From memory the Brumby government also removed the Somerton Road crossing near Roxburgh Park as part of the Craigieburn electrification.

This is from the PTV website.

It says these level crossing were removed by the Baillieu/Napthine Liberal government.

• Anderson Road North, Sunshine


• Anderson Road South, Sunshine

Whilst they were delivered under a Baillieu/Napthine government as part of the RRL, they were paid for with funding from the Rudd/Brumby government financed RRL.

Maybe the PTV has become politicised


Mike.

Maybe the PTV has become politicised


Mike.

There is no 'maybe' - the whole public service has been politicised for years since the politicians started appointing their mates to the top jobs rather than accept the impartiality of the public service to serve equally whoever was in power on the day.

Also the Labor party were in office for 11 years previously which is longer than the Liberal party who only had 4 years to complete these 5 level crossing removals. I believe people are being a little critical.

You do raise a very good point.  The ALP had a long time to get the rail system right and failed dismally. Lynne Kosky (although she suffered from an unfortunate illness toward the end) was a very uninspiring minister who could have and should have done far more in that portfolio.

If you consider the ALP track record (we have talked a lot about the Liberal equivalent) then you could be excused for thinking the ALP might struggle to get any transport work done.

Time will tell i guess.  The first 100 days of any new government are critical in achieving measured outcomes.  This is where the previous government failed.

From memory the Brumby government also removed the Somerton Road crossing near Roxburgh Park as part of the Craigieburn electrification.

Correct they did that, sneaky as I don't remember any big announcement relating to that.

But it was constructed during the Baillieu/Napthine government term in office.

Pretty meaningless, especially since they opposed it in the first place. They would have preferred to cancel it, but not only had 90% of the contracts been written, work was well under way. In any event, it was the Regional Rail Link Authority that did all the work, not the government.

Not only did Labor initiate, fund and begin RRL, they also renewed all regional rail, which the Liberals still refer to as farce rail. They just don't get it. It was this project which produced the biggest service improvement in regional rail for more than 50 years. Labor also rebuilt Spencer Street Station, infinitely better that what was there before and fixed the tram and train contract mess that cost the state hundreds of millions - probably billions. Every service improvement in trams and trains is as a result of the Yarra Trams and Metro contracts written by the Brumby government. Labor also ordered the 50 new trams. Labor built the extension to South Morang including the associated works for the Hurstbridge line. They electrified the Sunbury line. Their one big failure was to repeat the same errors with Myki that we went through with Metcard. Despite that, Myki still cost less than Metcard.

Despite the Coalition promising to increase metro rail maintenance from $800 m to $900m, less maintenance (especially sleeper replacement) was actually done than in the previous 4 years as they used a part of it to pay for RRL works in order to save money. The sum total of 4 years in government was 7 metro trains (8 still to come) and one VLocity set (7 to come) and a lot of propaganda, including handing out tickets for the airport rail line where the next train will leave in 10 minutes and 50 years.

Remember as well the Vermont South Tram extension, the Box Hill tram extension, Craigieburn rail electrification extension, dozens of VLocity Sets, big numbers of suburban sets, introducing higher frequency SmartBus routes, upgrading roundly 20,000 bus stops across Victoria contributing 610 million to ARTC for the Wondonga by pass and gauge standardisation of the North East. Added to that are the road projects. Through all of that period it left the state with a AAA credit rating and folks might recall the Coallition sought an audit of the states finances on taking office and the report found them to be sound.  I'm not a lobbyist for Labor but add It all up and it's impressive.  My great concern has always been a lack of investment in making the existing Melbourne rail network robust and reliable. That's been a constant failing for successive Governments because it's not sexy.  On that score you have to look to Sydney to see what 20 plus years of heavy renewal has achieved. It may still have its problems but taken as a whole it's a huge network that is very well maintained.

Labor did complete quite a few transport projects. But my point is they did have almost 3 times the amount of time in office to realize these plans. In fairness the Liberals did offer plans for additional projects if they were re-elected. Such as the Melbourne rail-link tunnel and Airport line etc.

Labor also had mess-ups such as Myki for instance as you mentioned.

Yes they had more time than the Baillieu/ Napthine government, but what you fail to point out is the reasons why they had less time. To put it simply, it's because they did NOTHING. They were elected on a promise to fix the public transport system, and they failed dismally, instead they decided to back a big unpopular tunnel. What public transport improvements did they actually provide?

RRL was designed, approved and funded under John Brumby's Labor government, due to the scale of the project it was mostly completed under the Coalition, but if they had their way, it would never have proceeded, so it is unfair to give them the credit for that one (despite the fact that they kept taking the credit for it).

