Barr, Corbell and Rattenbury to oversee light rail construction

The Civic to Gungahlin light rail project will be overseen by a sub-committee consisting of Andrew Barr, Simon Corbell and Shane Rattenbury. This was announced on Andrew Barrs facebook page today. 

ACT Light Rail will be contacting this group in the very near future.

The ACT does not have a 'transport minister', transport being such a small and unimportant part of peoples lives. This minor portfolio is divided into components such as road maintenance and ACTION Buses, within the auspices of the Territory and Municipal Services portfolio.  

In the new Labor/Greens coalition government, Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury is now the TAMS Minister, in addition to six other ministries. Today he announced the following:

"Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS) provides many of the services that Canberrans enjoy daily, such as building and maintaining paths and roads, libraries and waste management. It also manages Canberra’s urban and natural environment, such as nature parks, playgrounds and streetscapes.

“My goal will be to deliver these local Government services effectively and efficiently, as well as to continue improvements and innovate in key areas.

“The Greens-Labor Parliamentary Agreement sets out several exciting areas for progress in TAMS, such as improved buses and progressing light rail, enhancing biodiversity protection in Canberra’s nature parks and on rural lands, and cleaning up Canberra’s lakes.


Read a Canberra Times article on the new ministerial allocations here. 

ACT Light Rail were advised before the Assembly election that management of the Civic to Gungahlin project would be handled by the Land Development Agency. We will be seeking clarification on the structure of any committees and bodies responsible for delivering the first stage of Capital Metro. 

In one important area it makes sense  as light rail needs to be integrated with ACTION bus services. Improving ACTION bus services is a whole different sack of cats, which is brave for a new minister to tackle. 

I'd urge all reading this to visit our Facebook page. Snippets which don't make the webpage are often posted there. 

Light rail determines ACT Government

Today, last Green standing, MLA Shane Rattenbury announced he is supporting Katy Gallagher and the ALP to form government. He is to become a minister in the Greens/ALP government.

The first thing he mentioned after announcing who he would support, was light rail.

Following his statement of support for an ALP government, he took questions from journalists and announced the following:

• asked by a journalist what his ministry would be he said that hadn't been finalised yet, but he wanted to play a role in the delivery of the light rail system. 
• light rail works will commence during the course of this term of assembly
• in briefings from the appropriate bureaucrats they indicated works could begin in 2015
• the funding model would be in the form of a Public Private Partnership. 
• Expressions of Interest would be called for
• There is an 'iron clad commitment' from the ALP to delivering this.

This is an excellent result for Canberra's future. 

ACTION bus patronage continues to decline

In disappointing news, figures released today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that ACTION Bus patronage continues to decline. These figures are from the 2011 Census and are the most recent and reliable figures available.

Read: New 2011 Census data reveals more about the ACT 

An excerpt from the media release states:

Method of travel to work

The latest Census data further revealed that people in the Australian Capital Territory still prefer to travel to work by car than any other means, with 69.3 per cent of the population reporting this as their primary method of travel to work (either as the driver or passenger). 

While the household car is still the preferred method of travel to work for most people, there is an increasing proportion of people walking and riding a bicycle to work. In 2011, 763 more people walked to work than in 2006, and 914 more people rode a bicycle to work.

There has been a small decline in the proportion of people who catch a bus to work, with 5.6 per cent of people in 2011 compared to 5.8 per cent in 2006, reflecting a slower rate of growth compared to other methods of travel.

While there is a rise in walking and cycling, these ABS statistics indicate that unless an alternative to the private car is provided, public transport patronage will continue to decline. 

Light rail will offer that alternative. Build light rail now!