Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

The following article was published in the Spring 2011 edition of “Track and Signal” and published by kind permission of Mr Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure.

The idea that Australia may join other nations with our own high speed rail network has excited rail enthusiasts across the nation and potential investors around the world. The convenience of stepping onto a train in central Sydney and hopping off just three hours later in Melbourne is an attractive proposition. High speed rail could indeed be a game changer in the way Australians choose to travel.

While there is still a great deal of work to be done, early research shows that a high speed rail could connect almost 65 percent of Australians and attract up to 54 million passengers a year. It would also provide the foundation for a low carbon, high productivity economy. In August, I released Stage One of a $20 million implementation study which examines how many people would use it, where it would go and travel times.

Crucially, the report also looked at cost. Preliminary findings show that the cost of the network, if operational by 2036, would be between $61 billion and $108 billion in today’s figures, depending on the route. A ticket from Melbourne to Sydney would cost between $100 and $200, while the potentially busy commuter route from Newcastle to Sydney could cost users between $60 for the occasional business traveller, down to $16.50 for daily users if a subsidy were to be made available.

Work on Stage Two of the study is currently underway and it will pin down a preferred alignment and station options. It will also look more closely at commercial viability, potential funding sources and advise on how to plan, construct and operate such a rail system. What is clear is that high-speed rail would have enormous environmental benefits with CO2 emissions per high speed rail customer standing at about one-third of those emitted if they were travelling by car.

There are also enormous economic benefits in connecting Australians by high-speed rail. It would open up regional centres to economic development beyond our major cities and ease road congestion. However, it is critical that we hasten with caution. Such a monumental endeavour must be thoroughly assessed to be sure it would be viable with our vast distances and relatively modest population. One thing we do know is that if it is to work, it must be integrated into the existing rail and other transport networks.

With the national eye turned to high-speed rail it is important to remember that major work is currently underway on our existing network. Right now, one third of our inter-state rail network is being rebuilt with some 45 major freight and passenger rail projects completed, underway or about to begin. This week I announced that the multi-million dollar project to eliminate sharp bends on the interstate rail network between Newcastle and the Queensland border had reached another milestone with the realignment of the track now completed at two more sights. By straightening the line between Mindaribba and Paterson and between Nambucca Heads and Raleigh, trains will now be able to operate at higher speeds, shaving almost an hour off transit times. Work along the Brisbane – Melbourne line will eventuate in a total saving of a remarkable 11 hours, reducing the trip from 37 to 26 hours. It includes extended crossing loops, new signalling systems and the removal of severe curves.

The work is already paying dividends. Earlier this year, Australia’s largest supermarket chain Woolworths announced that it was planning to switch to rail to carry the 2,000 tonnes of goods it moves north each week to Sydney and Brisbane. Making rail attractive to companies such as Woolworths makes great sense, with every 1500 metre train having the carrying capacity of 100 semi-trailer trucks. Woolworths alone has 160 B-double trucks on the Melbourne to Brisbane route. Carrying those loads by rail leaves our roads safer and less congested for private motorists and reduces our carbon footprint.

We are also investing heavily in urban passenger rail, a responsibility that usually rests with the states. In fact we have at least one major urban rail project in place in every mainland state, a $7.3 billion investment. Federal Labor has invested more in urban rail than all previous federal governments collectively since Federation.

At Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) in August, an agreement was secured with major implications for the rail sector. The Prime Minister, Premier and Chief Ministers signed off on a plan to replace a myriad of confusing and often contradictory state transport rules in favour of a single national rail regulator. To be based in Adelaide, this new regulator will be in place by 1 January 2013 with one set of rules for rail workers and operators around the nation.

This historic achievement eliminates seven regulators, 46 separate pieces of legislation including seven safety acts, nine OH&S acts and seven dangerous good acts. For example, no longer will a rail operator be required to get separate safety accreditation from each state and meet different requirements for accreditation. The new law will also get rid of the differing rules for managing fatigue, replacing them with a national fatigue management framework. The deal, which will also see single regulators for the heavy vehicle and maritime sectors, will boost national income by $30 billion over the next two decades.

