To-do list is a no-brainer

Every corner of the Greater Hobart area should be planning for population growth. And to accommodate the inevitable sprawl, transport solutions need to be locked in.

EVERY corner of the Greater Hobart area should be planning for population growth. And to accommodate the inevitable sprawl, transport solutions need to be locked in.

The mayors and former mayors of any of the councils will tell you that they could pave a paper trail around Tasmania — twice — with the number of transport business cases and feasibility studies they’ve done over the years. Yet what have we funded or built? Taxpayers prop up Metro to the tune of $101 million a year. But when the service is put to the test — as it has been this month when two Greater Hobart mayors competed to rack up the most bus trips — it’s been found to be severely lacking.

Government has taken some tentative early steps. It has introduced peak-time clearways on the main through-CBD thoroughfares of Macquarie and Davey streets, and it has promised that by 2022 a small-scale ferry operation will be happening between Sullivans Cove in the city and Bellerive.

But when we talk about the development of major new suburbs — which we absolutely need to soothe our growing housing crisis — we need to have solid plans, timelines and funding in place for people to get to and from their new homes.

The Mercury revealed yesterday that a 350ha parcel of land would be redeveloped into Clarence’s newest suburb. A Florida-based urban planning company has been engaged to oversee the masterplanning of the land at Droughty Point, near Tranmere. Clarence City Council is in the process of creating a structure plan for the area, which aims to manage residential growth and guide future development of the Tranmere, Droughty Point and Rokeby peninsula.

In Glenorchy, there is ample land and potential for medium-density housing to be built close to an existing rail corridor that’s just crying out for investment.

Tasmanian businessman and Incat founder Robert Clifford is a visionary, and his view on a River Derwent ferry network is a no-brainer.

The ferry service makes an appearance in the $1.6 billion Hobart City Deal. A business case is underway and due to be completed in the next year.

The northern suburbs transport corridor, which would be an absolute gamechanger for Glenorchy and surrounds, also receives lip-service support in the City Deal, when all it really needs is to be activated as soon as possible.

It doesn’t take a multimillion-dollar business case or a $500,000 consultant to tell you that it’s nearly impossible to turn a profit out of public transport.

It will cost taxpayers to have an improved service. But when we have the lowest per capita investment in public transport in the country — combined with a housing crisis — surely there’s some room to move.

Our authorities need to be investing in new transport infrastructure with a sense of urgency. Having the vision to build the stuff now that will be needed in five or 15 years is the key to good public administration.

It may be expensive, but ultimately these are big-ticket items we can’t afford to do without.