Transport works in Germany, why not Melbourne?

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COMMENT, Melbourne — Let’s face it privatized public transport has failed.

It’s not the same elsewhere in the world — where Public Transport is clean, reliable and safe.

Public transport succeeds in similar towns in Germany.

But not in Australia. Public transport can work, but does not now work in Melbourne & Victoria. There are issues in the approach of the State Government, private contractors and the various ideologically-driven desperadoes on this issue.

The biggest issue is the ideological gunfight set-up by far-Right gunslingers like Alan Moran, of the disingenuously-titled ‘Institute for Public Affairs’.

And as much as this disingenuous partisan Alan Moran would like us all to drive cars, the reality is if we did the CBD of Melbourne would turn into one big parking lot, interspersed by concrete stacks. Think concrete-box US cities of pollution and lacking souls or culture.

Do we want that for our beautiful, increasingly dangerous, now pedestrian-unfriendly Melbourne? Tree-lined boulevards of today killed by parking lots, pollution and congestion?

Let’s Get Real, Moran…

Melbourne is not defined by its suburbs. The City is the host, the centre, the hub that allows the suburban centres to grow.

It is sheer self-interested myopic dis-ingenuity to ignore the fact that the city is the centre and heart of Melbourne. Moran’s agenda is that of the far Right, remove all public goods and make all citizens pay for everything. Think more toll-roads and higher fares.

We have had enough neglect of public transport. I am tired of journalists pretending this is some sort of contest of ideas between cars & public transport.

Public transport is needed. Cars are needed. It’s about balance. Full stop.

Sometimes group journeys are efficient (St Kilda Road to Collins St). Public transport.

Sometimes individual journeys are efficient (Mount Waverley to Diamond Creek). Cars.

Journeys into the Inner-City

The majority of journeys we make are simple journeys, and a lot are into the inner-city.

And the reality is those making short inner-city journeys for the purpose of work or school should find public transport a viable option. But it’s not.

Try catching a tram a mere distance of 1 or 2 kms, and try to ‘enjoy’ the experience.

Dirty. Late. Unreliable. Bad driving. Crashes. Speeding. Accident-prone.

That’s the downhill race to the bottom in Melbourne’s tram network, over the last 3 years.

Internationally, as Melbourne lets its public transport rot, former East European cities are building clean, safe, public transport. Leipzig in Germany is a great example. Public transport works better in Paris than Melbourne, despite strikes.

It’s time for someone to terminate Yarra Trams, and pack Alan Moran off to a ghetto in New York for a one month excursion via subway. Even better stick Moran in LA traffic, where there is no real CBD, just a concrete jungle. No green trees and sandstone there.

And mandate that Lynne Kosky, as Melbourne’s ‘Minister for Yarra Trams and Connex’ (not public transport), actually do something other than have meetings.

Or perhaps Kosky should be mandated to attend all those meetings via public transport? I think this is the solution.

It is the 2thinknow view, that cities should become cultural and artistic hubs. Innovation cities of beauty. Great places to work, visit and play; enjoyable to all.

Not the victim of too many traffic snarls, unsafe taxis, unclean transport and gangs of paralytic young males vomiting one end of Queen Street to the other. These issues are wrecking our cities.

Instead we have an overpriced electronic ticketing system? Huh?

And whilst we are at it, Myki, the multi-hundreds-of-millions-dollars electronic ticketing system seems to serve absolutely no useful purpose.

Except perhaps linking an identity to a journey, or camera footage, and in a future Government, spying on citizens? It’s seems Orwellian, but could that be the reason?

Is that the real outcome of plastic card ticketing? It’s the only logical reason I can see for spending several hundred million dollars on a system you have to swipe twice. Why otherwise swipe on entry, and exit?

Understand, I am not saying the Government is currently doing this, I am saying that governments like ‘options’. And if we give them the tools… they will use them.

Our cities are not war zones to be protected from their own citizens.

Most people most of the time will treat others as they are treated. And public transport that treats citizens like fare evaders and potential criminals shows disrespect for the citizens of Melbourne. For us.

There seems little doubt that an old fashioned paper ticket is a cheap, efficient option. Unless, perhaps, there is another Orwellian motive….

And Taxis in Melbourne

Taxis too have become a third-world rickshaw service.

Can I load my goat onboard with my cow and get a discount? Would a bar of soap, and not carrying a machete knife under the seat hurt drivers?

Let’s face it, taxi driving is done by largely unregistered, largely unpoliced, friends of a cousin twice-removed by someone who learnt to drive on a mud road in the middle of nowhere.

If you ask around the taxi industry, they will tell you how many unregistered drivers there are. Government doesn’t like to ask questions whose answers they do not want to know.