Rail travel has been part of the Australian landscape since the 1850s when the country was a collection of sparsely connected colonies. The 20th century saw the rise of road and air travel. In this 21st century, the Gillard Labor Government recognises that rail is the transport technology of the future. It has backed this with unprecedented investment so that Australians can reap the benefits and enjoy the greater productivity and environmental benefits that rail brings.

BBaCA Comment: With many pressures on Botany Bay and Catchment from ever expanding airport and port facilities, the Commonwealth Government support for electified High Speed Rail is good news. Converting 54 million passenger trips per year to city to city rail journey’s will reduce needs for Kingsford Smith domestic road traffic. It is pleasing that Premier Barry O’Farrell in NSW sees High Speed Rail as a better option to a second Sydney region airport.

The New South Wales Government proposes privatising the Port Botany facility at an estimated financial gain of $A1.5 billion to $A2.5 billion. The Treasurer, Mr. Mike Baird, stated the money would be used on the Princes and Pacific Highways.

It might do the government good to relook at this project. Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance opposed Port Botany expansion and continues to believe closing Sydney as a working harbour was foolish and short sighted. As Captain Cook reported to his government in 1770, 1000 ships of the light could comfortably moor in it’s waters in safety. Botany Bay is one of the most foolish places to place a working harbour, landlocked, too shallow, transport problematic and humanly unfriendly.

The northern Botany Bay community have bourne the brunt of this foolish project, driven by ideaology.

Issues include:

• projections for container growth beyond the 3.2million TEU (20 feet equivalent unit) cap at Port Botany see – http://laperouse.info/?p=1037 Will the Government ensure that the approved cap of 3.2million TEU is part of lease terms?
• growing truck traffic on key arteries such as the M5, M4, ED as well as encroachment on residential suburbs and major public assets such as the Port Botany bus depot – see http://laperouse.info/?p=1786
• achievement of 40% rail target by 2015 – the current figure is below 20% noise pollution – see http://www.matraville.info/how-far-should-the-noise-of-a-beeper-alarm-travel  - and air pollution with special reference to particulate matter from container trucks and train engines maintenance and improvement of public assets: Molineux Point Reserve and Prince of Wales Scenic Drive; Foreshore Beach and Boat Ramp; Penrhyn Bird Santuary and Lookout; Pedestrian Access Bridge to Port Botany These assets were developed as compensation, in part, for the loss of local amenity.
• environmental impacts caused by Port Botany that need to be addressed: erosion on Foreshore Beach; erosion of Lady Robinson Beach; decline in Penrhyn Estuary as habitat for migratory birds; diminished amenity at Yarra Bay; poorer water. Foreshore Beach receives unacceptable EPA Beachwatch reports and additionally we don’t have a complete picture of the impacts the T3 development has had with regard to the distribution of toxic chemicals from local industry. As you may be aware there are monitoring points for the Orica groundwater plumes in Penrhyn Estuary. The Orica chemical spill was the largest in Australia’s history and is not expected to be cleaned up this century. The containment line on Foreshore Road needs to be maintained and monitoring in Penrhyn has to continue along with yet to be commissioned studies west of Penrhyn, off Forehore Beach.
• planning powers granted to Sydney Ports in 2009 under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 – these should be returned to Botany and Randwick Councils and Department of Planning. The following link provides a list of developments which have fallen under Part 5 to date: http://www.sydneyports.com.au/corporation/planning/part_5_applications
• management of Major Hazard Facilities located on T1, the DP World Terminal. MHFs located there account for 12% of the State’s total.

The O’Farrell government has a primary responsibility to tax payers in Botany and surrounding suburbs to ensure immediate action is taken to eleviate traffic congestion and associated pollution issues generated from Port Botany and Sydney Airport, which generate conditions which brought the last government down and ensured his government was elected with such a large majority.

