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.cite web
url=http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/rsrc/PDFs/MelbourneTransportStrategy/MelbourneTransportTask.rtf
title=Melbourne's Transport Task – an overview
publisher=www.melbourne.vic.gov.au
accessdate=2008-07-18] 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. [cite web
url=http://www.ptua.org.au/myths/balanced.shtml
title=Myth: They're not freeways, they're Integrated Transport Corridors
author=Public Transport Users Association
publisher=www.ptua.org.au
accessdate=2008-07-18] 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". [cite web
url=http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:cXkaau6xiNwJ:150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp%3Fstraction%3Dupdate%26inttype%3D1%26intid%3D1824+1969+Melbourne+Transportation+Plan&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=au
title=On the road to ... where?
work=The Age
date=November 5, 2005
author=Royce Millar
accessdate=2008-07-18 (via Google cache)] In 1973 the freeway plans were pruned, especially in the inner city, [cite web
url=http://www.doi.vic.gov.au/DOI/DOIElect.nsf/2a6bd98dee287482ca256915001cff0c/ebbeb4bd7f375a694a256ab8000a9513/%24FILE/Issues%2520and%2520Trends%2520part%25203.pdf
title=Issues and Trends: Transport
work=Northern Central City Corridor Study
publisher=www.doi.vic.gov.au
accessdate=2008-07-18] with State Premier Rupert Hamer cancelling all the road reservations for the unbuilt urban freeways in 1976.

Road

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 & Westall Road Extention)
* 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.

Rail

Rail projects included: [cite web
url=http://rtsa.com.au/assets/2008/03/rapid-transit-by-l-fouvy.pdf
title=The Melbourne region's opportunity and need for rapid transit
publisher=Railway Technical Society of Australasia
author=C L Fouvy
accessdate=2008-07-18]
* Melbourne Underground Rail Loop (opened in stages from 1981)
* Altona - Westona extension (now part of the Werribee extension and electrification from 1983)
* Victoria Park - East Doncaster line
* Huntingdale - Ferntree Gully extension
* Dandenong - Frankston extension
* 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).

ee also

*Transport in Melbourne

References