Melbourne Airport rail link

[Deano747]

Rest of the 'undeveloped' World uses a light rail above the road.

Tram already goes to within a kilometre of Tullamarine - plenty of real estate if you have a look into the 3rd dimension .........

[turboplanner]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

Electrically-driven, multi-car set trains have the capability to handle up to around 400 passengers at once, unlike buses, which are limited to around 70-80 pax (up to maybe 160 on an articulated bus). 

Electric-drive train sets are also extremely low pollution level, and low operating cost on a per-head basis. They're faster than buses, and don't get caught up in traffic jams caused by car crashes.

Trains have a longer lifespan than buses, 15 years for buses, 30 years for the modern stainless-steel, electric-driven train car sets.

Electric train technology today is pretty advanced, AC drive motors, and regenerative braking operates down to 30kmh, meaning the disc brakes get little hard use.

Ours are all CO2 emitting in the Latrobe Valley.

[facthunter]

The Peter Abeles one in Sydney wasn't a raving success. .  Nev

[Deano747]

It didn't go anywhere - merely a tourist attraction.

Travel to some of our 'undeveloped' neighbours and see how their light rail can be sooooo much faster than a bus.

Easier to get on/off, easier to just wheel your luggage on.

 

Biggest stumbling block with Melbourne is the amount of money the Airport is making from parking and the Gov is making from vehicle registrations & petrol taxes.

Rail will never be a money making success - it should be a public service and encourage tourism.

 

[onetrack]

Population density is the tipping point for rail. European cities work well with rail and trams, because of population density. Here in Oz we suffer from the fact we're all spread out and like our space. But when the traffic congestion gets horrendous, and one prang brings the entire freeway to a halt, then the train starts looking pretty good. Plus, the cost of car ownership is a big burden for many people.

 

A factor that is becoming galling to me, is that the police close an entire section of road (including freeways) after a major prang, nowadays. This closure can be for many hours, even a whole day. It's disastrous to a road traffic system.

[turboplanner]

21 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Population density is the tipping point for rail. European cities work well with rail and trams, because of population density.

 

An interesting exception to that is Kyoto, Japan with a population of 1.5 million vs 5 million for Melbourne.

Kyoto has about three levels of city trains in a combination of ground level and underground linking to trams and buses. 

On top of that is has train lines to adjoining cities.

On top of that around 28 Shinkansen leave Kyoto each morning, each with 2000 commuters (approx 56,000) for Tokyo, and bring them back each evening. Within Kyoto you don't really need a car.

 

 

Edited December 20 by turboplanner

[Deano747]

Sydney has a train - Brisbane has a train - Perth has a Train - 

[facthunter]

SO... We have NO idea whether they make a profit or not. IF it's a service to the Public try telling the People who will never use it why THEY should pay/subsidise   special users. It's the ATTITUDE of Melbourne Airport DEMANDING  it  be Underground.  that raises my IRE. That place is a Licence to Print Money.  Nev

[Deano747]

4 hours ago, facthunter said:

 IF it's a service to the Public try telling the People who will never use it why THEY should pay/subsidise   special users. 

No public transport system anywhere (not just in Oz) makes money ....... 

It's a combined loss - it costs to build it and to run it and you lose the revenue that you would otherwise make from parking fees, vehicle registration and fuel excise. 

Probably why it's called public transport and fewer than half the population will ever use it.

 

Now - lets chat about taxpayers providing bicycle lanes for those mobile chicanes ....😁

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Here is one person's take on it.. Seems like a reasonable service to many Victorians to me

 

[3rd harmonic]

Adelaide really SHOULD have a rail link to the airport, it's only a relatively short distance of a few of km's from the main rail corridor at Mile end which is a fairly short distance to the CBD, in contrast to Melbourne which is a very looong way away. In my mind this seems like low hanging fruit! The the south rd upgrade using tunnel boring machines is going to cost mega bucks, but rail hasn't rated a mention...

Edited December 22 by 3rd harmonic
grammar