Housing projects, public transport upgrades: Infrastructure Victoria releases 30-year plan
Speed limits on local streets would be cut to 30km/h under a new strategy being pushed by the state’s key infrastructure advisory body.
Victoria
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Slashing speed limits to 30km/h in local streets, building 60,000 social homes, and extending tram lines to middle suburbs are part of a 30-year blueprint released by the state’s infrastructure advisory body.
The draft strategy, which contains $75 billion of new spending and $155bn in economic benefits, zeros in on what Infrastructure Victoria says should be Government priorities.
Costs could be reduced to $55bn by partnering with other governments or organisations and through clever use of government-owned land.
There are 50 priority areas and 43 recommendations, designed to ensure Victoria’s rapid population trajectory – expected to hit 11.5 million people by 2055 – is matched by the right infrastructure projects.
Other big ticket proposals include radically altering public transport and road pricing to incentivise commuters to shift to off-peak travel, an $8bn overhaul of Victorian hospitals, ditching stamp duty in favour of a land tax, and boosting energy storage.
Most recommendations require action within five years, but some are listed as “future options” that require more planning and business cases, such as:
• BUILDING two tunnels to split the City Loop up and expand rail capacity;
• EXPAND desal plant capacity;
• EXTEND rail lines to Kalkallo in the north and Clyde to the southeast, and;
• BUILD a new underground rail line to connect Melbourne’s west to the northeast.
The plan to slash speed limits in residential streets would start in child-friendly 40km/h hour zones, such as around schools, playgrounds, and kindergartens.
But eventually any local street that has a default of 50km/h limit would be transitioned to 30km/h zones.
Infrastructure Victoria chief executive, Dr Jonathan Spear, said “slower speeds make streets safer” and the recommendation was aimed at more people walking or riding in local neighbourhoods, such as to schools and playgrounds, without impacting travel times.
“A pedestrian hit by a car at 50km/h has an 85 per cent chance of dying. At 30km/h this falls to 10 per cent,” he said.
Head of policy at the RACV, James Williams, said any blanket change to default speed limits, which do play a critical role in road safety, must be made with community expectations in mind.
He said it would be no use introducing 30kmh in areas where motorists would thumb their nose at the restrictions, but in some areas it could make sense.
“The other thing to think about is alternatives to reducing speed zones,” he said.
“Government might want to think about raised intersections, or increasing the number of zebra crossings, or protected bike lanes,” he said.
“So there are alternatives that can be considered rather than a blanket reduction in default speed zones.”
Mr Williams said RACV research shows once a speed limit is established it is usually accepted, but that the Government would need to invest a great deal in education and awareness before making blanket changes.
“Reducing the speed zone is often resisted, but the current speed zone is often accepted,” he said.
He said that recommendations to introduce more separated bicycle lanes in Victoria was welcomed, because it would “save lives”.
The report says a rail line to Melton should be electrified by 2030, which would be possible following a $4bn upgrade of rail lines connected to Sunshine, announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Jacinta Allan at a Herald Sun Future Victoria event last week.
However, it would still need a major cash injection, with Infrastructure Victoria saying the total project would cost up to $5.5bn.
Previous recommendations to phase out stamp duty in favour of a broadbased land tax, and to plan for building 900 new kindergartens and up to 60 new government schools, are also included.
Several transport recommendations align with the Allan government’s new planning zones designed to kickstart housing projects.
Up to $5.5bn to extend eight tram lines – including down major highways to Moorabbin and beyond Chadstone — would enable more housing along those corridors as well as connecting to activity centres planned by the Government.
Upgrading buses and spending up to $3.5bn on five new rapid transit routes over five years would connect tens of thousands of people in growing suburbs to jobs and other transport options.
Once a $1.7bn upgrade of Victoria’s trouble-plagued public transport ticketing system myki is finished, fares off-peak should be slashed to shift more commuters outside of peak times, reducing the amount required to be spent upgrading lines or services.
The single biggest investment recommended is to spend $19bn to $30bn over 15 years on 60,000 new social housing units, to tackle chronic waiting lists and keep people off the streets.
This would include 3000 specifically for Aboriginal Victorians.
Each new home would cost between $240,000 and $580,000 depending on size and location, with the overall spend reduced if the Government prioritised land it owned.
The report says Victoria has 2.8 per cent of homes that are social housing, which is the lowest of any state or territory, and Dr Spear said “Victoria does not have enough social housing for all the people who need it”.
He said that due to rising debt levels and high construction costs the government “cannot build everything, everywhere, all at once”, so selecting the best priorities was critical.
Opposition roads spokesman Danny O’Brien said he didn’t support a blanket rule of reducing roads to 30km/h.
“I don’t think that’s a sensible discussion in fact I think it’s somewhat of a nanny state solution to continually lower speed limits,” he said.
“I don’t think Victorians want or would accept 30km/h speed limits right across the state.”
Eight tram lines could be extended
Melburnians would be able to catch a tram to Chadstone and a train to Melton, Kalkallo or Clyde, under a blueprint for meeting the city’s booming growth.
Infrastructure Victoria’s updated 30-year strategy includes a major upgrade to transport routes across the state, including dozens of new or upgraded bus routes in regional areas and growth suburbs of Melbourne.
The report also calls for a whopping 180km of “protected and connected cycle corridors” to be built in 10 Melbourne areas and across Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Wangaratta, Wodonga and Castlemaine.
Eight tram line extensions are proposed.
Many align with activity centres for the rezoning of land for extra housing projects along new light rail corridors, such as Princes and Nepean highways.
They include extensions to middle suburbs, such as extending the Malvern East line to Hughesdale via Chadstone, and from East Brighton to Moorabbin.
In the north, there would be an extension from Melville Rd to Batman station in Coburg, and in the east from Wattle Park to Burwood East.
Inner-city extensions to Kensington, Fishermans Bend, and Flemington Bridge are also needed, the Infrastructure Victoria report says. “We estimate that it will cost $4bn to $5.5bn to extend tram lines,” it says.
Rail lines to booming growth areas in the north, west and southeast would also be critical.
Infrastructure Victoria chief executive Dr Jonathan Spear said the proportion of people who drive to work from outer suburbs and new growth areas was 63 per cent, which is nearly double those in inner-city areas.
“Over the next decade more than 800,000 people are expected to live in Melbourne’s already booming growth areas,” he said. Shifting people on to other modes of transport would also lead to less congestion on roads.
Local Government Minister Melissa Horne said a state-wide roll out of 30km/h across residential streets, near schools and kindergartens, was not on the cards.
She, however, said the government was open to working with more councils to expand decreased speed limits.
“We’re in active conversations with more than a dozen councils at the moment,” she said.
Originally published as Housing projects, public transport upgrades: Infrastructure Victoria releases 30-year plan
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