The only PT projects I can think of them actually devising themselves are small fry like the Warncoort loop, Talbot, Waurn Ponds and Epsom stations, Southland station (oh wait, that never materialised, despite being in an important marginal seat) and the introduction of ONE Xtrapolis train on the Frankston line.

This is why Daniel Andrews is about to be sworn in as the premier of Victoria.

Labor did complete quite a few transport projects. But my point is they did have almost 3 times the amount of time in office to realize these plans. In fairness the Liberals did offer plans for additional projects if they were re-elected. Such as the Melbourne rail-link tunnel and Airport line etc.

Labor also had mess-ups such as Myki for instance as you mentioned.

That completely misrepresents their years in office; they had Southern Cross (despite the projects' technical shortcomings the old one was a terrible embarrassment), South Morang, Craigieburn and Sunbury - and soon to add the completed Regional Rail Link to that list. The only reason Baillieu didn't pull the plug on that one when they got into office was because most of the money was from Kevin Rudd's post-GFC largesse. Otherwise I'd still be crawling behind suburban all-stoppers on the my way to visit friends in Ballarat.

And the fact that the Montague tunnel gets consigned to the bin forever is evidence that there is in fact a God and she's looking out for us.

Oh yeah don't forget MYKI, North South pipeline, the Desal Plant all approved under Labor.................real top projects, makes one wonder what we are in store for over the next 4 years under Dan the Man. Hope everybody has deep wallets with lots of $'s................

At least they did something.

At least they did something.

The all night Friday/Saturday night trial of PT in Melbourne for 12 months commences from New Years Eve  2015 in 13 months time.

Geelong 20 minute Off Peak Weekday from 04/15 with opening of RRL .

Oh yeah don't forget MYKI, North South pipeline, the Desal Plant all approved under Labor.................real top projects, makes one wonder what we are in store for over the next 4 years under Dan the Man. Hope everybody has deep wallets with lots of $'s................

The Desal plant was an insurance policy to cover an extended drought that left Melbourne's water supplies at catastrophically low levels. It will be needed at some point (and the Libs committed to desal in a previous election..2006?). When it inevitably gets switched on during the next mega drought, the Government of the day will be grateful. I accept the fact that its funding is a big hit and the construction unions cleaned up very nicely.
Another ALP initiative of the late 2000s was the buy back of the rail infrastructure lease from PN. That lease was a festering sore which caused much angst for some years.

While I agree the Liberal party did not complete a myriad of projects. I will add some others that I believe were Liberal projects.

There may be others that I am unaware of.

The previous Lib Gov also did the Warragul station transport interchange, now complete apart from the road underpass at the down end.

...the construction unions cleaned up very nicely...

The unions didn't get anything out of it, other than the gratitude of their members. No doubt as a recruitment drive, the unions may have claimed superior negotiating skills to get the higher wages on this project. That might be somewhat true, but for anyone who knows which way is up, the major reason was the competition for skill from the west and north. Projects in the Kimberleyin WA and around Gladstone in Qld created such a demand for skilled electricians and the like that they could basically name their own price. How ironic. It's the corollary of a fixed centralised wage system that the Libs so derided for so many years. Let the market set prices so they said. Well, what we know is when the market has high demand and low supply, the market screws. These days, the same workers are not so much in demand and face significant periods of lay off. A little more knowledge and little less ideology never goes astray.

While I agree the Liberal party did not complete a myriad of projects. I will add some others that I believe were Liberal projects.

A new Springvale railway station and grade separation.
A new Mitcham train station and grade separation.
The Ringwood Station upgrade (commenced)
The Balaclava Station Upgrade
New Wyndham Vale and Tarneit stations


There may be others that I am unaware of.

Wyndham Vale and Tarneit are part of RRL and have been all along. So the libs didn't do that (though they did modify the station design)

I

My prediction is that the PSO program will be quietly chopped back in line with what Victoria Police think should happen. They will stay at the major interchanges like Dandenong and Sunshine but I recall reading something from earlier this year where VicPol were quietly telling the government that the program was too expensive and that it needed more prudent placement of the PSO's. I'd imagine with the change of government Andrews won't really care about protecting the signature law and order policy of Ted Baillieu from 2010 and he'll probably heed the advice of the department and scale it back.

