1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan

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Congestion on the Monash Freeway Peak hour traffic in melbourne.jpg
Congestion on the Monash Freeway

The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan was a road and rail transport plan for Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, instituted by Henry Bolte's state government. Most prominently, the plan recommended the provision of an extensive freeway network, much of which has since been built.

Contents

Despite the majority of the printed material being devoted to non-car transport, 86 per cent of the projected budget was devoted to roads and parking, with only 14 per cent to other forms of transport. [1] The plan recommended 510 kilometres (320 mi) of freeways for metropolitan Melbourne, as well as a number of railways. Of the latter, only the City Underground Loop was constructed. Proposed lines to Doncaster and Monash University (now Clayton Campus), and between Dandenong and Frankston, [2] were never built.

The plan was described by J.M. Thompson in Great Cities and their Traffic as "clearly ... a highway plan, not – as it is called – a comprehensive transport plan", and by historian Graeme Davison as "the most expansive and expensive freeway experiment in Australian history". [3]

In 1973, some freeway plans were pruned, especially those proposed for the inner city, [4] with State Premier Rupert Hamer cancelling all the road reservations for the unbuilt urban freeways in 1976. [2]

Some significant outer suburban freeway projects, under new branding, were built by subsequent governments, including CityLink (by the Kennett government in the 1990s), EastLink (by the Bracks government in the 2000s) and Peninsula Link (by the Napthine government in the 2010s).

Background

The plan consisted of three volumes:

The scope of the plan specified surveys of vehicular and personal travel, transport facilities, goods movement by road and rail, and central city parking. It built on the previous major Melbourne Transport Plans:

and the minor

Goals

The goals of the plan were to:

Funding

The costs of the development of the plan were shared by the four participating authorities:

Minor contributions were provided by Melbourne City Council and the Transport Regulation Board.

Methodology

The process adopted was:

Organisation

The organisation required to develop the plan included:

Road

The plan proposed a budget of:

Major radial

Minor radial

Inner city bypasses

Ring roads

A North East Link between the eastern and northern ring roads was originally designed but construction has begun as of 2020 with major works to begin mid 2021.

Parking

The plan included a proposed budget of $40 million for improvements in parking in the Melbourne central business district.

Buses

The plan included a proposed budget $58 million for bus improvements:

Rail

Diagram showing Melbourne's rail network, including former and planned lines Melbourne rail map with former lines and planned extensions.svg
Diagram showing Melbourne's rail network, including former and planned lines

The forecast budget for railway projects was $242 million. Planned rail projects included: [5]

Trams

The plan included a proposed budget $55 million for 910 new trams.

See also

Adelaide:

Hobart:

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References

  1. Public Transport Users Association. "Myth: They're not freeways, they're Integrated Transport Corridors". www.ptua.org.au. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
  2. 1 2 "Melbourne's Transport Task – an overview". www.melbourne.vic.gov.au. Archived from the original on 17 September 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
  3. Royce Millar (5 November 2005). "On the road to ... where?". The Age. Archived from the original on 23 August 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2008. (via Google cache)
  4. "Issues and Trends: Transport" (PDF). Northern Central City Corridor Study. www.doi.vic.gov.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 July 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
  5. C L Fouvy. "The Melbourne region's opportunity and need for rapid transit" (PDF). Railway Technical Society of Australasia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008.