Half full or half empty??

[Chris]

The road owner, Transurban, has assured the long suffering motorists who try to use the car park that was once the M2 that their troubles are 'almost half over', in other words those motorists who are forced to use the only real transport corridor from North-West Sydney into the City are guaranteed another year of misery.

What's worse is that the government can give *no* assurance that even after the upgrade (from two to three lanes) is complete that their travel times will be significantly faster than they were before!!

What is needed urgently is the building of the North-West Rail Link which was supposed to be *completed* last year. Despite constant promises followed by backtracking to the extent the plan was actually *dropped* by the Labor government, the work was never even begun!!

To have left so many people without decent transport links was shameful but to make us wait another year for a road upgrade as well just makes things worse. Businesses are closing, people are actually moving *out* of the area because of the problems and house and land prices are static.

Yet what can we do? This area votes so solidly Liberal that they'd elect Mark Latham if he stood for the party!! The upshot is that neither side of politics has any reason to reach out to the struggling 'aspirational voter' in this area and can happily leave us to suffer.

Drives me crazy!!!

[jen]

Although we aren't in a transport gridlock that is sitting on its hands here...we have similar political problems. This area has been strong Labor since 1920ish, they would vote in a Labor red dog... the upshot is no one notices us either Chris, they don't have to work to get our vote - so they don't. Very frustrating isn't it?

You could start an email  'service'. A standard email of complaint that can be copied and pasted (with or without adjustments) and start spreading them around to friends etc then send...lots... may not achieve anything, but would make you feel better? We got students at our HS to send email complains about their 70+ year old toilets... we eventually got politicians to finally see that the toilets were OH&S issues, that renovating was expensive and impractical, and we have a shiny new toilet block.

Make the templates available in here, post a link to here in FB...a knockon effect may be that we get a few new members! (Gawd...I'm brilliant! Better not shine too early in the day...lol)

[Bravus]

I've heard of 'vote swapping' schemes, where people in different electorates swap votes (i.e. agree to vote opposite to what they want to if another person in another electorate does likewise) to get around some of these 'safe seat' issues. It requires a level of trust that tends to be missng in politics these days, but it's an intriguing idea.

[bambu]

The road owner, Transurban, has assured the long suffering motorists who try to use the car park that was once the M2 that their troubles are 'almost half over', in other words those motorists who are forced to use the only real transport corridor from North-West Sydney into the City are guaranteed another year of misery.

What's worse is that the government can give *no* assurance that even after the upgrade (from two to three lanes) is complete that their travel times will be significantly faster than they were before!!

What is needed urgently is the building of the North-West Rail Link which was supposed to be *completed* last year. Despite constant promises followed by backtracking to the extent the plan was actually *dropped* by the Labor government, the work was never even begun!!

To have left so many people without decent transport links was shameful but to make us wait another year for a road upgrade as well just makes things worse. Businesses are closing, people are actually moving *out* of the area because of the problems and house and land prices are static.

Yet what can we do? This area votes so solidly Liberal that they'd elect Mark Latham if he stood for the party!! The upshot is that neither side of politics has any reason to reach out to the struggling 'aspirational voter' in this area and can happily leave us to suffer.

Drives me crazy!!!

The 12 month old O'Farrell Liberal govt has started 'building' the North West Rail Link, as promised.
There is a model on show somewhere, Castle Hill? inviting public comment.
Public comment from people in the corridor has resulted in some changes to the plans...'flyovers' instead of tunnels or on-land tracks out your way or before it reaches near you.
"Measure twice, cut once".

Next election you should be voting Liberal to make sure it gets finished.

The M2 was always going to be a 'disaster' from the get-go.
Poorly designed, and now has to be widened.

If it'd been designed and built 'properly' in the first place none of the current chaos would be happening.
Dedicated bus lanes the whole length of it, as one example.

[Chris]

The road owner, Transurban, has assured the long suffering motorists who try to use the car park that was once the M2 that their troubles are 'almost half over', in other words those motorists who are forced to use the only real transport corridor from North-West Sydney into the City are guaranteed another year of misery.

What's worse is that the government can give *no* assurance that even after the upgrade (from two to three lanes) is complete that their travel times will be significantly faster than they were before!!

What is needed urgently is the building of the North-West Rail Link which was supposed to be *completed* last year. Despite constant promises followed by backtracking to the extent the plan was actually *dropped* by the Labor government, the work was never even begun!!

To have left so many people without decent transport links was shameful but to make us wait another year for a road upgrade as well just makes things worse. Businesses are closing, people are actually moving *out* of the area because of the problems and house and land prices are static.

Yet what can we do? This area votes so solidly Liberal that they'd elect Mark Latham if he stood for the party!! The upshot is that neither side of politics has any reason to reach out to the struggling 'aspirational voter' in this area and can happily leave us to suffer.

Drives me crazy!!!

The 12 month old O'Farrell Liberal govt has started 'building' the North West Rail Link, as promised.
There is a model on show somewhere, Castle Hill? inviting public comment.
Public comment from people in the corridor has resulted in some changes to the plans...'flyovers' instead of tunnels or on-land tracks out your way or before it reaches near you.
"Measure twice, cut once".

Next election you should be voting Liberal to make sure it gets finished.

The M2 was always going to be a 'disaster' from the get-go.
Poorly designed, and now has to be widened.

If it'd been designed and built 'properly' in the first place none of the current chaos would be happening.
Dedicated bus lanes the whole length of it, as one example.

Nope... nothing being built... just 'exploratory drilling being done here and there!! Have a look here... http://northwestrail.com.au/ - it says planning process *begins*!! Still planning after 12 years??

Makes no difference who you vote for up here. Libs know they control what is still a safe 'rural' seat... Labor don't care because it's a safe Lib seat. Can't win either way.

And the billions wasted on that white elephant of a Transitway were a disgrace... you hardly ever see a bus on it!! And most of the people out here don't want to go to Blacktown anyway, they want to go to Sydney!!