The Maribyrnong Truck Action Group has learnt that VicRoads truck count figures soon to be released will reveal dramatic increases in truck numbers in the inner west especially in Footscray.

The biggest increases have been recorded on Moore St Footscray, which has seen a staggering 46% increase in nighttime truck traffic and an overall increase of 24.6% taking its total count to nearly 2500 trucks per day.

Truck traffic on Buckley St has also increased, and alarmingly for residents has jumped during nighttime hours by more than 30%. Buckley St now carries nearly 3000 trucks each day.

MTAG is demanding immediate nighttime curfews on both Buckley St and Moore St to put a stop to a problem that is worsening dramatically.

“People can’t sleep because of all these trucks and that’s incredibly frustrating,” said MTAG spokesperson Peter Knight. “But that’s not the worst of it, we know that diesel pollution is incredibly dangerous especially for children, and we know that these streets have some of the highest levels of diesel pollution recorded by the EPA.”

MTAG insists that something needs to be done immediately to bring these trucks under control and in addition to curfew restrictions has suggested the immediate implementation of freight efficiency measures to ensure that trucks don’t travel one way empty.

“Nearly half of truck trips in our streets are made by empty trucks. This could be changed very quickly and take lots of trucks off the streets, all it needs is political will. These kinds of measures are used widely in many large cities; it’s pretty standard. We’re way behind on this, we need to catch up.” said Peter Knight.

Currently the government is proposing the Westlink Tunnel as a solution to truck problems in Footscray, “We have real reservations about the tunnel but even if it does represent a solution it is at least ten years off. What do people do until then?”

MTAG is calling for Nicola Roxon to step in and play a prominent role in solving this problem.

“Ms Roxon is the Health Minister and this is her electorate. Trucks represent the most serious health risk to her constituents and yet she is missing in action on this issue. It would be great to hear from her in this election campaign on this issue.”
UPDATE:
The Leader runs this article.

The Mail also runs an article.

TRUCK ACTION PLAN

The Maribyrnong Truck Action Group welcomes the announcement of the route for the Truck Action Plan but is asking that the Brumby Government funds the project rather than relying on the Federal Government.

The project will take up to 10,000 trucks a day off Somerville Rd and Francis St via ramps from the Westgate Freeway then an upgraded route to the port.

“This project is urgently needed in the inner west. The government’s preferred route is one that is be supported by the community at large and is the option which will have the least impact on Stony Creek. Importantly, this infrastructure will bring relief to many thousands of residents as well as improve freight efficiency.”

“The only issue is funding. Infrastructure Australia did not include the project in its recommendations and it’s time that the Brumby government just gets on with it and funds it from the state budget. We’ve been waiting for action for 11 years now.”

WESTLINK TUNNEL

Of the three options presented in the Victorian Transport Plan, two are completely unviable and will simply shift traffic problems from Central Footscray to West Footscray. These are the options with the shorter tunnels.

The third option with a tunnel portal further west near Paramount Rd would solve truck traffic problems in Footscray and have minimal impact on other residents.

“This third option with a longer tunnel makes sense as a long term option if the government is committed to building a tunnel, and would not be opposed by MTAG. However, we question the economics of this measure.”

“The tunnel will cost billions. This money would be better spent putting freight onto rail, building inland freight ports, improving freight efficiencies through the use of latest technology and global industry best practice, and taking cars off the streets by upgrading public transport.”

More information and interactive maps…

Anger is again rising in the inner west after the state government failed to fund the ‘Truck Action Plan’ to take trucks off residential streets in the inner west.

The project is budgeted at $380 million in the Victorian Transport Plan and building was supposed to begin this year. Instead there is just $21 million for planning and early works on the Truck Action Plan and the WestLink tunnel including a $6.2 million Commonwealth contribution.

“It’s a bit of a letdown. Effectively there is nothing in the budget for the Westgate ramps given the government announced $11 million of this some months ago,” said MTAG spokesman Peter Knight.

The ramps were slated as a ‘priority’ in the Victorian Transport Plan and through 2009 MTAG had meetings with Marsha Thomson, Wade Noonan and Tim Pallas and were assured that this project would go ahead.

This latest development comes after 10 years of fighting by community groups to have something done about the 20,000 trucks a day that use residential streets in the inner west.

“In 2007 MTAG commissioned a company to conduct a health survey and it revealed asthma levels three times higher than those of other Melbournians, “ said Peter Knight. “These trucks do not constitute an inconvenience, they represent a health emergency.”

“Something needs to be done urgently about this problem. We’ve been saying it for years now, Sir Rod Eddington said it, Minister Pallas admitted it, and these ramps have been on VicRoads’ drawing board for more than a decade, we hope we’re not going to be waiting for too much longer.”

MTAG is still very hopeful of good news when Infrastructure Australia announces its funding round in a month or so but whatever happens has reiterated its commitment to fight to ensure that something is done about this intolerable situation.

“We’ll do whatever we need to and hope that the progress that has been made in the last 12 months will continue,” said Peter Knight.

Click here to download pdf

WESTLINK, a proposed six-lane freeway under Footscray and through Sunshine West, is Victoria’s ”number one priority project” for federal funding, according to a Brumby government submission on the road’s likely impacts.

Quietly lodged last month with the Rudd government as a requirement of federal environment laws, the submission shows the state government is poised to use controversial new planning laws to get the $5.3 billion freeway approved.

The WestLink freeway would run above ground for eight kilometres, from Sunshine West to West Footscray, then dive underground at the corner of Sunshine and Geelong roads. It would surface two kilometres later in West Melbourne.

