If you blinked you may have missed the report buried in page 29 of the Mercury a few days ago (August 22, 2020) about the progress report from the Commonwealth Government on the Hobart City Deal.

The Mercury barely mentions public transport. But the section of the progress report that particularly interests me concerns the “Activating the Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor” in pages 17-18.

The term “Transit Corridor” has been used for so many years that many may have forgotten that it actually refers only to the Cycleway and the rail track. Main Road has not been part of the public transport conversation for years.

Once again we see much material that gives the misleading impression that the project is about urban congestion. None of the multitude of reports written about the Rail Corridor (by external consultants or any level of government) makes a credible case that light rail would ever mitigate traffic congestion. For light rail to do so would require major additional funding to move parts of the railway over or under the major thoroughfares such as Elwick Road and Albert Road.

It is really all about urban renewal but that term is buried on the second page where most would miss it. To use $25 million from an Urban Congestion Fund on a project that may well make congestion worse borders on the unethical.

The report does valiantly attempt to create the impression of activity, mentioning some documents that are new to me, with impressive titles such as Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor Precinct Plan, Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor Growth Strategy, and Northern Suburbs Transit Corridor Strategy – reports that probably do not exist.

Finally, the report makes this curious statement that the Hobart City Deal project will
“Continue to explore opportunities for a value capture framework to support potential future funding opportunities for the transport solution in the corridor.”

Even the Tasmanian Labor Party say in their public transport policy that in government they “will test the market for potential operators to run a rail service through a competitive process to facilitate private investment in the project.”

Neither major party sees the proposal as financially attractive.

Clearly every major stakeholder has come to realise that all the alleged benefits of light rail will flow to Glenorchy. State and Commonwealth governments will have learnt by now that their role is to provide funding for construction, maintenance and operation, and that finding funding elsewhere may make the project financially acceptable for them – because it isn’t now.