Hi all, I wonder what it takes to stop our government wasting billions of dollars whch do not make any sense at all. The East West Link, okay, I think I wrote about that peace that will "fast-track" road traffic between crowded streets, as Eastern Freeway, Hoddle Street and the Tullamarine Freeway. All of them are overcrowded stop-and-go traffic roads at peak hours and you may have fast traffic between them if the cars entering the East West Link magically disappear without re-entering crowded streets on the other end. A black hole may do, probably. (My view is backed by the leaked impact studies we are officially not allowed to see, btw) Obviously the same logic will apply for the Metro Rail Tunnel announced today. When I take the train from my workplace to the CBD, from Macaulay (Upfield line) or Kensington station (Cragieburn line), I spent usually ca. 15 minutes (for ca. 5km) because the tracks around North Melbourne and Southern Cross are overcrowded and the trains all "park" for minutes inbetween. The "re-engineered" Metro Rail will not enter the tunnel north of the CBD, instead it is planned to go from South Yarra via Domain to Fishermans Bend and... voila - appear at Southern Cross. From there a new Airport Link will go through Footscray and Sunshine - so will leave Southern Cross the "North Melbourne" way. What a pity that it is already overcrowded there.. It looks, in the same manner Naphtine glossed over the details of the East West Link, it is a "bright" idea thatsome how fixes itself while building. For the East West Link it means most likely further damage to Royal Park as firstly admitted, and I have no idea with what kind of inventive methods they come up when building the rail lines. I consider this here extremely bizarre, and Melbournians get next to nothing for 25 billion dollars and more.. [cutting out here the private-public partnership where we spent more over time, locked in the budgets for 20/30 years, than if we would borrow and repay using bonds.. so far for "surpluses" achieved by creative accounting] A freeway to "complete" a network may look good, an airport link too - but I cannot see much value in it, definitely not one worth the biggest investment items for Melbourne for the next 10 years and burdening the budget for a few decades. There was planning before, it just gets thrown out and replaced by somebold strokes over a map by some West Victorian cowboys who may know how to build a road in Collac or Warrnambool but do not make any sense if it comes to serve transport in a multi-million people city. At the moment I take the bike, having a few minutes of tranquility along the Mooney Ponds Creek while being faster than car or train/tram between Port Melbourne and Kensington. Well, the green side of the creek will be replaced by another four lane road soon, thanks to East West Link. That's a bonus I get for the 16 billion dollars.. I wonder whether it is actually possible to inform Victorians about this. I am pretty sure the majority of the people have never heard about the "logic" of these projects. Furthermore, is it possible to have planning and construction in Melbourne that makes sense? Regards Peter