Former Melbourne schoolboy turned international business heavyweight John Denton fears the CBD is losing the \u201cvitality\u201d \u2013 and the Allan government must come up with a plan to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Melbourne was more than a few times the worlds most liveable city and has sadly fallen from the perch. It is hard to see how this will ever be the case again. Melbourne has become a dirty, directionless fiasco with massive freeway projects driving 100,000’s of cars into the CBD each and every day. Planning for transport projects has never been such a mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What city would build a trucking and heavy vehicle sewer right into the heart of an international city when other major cities are banning trucks and using rail to shuttle freight from rail yards 50kms away removing road congestion and making port access cleaner? The answer is of course only Melbourne through deals and corruption it is the only explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North East Link will only drive major congestion Into the city via the eastern freeway up until this stupid and over priced project was a freeway without too much congestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have turned the docklands area into one large polluting traffic sewer when this could have been avoided. They call this enhancement the Westgate Tunnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are adding bigger and bigger trucks to suburban streets without rationale or cause<\/a> making our roads less safe and congested even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why are we building skyrail systems across the city for rail without the ability to add track capacity for V\/line services to the regional areas? Look at the Dandenong Line as a key example. It takes over 1 hour to reach Pakenham although it is only 50 kilometres away when travelling on v\/line services. I can’t imagine the frustration of V\/Line Gippsland rail users I would have given up and they probably have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further there is not a day when there are issues on the rail network. There is not a weekend when two or more lines are down and not working. We have a busy AFL season and main lines are down. It has been impossible for weeks to get to the South Geelong railway station for the Geelong games. It just goes on and on and on with the downtime on lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We talk about making roads safer and adding bike lanes but allow B-tripple and larger trucks into the city makes no sense at all. We refuse to place freight on rail from the regions meaning more trucks travel 1000’s of kilometres with containers and grain to downtown Port of Melbourne when they should loaded loaded into inland ports and move on rail being safer and cheaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about the idea of more drug injecting rooms for the CBD bringing more drug users and dealers into the city. Melbourne already has a problem with drugs and homelessness around the CBD probably also linked to drugs in many cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I just don’t get this city anymore it is broken and bruised and without a plan and without a competent government at Council and State level.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n