Speaker 1: There's a the City of Perth a considering a traffic tunnel.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of this before, considering a traffic tunnel
Speaker 1: under the city. Professor Peter Newman from kurt Uni Professor
Speaker 1: of Sustainability joins us. Now, hi, Peter, how are you good.
Speaker 2: I'm fine, And it's a traffic tunnel just to get
Speaker 2: trucks in to help build the site. It's not going
Speaker 2: to be a long term traffic tunnel. So it's a
Speaker 2: bit different to what you quite thought. I had to
Speaker 2: have a quick look at it because it worried me.
Speaker 2: We're going to try and build a great big road
Speaker 2: under Perth, which would be a real waste of money.
Speaker 2: And you've felt that too.
Speaker 1: Well, They're not cheap, are these things. So this is
Speaker 1: under the Murray Street more connects the Forest Place Basement
Speaker 1: Reserve with the new basement area of the proposed Carethian development. So, Peter,
Speaker 1: you're hearing that it's just for construction traffic.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's construction only. And look, it's a very important
Speaker 2: development this Karellian city. I think it's a missing link.
Speaker 2: There's now a lot more pedestrians in Perth than cars.
Speaker 2: It's for the first time for a hundred years, you
Speaker 2: can say that. So people are coming pouring in from
Speaker 2: the railway station and they go through that area and
Speaker 2: they hit the Karelian area. It's hard to get through there,
Speaker 2: it's not very attractive. And then they go through all
Speaker 2: the way to Saint George's Terrace and all those developments
Speaker 2: and Forrest, the Elizabeth Key and all that. So the tourists,
Speaker 2: for example, there's nothing much there for them. Haystreet mall's
Speaker 2: been running down, so it does need redevelopment and it
Speaker 2: does need access. So they've come up with a clever
Speaker 2: solution of going under it because there's a whole lot
Speaker 2: of space under there, but there's some that I'll have
Speaker 2: to dig out as well. My problem is that we'll
Speaker 2: have to have a pedestrian strategy to get around it,
Speaker 2: you know, because at the moment that's going to go
Speaker 2: through two of the most frequently used areas, the Forest
Speaker 2: Place and Murray Street more. But so you can't just
Speaker 2: sort of load it up with dirt and junk and
Speaker 2: say where we're trying to make your future better. You're
Speaker 2: going to have to have a place where all the
Speaker 2: pedestrians can easily go around and so that will take
Speaker 2: a bit of doing so it is a challenge, but
Speaker 2: it's not quite a big freeway under the city, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, hey, thanks for thanks for correcting us on
Speaker 1: that one, Peter. Is there anywhere in your consideration in
Speaker 1: the city, in the metro area where a tunnel would
Speaker 1: be helpful? I know they're very expensive. You're often drilling
Speaker 1: and making tunnels in a sort of a water environment.
Speaker 1: You know, you're in marg'reine clay, you're in water. Is
Speaker 1: there anywhere where we might need a tunnel to think?
Speaker 2: Probably? Not. The only thing we really needed was to
Speaker 2: get the train through. That was a very big thing
Speaker 2: and that that caused a lot of controversy at the
Speaker 2: time and a lot of tunnel experts said, oh, it'll
Speaker 2: never work. And of course it's been brilliant and that's
Speaker 2: that's a major part of Perth now, to be able
Speaker 2: to go through the city like that, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's hard to imagine the place without it, and that's
Speaker 2: an important thing to realize. So I don't think there's
Speaker 2: anything much more. I reckon it's all about fixing the
Speaker 2: streets now so that we can have better access for
Speaker 2: pedestrians because they're now the biggest numbers, and that's how
Speaker 2: you make money. That's how you attract housing in more housing,
Speaker 2: more tourists, more activity. Because Perth is needs needing more activity.
Speaker 2: It's it's losing out on that. So we need to
Speaker 2: make it a really attractive place for the future. Peter.
