The Brack's Labor Government in Victoria has the reputation for being the most reformist state Government in Australia. It has just released its transport plan after 6½ years of studying and planning. The $10 billion package that touches on the full gambit of transport modes, from a $1 billion upgrade of the Monash and West Gate freeways to fixing up local bike paths is seen as a vision of making Melbourne a more liveable place.

The core features are: the addition of a third rail track on the Dandenong line, $1 billion for extra lanes on the Monash and West Gate freeways; a $1.4 billion upgrade of suburban bus services; $1.3 billion for outer metropolitan arterial roads;$800 million for new metropolitan trains;$500 million for a new tram fleet;$750 milllion for rail safety, including a communications upgrade;$350 million for new regional trains;free public transport for pensioners on Sundays.

Sounds big. How does it stack up? Does it get Melburnians out of cars and onto public transport? Royce Millar in The Age says:

Labor's aim in 2002 was that by 2020, 20 per cent of all motorised trips would be by public transport. The figure then was about 9 per cent and has increased a little since. Effectively the Liveability statement is the belated action plan to achieve this goal.

Millar says that to be on track for 20/20/20, 130 million more public transport trips would be needed per year by 2011 yet as a result of the Liveability initiatives, Melburnians would only make 50 million more public transport trips per year by 2010.

How come? Millar says:

One of the major disappointments for many is that the statement rules out any extension of the rail system for at least a decade. Rail spending will focus on building up capacity in the existing system. So that means no new trains or trams beyond the spread of the existing network and, therefore, few new customers...Work on the Dandenong third track project will take a decade to complete, with likely disruption to train services that will not endear commuters to an already struggling system. At the same time, the Government and CityLink operator Transurban will spend $1 billion upgrading the Monash and West Gate freeways and CityLink, including putting extra lanes on the Monash. Clearly extra room on the Monash, a direct competitor to the Dandenong train, will encourage more cars, at odds with the Government's stated transport objectives.