It is of little use for the National Party to see massive road funds before their eyes, when the real solutions are rail solutions and generating more freight from ports outside the Sydney Basin. Mr Gay, the Minister for Ports, stated in recent months, Commonwealth funding for rail duplification for the Botany goods line had been transferred to signalling, while this essential project, which would removed thousands of container trucks per year from our clogged arterial roads, has not progressed.

To ensure residential acceptance of these changes, the state and Commonwealth governments must introduce national freight standards for freight companies, dictating minimum standards for container waggons and freight engines, similar to those for cars and road transport. For too long, residents have put up with antique locomotives belching deisel fumes and freight cars making resounding percussion noises in suburbia. Jacob brakes have been banned in suburban trucking transports and rigs are regularly checked for complience. On state rail networks many rejuvenated 1950s deisel locomotives continue their journeys, when they should have been pensioned off.  

There is a long way before privatisation for Port Botany will be accepted within Sydney Basin. Some wider issues include completion of Maldon – Dombarton rail connection between Port Kembla and the Southern line, building the Melbourne to Port Brisbane inland railway via Parkes and securing the inland terminal at Parkes for the East West Perth to Sydney line.

We need people of vision and ministers need to look further than dollars from privatisation.

 Les Kennedy, Sydney Morning Herald
September 5, 2007 By the clock, it was not a serious breach of the Sydney Airport curfew – but a magistrate has put a high price on the cost to residents in interrupted sleep: a record $167,500 fine for the offending airline, Gulf Air. (more…)

The latest No Aircraft Noise newsletter from Allan Rees:  NAN Newsletter August 2007   Features include:  Why the Tax Holiday for Aviation Fuel; Curfew should be longer; Macquarie still wants shops at airport; Anthony Albanese to arrive by parachute?

A survey of aircraft noise and its impact on self-assessed quality of life was conducted in Sydney by A/Prof Deborah Black and Prof John Black of UNSW. Subjects (aged 15 – 87) chronically exposed to aircraft noise have odds of 2.61 61 (95% CI 1.42 – 4 .80) of having stress, and those chronic noise stress individuals have odds of 2.74 (95% CI 1.55 – 4.84) of having hypertension compared with those without chronic noise stress. New research design – a novel intervention based on meditation – is outlined for application by environmental managers wishing to be more pro-active in embracing health impacts of airport operations…..read full paper…

MTAG has some very important news on the F6 and a new proposal for an ‘Inner West Motorway’ being considered, very quietly by the RTA. Thanks to the Greens request for all documents regarding the F6 and Johnstons Creek Extension(JCE), more information keeps coming to light. The latest round of documents reveals the reason that the Campbell St section of the JCE is being kept on the maps. You can view the documents at the EcoTransit Sydney  website.

We are also proud to announce that Fiona Campbell has agreed to stay on for one more year as the President of MTAG, with Leah Mason signing up for Vice President, and Claudine Moutou remaining in the Secretary’s position. The President’s report demonstrated just how much we’ve
achieved in our first year as an incorporated association! Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.

The solution being proposed for the truck problems from Port Botany is to run the trucking & warehouse operations 24/7.If you go to Appendix E (Traffic Study) of the Vopak Biodiesal Proposal – currently on exhibition with the Department of Planning – this is what is written in section 2.6 -  Planned Expanison of Port Botany

It is noted that the current arterial road system that provides access into the Port Botany and Kingsford Smith Arport precinct, and in particular General Homes Drive and the M5East is currently operating close to capacity during commuter peak periods.  Information obtained from the Sydney Ports Corporation documentation indicates that the planned expansion of Port Botany will double daily traffic even with a higher rail (40%) split in the future.  The planned increase in traffic will be managed through expanding the vehicle operating times for road haulage over 7 days a week and 24 hours a day.  Instead of concentrating around the working week and typical normal working day.  The arrival of heavy vehicles is proposed to be managed through providing time slots for specified vehicles at container sites and terminals situated in the area.”

Read the No Aircraft Noise Newsletter for March 2006