Speech to the Light Rail 2020 Conference

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on, the Ngunnawal people. I acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.

Caroline Wilkie, CEO, Australasian Railway Association

Duncan Edgehill Chief Projects Officer, Major Projects Canberra.

Ladies and Gentlemen

I’d like to welcome all delegates to Canberra for Light Rail 2020.

Light rail is playing a growing and transformative role in efficiently connecting people across Australian cities of all sizes. 

I’d like to thank the Australasian Railway Association for taking this conference to Canberra  and allowing us to showcase Canberra’s light rail-  which opened just under one year ago -  the first stage of our city-wide light rail network.

I’d like to acknowledge CAF, co-sponsors of this conference, who supplied the light rail vehicles in our city, and who we expect will provide wire free light rail vehicles for our second stage.

I would also like to acknowledge the broader Canberra Metro consortium, some of whom will be presenting in further detail at this conference - people who have worked closely with Transport Canberra and the ACT Government in delivering this world class infrastructure project.

Our Government is incredibly proud of light rail in Canberra.

And taking part in the rail renaissance that is occurring across Australia and in other parts of the World. 

This is part of the $50 billion in light rail extensions in Seattle which I had the opportunity to visit last year – but there are projects occurring across Australia, in Parramatta, future extensions of Gold Coast light rail and future stages of our light rail network in Canberra.

Light rail is recognised as connecting more people with high quality frequent public transport, improving congestion, reducing transport emissions, and addressing decades old planning challenges simultaneously. 

STAGE 1

The first stage of light rail from the City to Gungahlin has been incredibly successful at connecting more Canberrans with public transport it began in April last year.

Last year the weekday average of 15,433 boardings exceeded the 2021 patronage forecasts in the business case for the project.

Light rail now accounts for 20% of public transport boarding’s across the city.

And already this year we are seeking average weekday patronage of 16,385 boardings – a 6.17% growth in boardings since last year.

And there has now been a total of 3.9 million boardings on light rail overall since it began operations.

Because light rail vehicles are full, we’ve had to put on more services - by extending peak service times last month and we’re increasing headways to every 6 minutes to every 5 minutes in the mornings next month.

Improved public transport use is exactly what we are trying to achieve - and this project and it is proving its value.

This lift in public transport patronage demonstrates the value of high quality, frequent public transport in encouraging the shift from cars to public transport.

Light rail is improving passenger capacity, passenger experience and passenger perception – in a way that buses have never done in this city. 

Each trip is powered by 100% renewable electricity – helping to reduce transport emissions – a transition that we know will be much longer for our diesel bus fleet.

GROWING CITY AND TRANSPORT PLANNING

The role of light rail is going to be more important as our city grows from a city of 425,000 people today to 500,000 in 2030, the second fastest growing city behind Melbourne.

Unlike other cities we have invested in mass transit before congestion is major problem.

And that’s a hard thing to do. 

Quite frankly it means that BCR numbers aren’t as high than if we waited until the congestion problems were more acute than they are.

–though I note that the BCR for stage 1 of Canberra’s light rail has in fact improved since the original business case.

Planning and investment in light rail now will provide better outcomes as our city grows – and want to make sure that people can still move efficiently around by public transport, private transport, cycling or walking, with ease and in safety. 

Just as we are pursuing light rail to better connect people within our city we are also continuing to work with other Governments and advocate for faster rail to connect our Eastern capital cities, particularly the Canberra to Sydney link. 

We want to see in the short term a faster rail link to Sydney, ideally around the 3 hour mark. 

Now that this has been identified as a priority by infrastructure Australia we believe it’s time for the Federal Government to get on board with faster rail, and take this infrastructure investment proposal seriously.

And in the longer term we would like to see a serious federal government led approach to high speed rail – not just faster rail.

-       connected with our metropolitan light rail network.

CITY-WIDE LIGHT RAIL

The ACT Government has set out our vision for a City Wide Light Rail Network in the Light Rail Network Plan with future light rail projects outlined in the ACT Infrastructure Plan.

The first extension will be to establish a north south light rail spine of our city-wide light rail network, by extending the existing line from the City to Woden – known as light rail stage 2.

This stage will be constructed in two parts, 2A and 2B due to the different planning requirements under each part of the route and the complexity in stage 2B of bringing light rail across the lake and through the parliamentary triangle to Woden.

