1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan

The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan was a road and rail transport plan for Melbourne, Australia. It outlined most prominently an extensive freeway network, much of which has since been built.

The plan recommended 510km of freeway for metropolitan Melbourne, as well as extensive rail works, including the city underground loop and new lines to Doncaster and Monash University. Despite the majority of the printed material being devoted to non-car transport, 86 per cent of the projected budget was devoted to roads and parking, with only 14 per cent to other forms of transport. It was described J.M. Thompson in Great Cities and their Traffic as "clearly ... a highway plan, not - as it is called - a comprehensive transport plan", and by historian Graeme Davison as "the most expansive and expensive freeway experiment in Australian history". In 1973 the freeway plans were pruned, especially in the inner city, with State Premier Rupert Hamer cancelling all the road reservations for the unbuilt urban freeways in 1976.

Background

The plan consisted of 3 volumes:

• Survey - completed for the Melbourne Transportation Committee by Wilbur Smith & Associates and Len T. Frazer & Associates
• Parking - completed for the Melbourne Transportation Committee by Wilbur Smith & Associates and Len T. Frazer & Associates
• The Transportation Plan - completed by the Melbourne Transportation Committee.

The scope of the plan specified surveys of vehicular and personal travel, transport facilities, goods movement by road and rail, and central city parking. It built on the previous major Melbourne Transport Plans:

• 1929 Plan of General Development, Melbourne by the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission, and
• 1954 Melbourne Metropolitan Planing Scheme by the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works

and the minor

• 1961 Metropolitan Street Service Study by Traffic Commission Victoria.

Goals

The goals of the plan were simply stated:

• To ensure safe, comfortable and efficient movement of people and goods throughout the design area
• To maintain a proper balance between public and private transport
• To make maximum use of the existing facilities and plans and the commitments already embodied in these plans
• To provide a transport service matched to the expectant demand through out the design area
• To provide a system that could be adapted to meet changing conditions and be expanded beyond the design year
• To provide a transport network which could be implemented with as little interference to the commercial and community structure as possible.

Funding

The costs of the development of the plan were shared by the four participating authorities:

• Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works
• Victorian Railways Commissioners
• Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board
• Country Roads Board

and small contributions by

• Melbourne City Council
• Transport Regulation Board

Methodology

The process adopted was:

• Inventory of transport facilities, travel & developmental features of the study area.
• Forecast 1985 travel requirements (estimated population of 3.7 Million).
• Evaluation of tentative 1985 plan.
• Periodic review.

Organisation

The organisation required to develop the plan included:

• Metropolitan Transportation Committee - a statutory body established in 1963 to advise government on all transport factors (and produce the 3rd volume of the plan)
• Technical Committee - consisting of senior representatives of transportation and other authorities represented on the main committee, it's job was to oversea all the technical matters that arose during surveys and preparation of the plan
• Consultants - Wilbur Smith and Associates (New Haven, Connecticut) and Len T Frazer and Associates (Melbourne)
• Study Group - engineers who were assigned from participating authorities to be trained by and then assist the consultants in the collection of data and subsequent analysis. This group was expanded to include economists responsible for costing the final plan.

Road

The plan proposed a budget of:

• $1.675 billion for freeways
• $64 million for divided arterial roads
• $28 million on new arterial roads
• $359 million on widening existing roads and bridges
• $95 million for road/rail 80 grade separations

Major Radial

• Tullamarine Freeway - built 1970
• Eastern Freeway - built 1977-1997
• Southeastern Freeway - (also known as the Monash Freeway) built 1970-present
• Western Freeway - (known as the West Gate Freeway) built 1971-1978

Minor Radial

• Healesville Freeway - not built
• Dingley Freeway - partly built, but not of freeway standard (Dandenong Bypass, South Road Extension & Westall Road Extension)
• Mornington Peninsula Freeway - partly built 1975-present
• Frankston Freeway - built 1970's-1980
• Greensborough Freeway - partly built, but not of freeway standard (Greensborough Highway)

Inner City Bypasses

• Southern Bypass - (currently known as CityLink) built 1997
• Western Bypass - (currently known as CityLink) built 1997

Ring roads

• Western Ring Road - built 1990's
• Northern Ring Road - (currently known as the Metropolitan Ring Road) built 1999
• Eastern Ring Road - (currently known as Eastlink) built 2008

A link between the eastern and northern ring roads has been discussed as recent as July 2008, but the link would have to pass through the green wedge regions of Warrandyte, Eltham and Greensborough, this would require the destruction of areas of native vegetation or tunnels that would be longer than CityLink.

Parking

The plan included a proposed budget of $40 million for improvements in CBD parking.

Buses

The plan included a proposed budget $58 million for bus improvements.

• $50 million for 2540 new buses
• $8 million for new bus depots

Rail

File:Mtpmap01.jpg

1969 Melbourne Transportation Plans rail projects.

The forecasted budget for railway projects was $242 Million.

Planned rail projects included:

• Melbourne Underground Rail Loop (estimated at $80 million and opened in stages from 1981)

3 new railway alignments and 1 extension (budgeted for $60 Million):

• Victoria Park - East Doncaster line
• Huntingdale - Ferntree Gully extension (Rowville Line)
• Dandenong - Frankston extension
• Altona - Westona extension (now part of the Werribee extension and electrification from 1983)

and an additional:

• $8 million for extensions of suburban electric service along existing lines to Werribee (completed 1983), Rockbank, Sunbury (completed to Sydenham in 2002), Craigieburn (completed in 2007), Coldstream (line now closed), Hastings and Mornington (line now closed).
• $42 million for route capacity improvements on existing lines (upgrades to automatic signaling, duplication of 19 miles of single track and 33 miles of new express tracks in existing rights of ways.)
• $2 million for new stations to be built on existing lines
• $35 million on additional suburban trains
• $15 million on modal interchanges (substantial increase in car and bus parking at suburban railway stations.)

Trams

The plan included a proposed budget $55 million for 910 new trams.

See also

• Transport in Melbourne