Media release – Hobart Rail Action Group, 19 October 2023
NEW PLAN IS A TO DO LIST, NOT A PLAN
The Hobart Rail Action Group today condemned the State Government’s recently released ‘Keeping Hobart Moving’ plan as not a plan at all, but merely a vague “To Do List”, lacking substance and detail, thereby preventing any meaningful analysis or feedback. The list of projects reveals very little about what is actually planned, the only other information the document includes are wafty aspirational statements.
Rail Action Group President Toby Rowallan said that; “Incredibly, the new so-called plan is simply a To Do List, and one that lacks any useful information. However, in acknowledgement of the fact that people overwhelmingly want rail, they’ve included an image of a bus that doesn’t really look like a bus, in a desperate and pathetic attempt to fool people into thinking that it’s not a bus. Unfortunately, it is still a bus.”
Mr Rowallan added “We have said it before and we will keep saying it. We need the railway used as a railway, not destroyed for a busway that no one wants. Buses, no matter what they look like, will not attract new public transport users. The Government seems blithely unaware that Metro is still struggling to meet its now reduced schedule of services on a daily basis, and the disconnect between this new plan and the reality Hobartians are currently experiencing is simply unbelievable.”
Mr Rowallan finished, saying “If the Government actually wanted to build a decent public transport network, they would reactivate the existing railway as a commuter rail service, with connecting bus/ferry services and free parking at key stations. This will cost far less than destroying the railway, and provide a clear message that they were serious about investing in public transport.”