The PSO's should be riding the trains, not sitting on empty stations with their hands inside the vest. I saw a particularly unpleasant incident on a VLP train today with no PSO around and the connie was in the safety of her cabin,

The Desal plant was an insurance policy to cover an extended drought that left Melbourne's water supplies at catastrophically low levels. It will be needed at some point (and the Libs committed to desal in a previous election..2006?). When it inevitably gets switched on during the next mega drought, the Government of the day will be grateful. I accept the fact that its funding is a big hit and the construction unions cleaned up very nicely.
Another ALP initiative of the late 2000s was the buy back of the rail infrastructure lease from PN. That lease was a festering sore which caused much angst for some years.

Not only was Desal and insurance policy (still don't understand why people don't get this) but there have been towns down Ol Desal way requesting water from it this year, the Liberal government swore that they would never turn on the taps so that is the only reason why it hasn't been used as yet

Oh yeah don't forget MYKI, North South pipeline, the Desal Plant all approved under Labor.................real top projects, makes one wonder what we are in store for over the next 4 years under Dan the Man. Hope everybody has deep wallets with lots of $'s................

MYKI was a shambles although it's probably not bad now.

The others not so much. The desal plant was needed but the scope was excessive plus they refused to consider waste water treatment to alleviate water consumption. Plus the outrageous PPP scheming that both sides of politics think is sooo wonderful (started by Kennett, I think).

The rationale for N/S pipeline was to distribute 1/3 of the water projected to be saved by the taxpayer funded project to cover all the hundreds of kilometres of irrigation channels throughout Vic back to Melbs. 1/3 was to benefit farmers and the final 1/3 to go to the environment. Since the cost was borne by every taxpayer, city and country, the benefits were to go to city dwellers and country folk. No idea if the project irrigation channel project is complete.

The ALP have also promised to deliver the Mernda rail extension.

30 new trains on the Melbourne network. This is probably in addition to the trains ordered by the libs but never delivered. 8 still to come.

20 new vline carriages

New rail services for Bendigo

Nothing really for regional freight.

As for the libs promises. I am certain these would never have been delivered. Why was the railway station at Southland not delivered ?

They really need to remove Werribees level crossing to be honest

The desal plant was needed but the scope was excessive plus they refused to consider waste water treatment to alleviate water consumption. Plus the outrageous PPP scheming that both sides of politics think is sooo wonderful (started by Kennett, I think).

I partly blame the public for that one too.  They saw how hysterical people in South-East QLD got years ago when they proposed sewerage recycling for Toowoomba - even though the water produced was going to be of an incredibly high standard (suitable for medical use) the public just couldn't bear to think of drinking something that might have been through someone else's kidneys - even though all water does! So they came to the conclusion that incredibly expensive and energy-intensive sea-water recycling scheme was the way to go basically because it was more acceptable to the public.

PPP's get used extensively by both sides because they use clever mezzanine-finance tools to ensure that the actual debt is kept off government balance sheets so the government of the day can claim they're fiscally responsible (and merchant bankers aggressively push these schemes onto governments). The problem is that they're actually more expensive than straight out borrowing so they end up costing taxpayers more $$$ in the long run.

As for the libs promises. I am certain these would never have been delivered. Why was the railway station at Southland not delivered ?

This was the main factor in them losing office in my opinion - the fact that they promised a lot but ultimately didn't deliver anything. Not even that station at Southland.  Napthine failed to bridge the credibility gap and the voters punished him accordingly.

This was the main factor in them losing office in my opinion - the fact that they promised a lot but ultimately didn't deliver anything. Not even that station at Southland. Napthine failed to bridge the credibility gap and the voters punished him accordingly.

Yep, spot on.

...Why was the railway station at Southland not delivered ?

It would be nice to get the official reason for this, after all, it was only going to cost $13 million. And, of course, that was part of the problem. Labor promised it too at the 2010 election but said it would cost $47 million. Mulder then said "A ha, that proves Labor can't build things without blowouts." He must have known that $13 million was way too low, either that or he was stupid. But he snookered himself. He could hardly say, "Oops, Labor was right" and build it for $47 million. They worked hard behind the scenes, as Labor had done many times before, to try to get Westfield to cough up. But they got the same answer that Labor did. "We don't care about people coming by train, especially if we have to give up part of our carpark to build the station." People can carry a lot more stuff away in their cars than by hand on public transport. Technical obstacles elsewhere were also a problem, not least of all the bridge over Bay Road. Unless it was going to be replaced, an island platform was ruled out. Alas, some bright spark in the 50s sold off reserved land to the west of the line for houses. This is the reason the third track does not go to Cheltenham. Even if Westfield gave up some of their land, additional acquisitions from adjacent properties would be required for a decent station, significantly adding to cost. So they came up with a minimalist two platform approach that would cost $22 million. The only progress that I am aware of is the placing of a propaganda sign on the fence stating that, "We are building the Southland Station".