It has been obvious for several years now that the big decisions on the routes and nodes of major new public transport infrastructure are not being made by the Premier the Cabinet alone. The Premiers’ puppet masters were working out what decisions would maximise the profit potential for their corporations and then leave Read more about WHO IS REALLY MAKING THE BIG DECISIONS ABOUT METRO WEST?[…]
The Fifth Estate: The top 10 TFE articles of 2015 (22 December 2015)
2015 has been a huge year for The Fifth Estate. Reader numbers continued to grow; we clocked up our most read, commented upon and shared story in TFE history; and the number of special projects, events and ebooks we took on seemed to grow exponentially.
Following the success of COP21 and a renewed focus on cities from our federal government and indeed the world, we leave the year hopeful for an even bigger 2016 – hopeful that our leaders now finally understand the importance of a sector we’ve been talking about for close to seven years now, and hopeful that they will now implement some concrete actions to improve its sustainability.
As we head off for the Christmas break, we’ll leave you with the top 10 stories of 2015 – there’s some scandal, some hope, some “how-to”s and a little bit of old-fashioned sustainability ingenuity to boot. See you in 2016!
Continue reading “The Fifth Estate: The top 10 TFE articles of 2015” »
EcoTransit News: WestConnex – $15 billion down a hole! (October 2015) If it were ever completed, WestConnex would be the biggest underground motorway system anywhere in the world, and certainly, per kilometre, the most expensive. This gigantic project, which would take at least 10 years to finish, is being forced on the NSW taxpayer at a time when the Read more about EcoTransit News: WestConnex – $15 billion down a hole![…]
Friends of Erskineville: Rail Against Rail Cuts meeting with Mathew Hounsell (14 July 2015) Mathew explains issues facing Sydney public transport, major land use rezoning via urban activation, Metro faction vs CityRail faction, Rodd Staples, North West Rail Link and behind story the push for driverless trains.
The Fifth Estate: Video: Gavin Gatenby & David Kirby on WestConnex & history repeating (2 July 2015)
In the late 1970s in Sydney it was the South-West freeway, now the M5, that drew heavy opposition.
Today it’s the WestConnex, but as far as EcoTransit Sydney’s Gavin Gatenby is concerned the fundamentals have not changed.
Gatenby, no stranger to agitation on behalf of more equitable and sustainable outcomes, has interviewed former NSW Supreme Court judge David Kirby, who conducted a thorough review of radial freeways on behalf of the NSW government at the time, starting in 1979. Continue reading “Video: Gavin Gatenby & David Kirby on WestConnex & history repeating” »
Under way: Work has been undertaken to stabilise the rail embankment. Picture: Jessica Christodoulou
St George and Sutherland Shire Leader: $17 million cost of Arncliffe pedestrian tunnel ‘shocks’ country cousins By Murray Trembath June 19, 2015
Roads and Infrastructure Minister Duncan Gay has defended the staggering $17 million cost of the Arncliffe pedestrian tunnel, saying comparisons with other projects are ‘‘simplistic’’. Continue reading “$17 million cost of Arncliffe pedestrian tunnel ‘shocks’ country cousins” »
Premier Baird announcing the plan.
AltMedia: Baird’s new harbour crossing plan under fire. By Joe Bourke (April 16, 2015)
Co-convenor of EcoTransit Sydney, Gavin Gatenby has attacked Mike Baird’s plan for a second harbour rail crossing, calling the government’s recent announcement that drilling has begun on the project a “stunt”. Continue reading “Baird’s new harbour crossing plan under fire” »
South Sydney Herald: The transport system we really need (15 March 2015)
Every time you walk around the “hood” you may very well meet one of the 50,000 new residents moving to southern Sydney. The newly planned Southern Growth Area is loosely defined from the Eastern Distributor to the Southern Railway and from Cleveland Street to Gardeners Road. The City is being redrawn dramatically, with the old Waterloo Swamp now transforming into the dense heart of the city. This ambitious venture deserves all the attention it can get from the community. Continue reading “The transport system we really need” »
A pop-up demonstration against the Baird Government’s controversial WestConnex motorway proposal organised by the Wolli Creek Preservation Society and held on Saturday 14 March 2015 beginning at 3.30pm. The location was on Bexley Road, Bexley North, at the M5 onramp, one of many local actions against WestConnex currently proceeding in Sydney. Around 100 Preservation Society Read more about Save Wolli Bushland! Stop WestCONnex![…]
On Sunday 1 February 2015, 3,000 people marched down King Street in Newtown (from Newtown Station to Sydney Park) calling for the scrapping of the WestConnex motorway proposal. This is a brief record of that march. Includes speeches by Chris Lego from Reclaim the Streets and UTS transport expert, Dr Michelle Zeibots.
Friends of Erskineville: Westconnex forum Part 1 – Gavin Gatenby (19 December 2014) A presentation with context and background to WestConnex explained by Gavin Gatenby.
It was the weekend the Baird Coalition Government – three months out from the NSW state elections – ran into a rising tide of community opposition. On Saturday 13 December, inner Sydney residents gathered at Simpson Park, St Peters, and blocked Campbell Street in a protest against the madness of the WestConnex motorway proposal. The Read more about Two days, two cities, one struggle[…]
Rockdale Residents Unite: Gavin Gatenby of EcoTransit explains why WestConnex is BAD PLANNING (2 December 2014) Recorded at No WestConnex Meeting, Rockdale, 25 November 2014.
Freeways contribute to the Los Anglisation of Sydney.
SMH: Westconnex latest attempt to ram through a thoroughly discredited freeway scheme Gavin Gatenby. (November 24, 2014)
Duncan Gay should get out more if he really believes Sydneysiders are overjoyed about WestConnex and that “our city is on the cusp of another quantum leap in growth” and that in the face of this “we can be crippled by timidity or inspired by action”. Continue reading “Westconnex latest attempt to ram through a thoroughly discredited freeway scheme” »
SMH Letters to the Editor: Words that are hollow (August 29, 2014) I watched Utopia on ABC TV on Wednesday and when I opened the Herald on Thursday, there was Les Wielinga channelling “Nation Building Authority” supremo Rob Sitch (“New body given job of ‘strategic vision’ for the harbour“, August 28). The spin is all there: Read more about SMH Letters to the Editor: Words that are hollow[…]
Direct rail access between the central business districts of two major cities is the Holy Grail of intercity rail travel. It’s what governments around the world aspire to. But NSW’s Baird Government is planning to rip up two and a half kilometres of the Newcastle rail line between Wickham and Newcastle station, forcing intercity and Read more about Don’t derail Newcastle![…]
Nick Greiner’s WestConnex proposal would cost at least $15 billion and take more than a decade to complete. In this video series EcoTransit Sydney will show that that would be time and money tragically wasted. This video explains how per-capita vehicle use has fallen to the level of 20 years ago and total vehicle kilometres Read more about WestConnex: Greiner’s folly – Part 1: A project overtaken by events[…]
In 2012 NSW’s O’Farrell Government announced that Sydney’s long-awaited North West Rail Link would proceed, but only as a metro-style, privatised operation. In addition, the Epping-Chatswood tunnel and its stations would be modified so that it could not be used by modern double-deck suburban trains. Continue reading “Unfit for purpose” »
WasteConnex is THE highest priority project for construction, consulting and finance. Thirty-three kilometres of tollways will transform tollway revenue collection and provide vital state support for Leightons Lend Lease, Evans & Peck, Transurban and Macquarie Bank. WestConnex will suck $10 billion out of public transport and freight rail projects and deliver it to big construction, Read more about WasteConnex – Infrastructure NSW’s highest priority project[…]
