The 'Bland Report' officially titled Report of the Board of Enquiry into the Victorian Land Transport System - Victoria 1971-72, [1] was a report prepared by Sir Henry Bland (1909-1997) [2] for the Victorian Government in 1972.
The Bland Report recommended major changes to Victorian Railway operations including closure of many of the less profitable branch lines, opening railways to competition from road transport operators, on a market basis, introduction of contract road buses, rationalisation of freight operations and creation of regional freight centres. A substantial reduction in the number of railway employees resulted from these changes. In both its scope and consequences, the Bland Report was similar to the Beeching Review in Britain.
A major outcome of the report was the Railways (Amendment) Act 1972 which passed the management and operation of the railways from the Victorian Railways Commissioners to a Victorian Railways Board made up of up to seven members, with six initially appointed with A.G. Gibbs as the first chairman. The Board was in turn replaced in 1983 when the Transport Act 1983 was passed. [3]
The Melbourne rail network is a passenger and freight train system in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The metropolitan passenger rail network is centred on the Melbourne CBD and consists of 222 stations across 16 lines, which served a ridership of 99.5 million over the year 2021-2022. It is the core of the larger Victorian railway network, with links to both intrastate and interstate systems.
Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by the names of its constituent parts: Hoddle Street, Punt Road and Barkly Street. This article will deal with the entire length of the corridor for sake of completion, as well to avoid confusion between declarations.
South Gippsland Freeway is a short freeway linking Dandenong in Melbourne's south–east to other south–eastern destinations, including the Mornington Peninsula and the Gippsland region. The freeway bears the designation M420.
V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross railway station in Melbourne. It also provides bus services across Victoria and into New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. In addition, V/Line is responsible for the maintenance of much of the Victorian freight and passenger rail network outside of the areas managed by Metro Trains Melbourne and the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
Rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. The network consists of 2,357 km of Victorian broad gauge lines, and 1,912 km of standard gauge freight and interstate lines; the latter increasing with gauge conversion of the former. Historically, a few experimental 762 mm gauge lines were built, along with various private logging, mining and industrial railways. The rail network radiates from the state capital, Melbourne, with main interstate links to Sydney and to Adelaide, as well as major lines running to regional centres, upgraded as part of the Regional Fast Rail project.
The Western Highway is the Victorian part of the principal route linking the Australian cities of Melbourne and Adelaide, with a length of approximately 258 kilometres (160 mi) of single carriageway, then 161 kilometres (100 mi) of dual carriageway known as the Western Freeway. It is a part of the National Highway network and designated routes A8 and M8. The western end continues into South Australia as the Dukes Highway, the next section of the Melbourne–Adelaide National Highway. The Western Freeway joins Melbourne's freeway network via the Western Ring Road, in the western suburbs of Melbourne.
The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations. Most of the lines operated by the Victorian Railways were of 5 ft 3 in. However, the railways also operated up to five 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge lines between 1898 and 1962, and a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge line between Albury and Melbourne from 1961.
Transport in Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, consists of several interlinking modes. Melbourne is a hub for intercity, intracity and regional travel. Road-based transport accounts for most trips across many parts of the city, facilitated by Australia's largest freeway network. Public transport, including the world's largest tram network, trains and buses, also forms a key part of the transport system. Other dominant modes include walking, cycling and commercial-passenger vehicle services such as taxis.
The Victorian Transport Study, better known as the Lonie Report, was an extensive study of freight and passenger transport within the state of Victoria, Australia. The study was set up on 13 June 1979 by the Government of Victoria, and the report was published on 26 September 1980.
Western Port Highway is a highway in Victoria, Australia, linking the south-eastern fringe of suburban Melbourne to the western coast of Western Port, after which the highway is named, at the Port of Hastings nearly 30 km to the south. It runs from the end of South Gippsland Freeway at Lynbrook, firstly as a dual carriageway and later as an undivided road, to Frankston-Flinders Road at Hastings.
The Public Transport Corporation (PTC) was a Victoria State Government owned statutory authority formed under the Transport Act 1983 which operated passenger and freight trains, trams and bus services.
The Country Roads Board was a government authority responsible for the construction and maintenance of main roads in the state of Victoria, Australia between 1913 and 1983.
VicTrack, the trading name of Victorian Rail Track Corporation, is a Victorian Government state-owned enterprise which owns all railway and tram lines, associated rail lands and other rail-related infrastructure in the state of Victoria, Australia, with the exception of the Emerald Tourist Railway Board's heritage Puffing Billy Railway.
Warrigal Road is a major inner urban road in southeastern Melbourne, Australia. On weekdays, it is heavily trafficked as it runs through many major suburbs along its route, traversing some of Melbourne's eastern and south-eastern suburbs. These suburbs include Chadstone, Oakleigh, and Cheltenham. The Chadstone Shopping Centre can be accessed directly from Warrigal Road at its eastern entrance.
Yarra Bank Highway is a short urban highway in central Melbourne, Australia. It runs parallel to the Yarra River and provides an important alternate route to CityLink's Domain and Burnley Tunnels, used by trucks carrying hazardous loads prohibited from the tunnels, and provides another route when the tunnels are closed for maintenance. Prior to the construction of CityLink, the highway provided the main link between the Monash Freeway and the West Gate Freeway. It is known along its route as Power Street, City Road, Alexandra Avenue and Olympic Boulevard.
The Transport Act 1983 was the main statute establishing government transport organisations and regulating land transport activities in the State of Victoria, Australia for 27 years from mid-1983 to mid-2010. The Act was used as the vehicle for changes to transport organisational arrangements and transport regulation activities pursued by Victorian governments over that period.
Sir Henry Armand Bland was a senior Australian public servant. He was Secretary of the Department of Defence from 1968 to 1970.
The Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR) is a former department of the Government of Victoria. It was created on 1 January 2015 by the government of Premier Daniel Andrews when the number of government departments was reduced from 9 to 7, and assumed responsibility for ministerial portfolios previously spread across 5 departments. It was abolished at the end of 2018 and divided into two new departments.
Mount Gambier–Heywood railway line is a 5 ft 3 in line located in Australia which operated from 27 November 1917 to 11 April 1995 between Mount Gambier in the state of South Australia and Heywood in the state of Victoria. It is one of two railway lines built by both state governments following an agreement in 1912 to connect to each other's railway networks. There has been calls for standardisation over the past two decades from Heywood to Wolseley since the Melbourne to Adelaide line was converted in 1995.
The Ministry of Transport, later known as the Department of Transport, was a statutory ministry that acted as the chief transport agency of the Government of Victoria between 1958 and 1996. Originally established by the Transport Act 1951 and strengthened by the Transport Act 1983, the Ministry took on a variety of roles, coordinating the state's other transport operations and reporting to a number of Ministers throughout its history.