from my talk to the Tuggeranong Community Council

After my talk, I fielded questions from the crowd, including local Legislative Assembly member Steve Dozspot from the ACT Liberal Party. Amanda Bresnan from the Greens was also at the meeting. The crowd was quite diverse and asked well informed questions. 

Darryl Johnson, President of the Tuggeranong Community Council had emailed me a few light rail route proposals and I was happy to include them in my presentation, I dont have a personal preference for light rail routes, but it certainly helps people understand how light rail would operate when you can show them a map. 

Darryl Johnson, TCC President, Light Rail route proposal

The TCC will be placing my slides online, and I will link to them when that occurs.

If you would like  me to speak to your organisation, please email me at dchaas67 at gmail dot com