Personally, I know people who have been threatened by several drivers with violence. I have seen this reported in Sydney, when Sydney declined, and nothing was done. Victoria is going the same way, as the lack of decent wages is attracting a real ‘under-class’.

And let’s face it, it is increasingly unsafe to catch taxis in Melbourne, and no one with another option (driving or a limousine service) is now going to do it. Except visitors, pensioners, non-drivers, work-drinkers, night-workers, night-clubbers and office workers who have no choice.

‘No choice’ is a downward spiral leading to worsening passenger, and driver, standards.

The embarassing thing is that Victoria is no longer properly protected by and large by any form of legislation or regulation. And this is what those fellows like Moran, want. Everythig private. Limited, or no, regulation.

Moran believes in the most disingenuous ideological dogma of all, deregulation.

We don’t need less regulation. We need straight, clear regulations and guidance. Do you think unregulated industries deliver good outcomes for citizens?

Name a few examples where over a mid-term timeframe of a decade or more deregulation has led to higher standards. Go on.

And simple rules enforced by an active police force not pushing a desk, but pushing a pavement.

What is anyone thinking? And why-oh-why are we then paying any taxes at all?

Taxes have skyrocketed in total real terms over the last 11 years, despite a conservative Federal government. And we citizens now get nothing for our money.

And partisan dogma presented as ‘ideas’ is just demagoguery

I’m tired of partisan ‘think-tanks’ like those recalcitrants at the ‘Institute of Public Affairs’ recommending stupid, blatantly political ideas, and receiving the time of day from anyone.

It’s time Moran was put back in his far-Right Wheeties box with his Wheeties ideology and a decoder ring. That’s all his input is worth. It’s all about his ideological dogma, not some ‘contest of ideas’. Artists and creative people have ideas, not partisans like Moran.

Further, have you ever noticed how ‘public figures’ who love privatising every aspect of society don’t actually pay their own way? The public, ie. us, do.

Ideas should be, and are more important than, some partisan agenda Moran pushes.

Moran’s dangerous world - privatize everything….

How about we privatize everything, and have no community goods at all?

We can all buy guns and do our own policing… Let’s reverse civilization, and all do our own farming? What’s that — you want to import some ‘under-class’ of migrants to do that? Let’s de-regulate the whole lot and pay everyone less per hour.

That’s far Right ideology.

It’s a kind of Mad Max beyond Thunderdome scenario these right-wing free-trade fascists like to peddle. What I can’t believe is why those on the Left allow a few colleagues to subscribe to this partisan self-serving pap.

I dislike every partisan, self-serving ideological piece of dogma of the far Right partisans trot out to justify taking another dollar from the citizenry whilst not delivering services.

The concept that private is inherently more efficient than public deserves correcting. Both private and public systems, and incentives, have a role to play in a balanced society.

So Labor in Victoria, are you really on the Left?

At the State level, I have to wonder if Kosky actually is Labor or not? She is apparently ‘far Left’ aligned. Perhaps economics is more important than politics.

Last I checked the Left believed in public ownership. Many I have met do. Is there a secret handshake and ideological conversion process when they enter Spring Street?

I think Iemma’s current implosion in NSW brought up what has been observed for years in State government. The State governments have been taking political monies from property developers for political interests. And in the process, one would have to say less than coincidentally, privatizing everything public.

Sorry, I think you State Governments have sold Australian citizens a lemon. It’s time the dissenting voices inside the Left were heard.

And in a balanced way, the concept of ‘public goods efficiently delivered’ needs to be revived. Public service can be as efficient as private.

Finally, as A Victorian

Oh, and as a Victorian, please bring back the Conductors. Turn the ‘Ticket Inspectors’ into conductors.

It’s time the citizens wishes were listened to. It’s all written in the opinion editorials and letters of every major paper. I’m not saying what others have not already said.

How about listening, Yarra, Kosky & State Government?

More reports on the disgraceful state of the transport system here.

Read 2thinknow’s 20 Breakthrough Ideas in Public Transport

Former articles on Yarra Trams here and Victoria’s transport here.

Connect to Christopher Hire.

Speaker. Author. Editor-In-Chief. Executive Director of Innovation, 2thinknow.

Filing. Arts & Culture, Australia, COMMENT, Cities & Urban Areas, Features, Home, Family & Society, Melbourne & Victoria, Politics & Foreign Policy, Travel & Tourism, [English]
Tagged. Australia, Australian politics, John Brumby, Labor, Lynne Kosky, melbourne, Morris Iemma, Myki, NSW, politics, public transport, State Parliament, transport policy, Victoria