Many stops on the road to better public transport

The state of Goulburn Valley roads — and, of course, up and down the entire east coast of Australia — following the seemingly endless flooding, is, in rather simple terms, not good.

A recent Melbourne Age cartoon suggested that Victoria’s pot-holed roads had been welcomed by state government authorities as part of a cunning plan to slow road users, cutting collisions and so reducing road deaths.

Such a plan would be, of course, ridiculous, but it does concur with an idea suggested by public transport proponents to encourage car drivers to abandon privately owned cars and embrace public transport.

That idea, which makes complete sense to me, needs two things to happen at once — we need to stop spending on our road network and, at the same time, lift our public transport system out of its 19th-century doldrums and launch it into the 21st century.

So, where are we now? Our road network is collapsing and our public transport infrastructure is in equal disarray.

Our road infrastructure has long been been treated like royalty, while our public transport system has been allowed to limp along begging for money like a homeless soul, holding out a tin can and sign saying “Help, please, getting older, need some refurbishment”.

Shepparton just recently celebrated the arrival of the so-called new VLocity trains, something we had waited years for and although it’s true, they are new, they’re really straight out of the late 20th century and so dated, it’s embarrassing.

A modern, privately owned car is pretty much like a mobile computer; in fact, I would argue, most new cars today would have more computing power than the rocket that took Neil Armstrong to the moon in 1969.

Our new VLocity trains, which undoubtedly rely on computing power to run safely and on time, have nothing, in a technological sense, to benefit the traveller.

If we had trains that were electric, smoother, faster, equipped with wi-fi, USB charging points, snack bars and, of course, automated digital ticketing, it would be no big deal to say to disillusioned road users, “Take the train, it’s cheaper, faster, safer and simply more comfortable and convenient”.

In addition to needing to be cheaper, faster, safer and more comfortable, country trains should have a separate, prioritised line that provides a direct route to the city proper on a track free of suburban trains.

However, we are not there — we are a long, long way from there.

We have been spending like a drunk man on the road network and, comparatively, the only spare cash available for public transport has come from the occasional garage sale or school fete.

A well-funded, equally well-designed and -built public transport network would have easily survived the recent floods, continuing to operate and providing the various centres throughout Victoria with the necessary transport links.

What we saw happen of late, will happen again. Our Rolls-Royce road network will again collapse and so like the good Boy Scout, we should be prepared, stop spending on a road network that is not, and never will be, fit for purpose and turn our attention to creating and building a sophisticated, all-electric public transport system.

And don’t for a moment think it is not possible — we were once told it would be economically impossible to live without slaves; just as we were once told society would collapse if women were allowed to vote; and the Devil would tap as all on the shoulder if we allowed same-sex marriage.

All those things have happened and none of the predicted tragedies have appeared.

Shepparton, the whole of Victoria, and the country can have cheaper, faster, safer, more comfortable and publicly owned electrified trains if only we dare to dream.

And, of course, if we are to have any chance of reaching our carbon-emission goals, we have no option but to enthusiastically and vigorously pursue this goal.

As an aside, it is worth noting that France has just banned domestic flights of less than two and a half hours, if the same journey can be made by train.

The Melbourne to Sydney air route is reputedly the third busiest in the world, and surely it would make sense for our government to replace the need to fly with a fast, efficient and sophisticated electric train, that went from city centre to city centre.

Remember: “All things are impossible until they happen, and then they become inevitable.”