Tonight’s Eastern Transport Coalition meeting included an update on the Federal urban transport paper which will be utilised by the ETC to convey the economic, social and environmental case for Federal leadership in the investment of urban public transport infrastructure.

The guest speaker was Karen Dowling from the National Transport Commission who spoke about the commission’s role within the Federal Government and the Infrastructure Working Group which operates through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

Infrastructure Australia has been appointed to advise governments on matters relating to nationally significant infrastructure, such as transport, energy, communications and water. Infrastructure Australia will serve as an advisory group to COAG.

Given that issues such as traffic congestion, social isolation and greenhouse emissions all have national costs it is imperative that the Federal Government begins to invest in urban public transport infrastructure. The Better Cities program of the early 1990s provided electrification to Cranbourne East and tram services to East Burwood and Bundoora. It is now time for the Federal Government to focus once again on the sustainability of our cities.

On Tuesday morning delegates of the Eastern Transport Coalition will be undertaking surveys at major transport interchanges to ascertain community attitudes on public transport. I will be at Ringwood Station from 7am to conduct these surveys.