Read the full article online at The Age.

1. Sunshine Road Westgate Freeway Link

WHAT - A new truck route which would run west of Dempster and Sredna Streets Tottenham connecting Sunshine Rd and West Gate Freeway.
WHY – Container terminals and other industry in Tottenham, Brooklyn, Braybrook, and Sunshine generate a very significant proportion of the truck traffic using Buckley St, Geelong Rd and Moore St Footscray. The most efficient way to remove these trucks from these residential streets is to create a truck route from Sunshine Rd west of Sredna and Dempster Streets in Tottenham, which continues south to the West Gate Freeway. This route would run through industrial land rather than abut residential areas.
HOW – See Map fig. 1 below for a possible route. Note that VicRoads has already planned an upgrade for much of the route described. The two critical differences are that the MTAG route runs an extra kilometre to the Westgate Freeway and also removes trucks from Dempster and Sredna Streets maintaining them as residential streets.

2. Establish and enforce a network of designated truck routes.

WHAT – The designation and enforcement of a network of principal freight routes around Maribyrnong. This network would apply to all trucks without a local origin or destination and would consist of: (1) West Gate Freeway (2) Western Ring Road (3) Sunshine Rd- Westgate link (4) Westgate ramps – Hyde St- Whitehall St – Footscray Rd route. All other roads in Maribyrnong would be restricted to local freight only. This would include: Francis St, Somerville Rd, Williamstown Rd, Buckley St, Moore St, Geelong Rd, Whitehall St north of Napier St, Ashley St and Sunshine Rd.
WHY – There are currently more than 20,000 trucks a day using the streets of Maribyrnong; many of them have no local origin or destination. This truck traffic creates a host of problems for residents including serious health impacts and residential amenity issues problems for road users.
HOW – The network needs to be established, publicised and enforced through appropriate curfew legislation and enforcement. We propose that trucks needing to use roads other than the designated network (i.e. local trucks) would be fitted with a GPS unit so they could be tracked and their status as local traffic validated.

3. Freight efficiencies

WHAT – (1) Ensure trucks on the roads have full loads to reduce overall traffic. (2) Create incentives for trucks to travel at night.
WHY – Many trucks in the inner west travel one way empty and often even when laden may only be carrying a half load. In addition, trucks clog roads during daytime and peak hours creating inefficiencies.
HOW – Use logistics management and incentives to ensure that trucks entering and leaving the port have a full load.

4. Freight onto rail

WHAT – Recommit to substantial portion of port freight onto rail. Previously the target was set at 30% by 2010 and then dropped altogether. We call on the government to commit to 40% of freight onto rail by 2020.
WHY - Rail freight has less impact on residential amenity, is less polluting, and uses resources more efficiently.
HOW – (1) Establish three intermodal multi-user hubs (Laverton North, Somerton and Dandenong) as outlined in Freight Futures Strategy by 2015 with appropriate rail links to port. (2) Create level playing field for costs associated with rail transport as compared with road, in particular with regard to stevedoring charges (currently four times higher for rail freight than road).

5. Public transport for commuters.

WHAT - Commit to a goal of 60% of peak hour commuter traffic travelling to the inner city from the west using public transport by 2020.
WHY – This will take traffic off existing roads especially the Westgate Freeway removing the need for a tunnel.
HOW – (1) Fast-tracking of the Melbourne Metro project (part of Victorian Transport Plan) which will provide an underground line linking Footscray to Parkville, CBD and the Domain (2) Duplication and electrification of the rail line to Melton (as outlined in Victorian Transport Plan). (3) Increased frequency of services along all existing rail lines servicing the west. Fast and frequent bus links to railway stations

Read the story published in the Mail April 21

Janet Rice, Martin Wurt, and Lisel Thomas from MTAG

Full article below.

Group president Peter Knight said it did not want the federal government to fund WestLink, a freeway the Victorian government is planning. Instead, the group says a new freight route linking Sunshine Road in Tottenham to the West Gate Freeway should be built.

Unlike the WestLink plan – which would result in several West Sunshine homes being forcibly acquired – the group’s proposal would mean no homes would be demolished.

Read the full article in The Age.

Read more at The Leader

Also read this article from The Sun Herald.

Half of all trucks inspected by VicRoads in a key Melbourne freight corridor in the past year had a serious safety fault, or a problem with the driver.
A VicRoads memo, sent on January 12 to road safety groups around Victoria by a senior enforcement manager, paints a concerning picture of truck safety.
Of 8828 inspections in Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs in the year to January, 3943 trucks were found to have safety faults.
”Almost one in two are found offending,” wrote Darrell Gascoyne, VicRoads’ Metro North West manager of transport safety services.

Read the full article online at The Age.

Community consultation is central to the development of the WestLink route and this survey is an important part of early consultation activities underway to make sure community issues are understood and considered.

The online survey is not designed to discuss specific routes or designs for the road and tunnel – that will happen later in the planning process when a series of route options are released to the community for comment in mid-2010.

The $10m two-and-a-half-year WestLink planning study will develop a route involving a tunnel connection from Port of Melbourne precinct to West Footscray and will also consider a further long-term connection to the Western Ring Road.

The survey will take around 15-20 minutes to complete online at www.linkingmelbourne.vic.gov.au. The survey is one of the research activities being carried out for the WestLink Social Impact Assessment, a key part of independent specialist investigations for the project.

Hard copies of the survey are available and can be obtained at the Victorian Transport Plan Info Hub at 61 Irving Street Footscray or by calling Linking Melbourne Authority on 8562 6800. More info here.