Road jams: a $3bn bill. (The Age / Dan Silkstone)

Victoria’s transport minister Peter Batchelor has revealed just how costly traffic congestion is to the state economy - $3 billion per year. The article doesn’t say how he calculated this figure, but it does say they expect that figure to triple over the next 20 years if corrective action is not taken.

From the article:
# A leaked draft copy of the original bus plan is highly critical of Melbourne’s bus network. It recommends that orbital bus routes be introduced, fleet size doubled and operating costs increased by $343 million a year.

# A leaked copy of the draft tram plan proposes that there be no major extension of the tram network in the next 10 years.

# Mr Batchelor ruled out several proposals including a rail link between Huntingdale and Rowville, tunnels linking the Eastern Freeway to the Tullamarine Freeway and Western Ring Road, and a tunnel under the Springvale Road-Whitehorse Road intersection.

# The Metropolitan Transport Plan will include a third railway track on the Dandenong line and provide a feasibility study for a light-rail link between Doncaster and the CBD.

I’m not convinced the government has a big picture view of where Melbourne’s transport network should be headed. They seem to be tacking problems as the occur instead of predicting and resolving issues before the occur. The current congestion on freeways and other major routes is a clear indicator of this flawed approach.