Stage 2A is a 1.7km extension from Civic to Commonwealth Park and connect the growing City West precinct with light rail including residential, commercial and entertainment areas and the Australian National University.

Stage 2A will be the first part of the network that  will have wire free track design and include grass tracks on Commonwealth avenue to sensitively retain the heritage vistas from Parliament House – and will enable us to get on with construction of the extension to Woden earlier while we continue to get approvals for Stage 2B.

FUTURE STAGES

As Light Rail Network Plan and Infrastructure Plan outlines -  over the next few decades, we will extend light rail to other parts of Canberra.

Today I am announcing that we will be undertake a pre-feasibility studies on two of those extensions:

Stage three - the East/West link from Belconnen to the Airport and Stage 4 – from Woden to Tuggeranong. The studies will include community consultation and will examine these future light rail corridors, including land use, the route, alignment and stop options to inform future Government decision making.

This work will build on the work we have undertaken on stages 1 and now stage 2 of Canberra’s light rail network and previous pre-feasibility work..

This funding commitment demonstrates our continued commitment to progress our vision of a city wide light rail network – connecting Canberra with better public transport.

'TRACKLESS TRAMS'

Now when we made the original decision to choose light trail as a mode of transport, in Canberra, in the very beginning -  the Government did so carefully and based on the best advice from transport and urban planners and based on the benefit of experience from light rail projects which are in operation in hundred of cities around the World.  

It also took political will of our Government to take the project to two elections to get it done. 

Based on the success of the project, it now makes sense to extend this mode of transit from North to South – providing the same high level of frequent service to the Southside – the same quality mode of transport, with a single seat journey from one end of our city to the other.

This is a commitment we made at the last election and we’re determined to get on with stage 2 bring light rail south of the lake to Woden.

It is disappointing that despite the success of light rail in operation in Canberra – and the Opposition losing two elections fought on light rail as major issue - that the Canberra Liberals are still not committed to extending light rail to Woden - and have instead been advocating for another mode of transit; trackless trams.

Now we all know in this room, that trackless trams are in fact guided buses – most recently represented by the Chinese proprietary technology being used in Hunan. 

It is unfortunate that this unproven technology is being used as a political tactic to delay investment and the benefits of proven LRT transit.

These proponents of trackless trams claim they are more affordable than light rail, based on their ability to run on the roadway. 

However our experience with building light rail in Canberra suggests otherwise.

Because we know that the trackslab and rail are only a small minority of the cost of light rail.  

Other cost components of the light rail project would still apply to a so called ‘trackless tram’ project in the ACT:

-       The demolition and clearing costs for a median alignment.

-       Moving utilities from under the median.

-       Systems for signalling, communications, emergency, passenger information.

-       A new depot would need to be built.

And the same quality of stations would be expected and be required to gain approval.

On top of all these construction costs the usual costs for managing major projects, such as bid costs, risks, contingencies and planning apply. 

The risk of adopting an unproven proprietary technology would also bring considerable project risk.

When all these factors are considered we believe any cost savings from a trackless tram project would be minimal or even non-existent.

This would be before taking into account whether or not ‘trackless trams’ can deliver the transport benefits or the wider economic benefits that light rail has already proven it can in this city and cities around the World.

Professor Peter Newman, the leading proponent from academia of ‘trackless trams’ recently described light rail as the ‘gold standard’. We agree, and our vision is for all regions of Canberra to benefit from access to high quality public transport. 

Light rail to the Town Centres of Canberra, integrated with bus services from the suburbs.

Not a second-grade guided bus for the Southside and our existing gold standard light rail for Northside.

In October we’re prepared to fight another election to ensure that city-wide infrastructure our growing city needs is delivered not delayed - and that we build on the success of Canberra’s light rail and extend the benefits of light rail to the rest of the city including the Southside.

CONCLUSION

At conference over the next two days we will hear about the benefits that light rail is providing in cities around Australia and around the world as governments and transit agencies make an unprecedented investment in a proven technology that will better connect Australians, reduce emissions, and help to shape better cities. 

I hope you have the opportunity to visit our light rail project and learn about other projects through the presentations here at today’s conference.

On behalf of the ACT Government, I am very pleased to open this Light Rail 2020 conference.

ENDS