Speaker 1: Last time I spoke to you, I was talking to
Speaker 1: you about the trackless tramp that sat on the city
Speaker 1: of Stealing fore Court for a while and you know
Speaker 1: us federal government money and I think you and I'm
Speaker 1: paraphrasing here, Peter, I apologize. I've got this ring you said.
Speaker 1: This is this is like the mobile phone. This is
Speaker 1: an absolute game change of this one. I don't reckon.
Speaker 1: We're going to get at Peter. And there may be
Speaker 1: some liberal labor politics in all of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting one. We talked about this this week. There's
Speaker 2: a study being done on central Perth by the girl
Speaker 2: group from Denmark that has done two other studies before
Speaker 2: that led to Elizabeth Key and lots of other innovations
Speaker 2: in Perth which we love now. So they're good people
Speaker 2: and they're very keen on a trackless tram coming through
Speaker 2: to the city from our curtain way. And then up
Speaker 2: through to the North out to Sterling. Look, it's it's
Speaker 2: growing in acceptance the bottom up processes. The local governments
Speaker 2: love it, the developers love it, the communities love it.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of issues with the bus industry that
Speaker 2: don't particularly want it because they think it's taking over
Speaker 2: from them. All of that has to be worked through,
Speaker 2: and I think it will be because it's it is
Speaker 2: like a mobile phone. You can't you can't go back
Speaker 2: to the old phone systems. This changed our lives. Everybody
Speaker 2: in the world now is this mobile phone, and that
Speaker 2: will happen with these smart systems that are coming in
Speaker 2: with with the public transport. They are so much better.
Speaker 2: They're not just like a diesel bus that's converted to
Speaker 2: run on electricity. It's not. It's a lot better than that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just a final one from me, a bit of
Speaker 1: chat around about improving the ferry systems on the river.
Speaker 1: We've tried them before and didn't have a great take up.
Speaker 1: You know, perhaps it's hard to get to a ferry terminal.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit slow. People prefer to drive the
Speaker 1: car or use the train. Do you think there's a
Speaker 1: case to expand our ferry systems Peter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's a little bit. They could They could
Speaker 2: definitely get better and they'll go up the river a
Speaker 2: bit more around to the area around the Optics Stadium
Speaker 2: and that sort of thing that they have special uses.
Speaker 2: But they're never a mass transit solution. They never are
Speaker 2: going to carry a lot of people because you can't
Speaker 2: get to them easily and it's Perth River winds a lot,
Speaker 2: so it takes a lot of time. No, we're not
Speaker 2: going to be able to compete with how quick to
Speaker 2: get from A to B, which is what transports mostly about.
Speaker 2: Our trains are now showing you can do it better
Speaker 2: than in a car on many of our routes. So
Speaker 2: if you didn't get from South Perth to Perth quicker
Speaker 2: than by going by car, and that would be during
Speaker 2: peak hour, for example, then you know it's got a future.
Speaker 2: And there may be a few more sites like that.
Speaker 2: To UWA for example, was one, But I don't see
Speaker 2: it as a big solution.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, Yeah, I think when we tried it
Speaker 1: back in the day, the PTA tried to Peter and
Speaker 1: they even offered up, you know, free coffee in a
Speaker 1: free newspaper on the the trial and people still didn't
Speaker 1: use it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you can't bribe people interchanging in the transport.
Speaker 2: And as it's better, we've got to get something better
Speaker 2: and that includes bidding faster and cheaper and better, better
Speaker 2: ride all of that. People are not stupid that they're
Speaker 2: going to choose rather than getting all those incentives. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I look we're getting to grips with these. I think
Speaker 2: the trackless trend, for example, is a better option. It's
Speaker 2: going to be cheaper and better and faster, and it's
Speaker 2: the kind of thing that will help our main roads
Speaker 2: get better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very interesting that you reckon the bus industry doesn't
Speaker 1: like it. Peter, always good to chat. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your time today.