[Greens-Media] Truck traffic forecasts spell disaster for Sydney

[Hans VanLeeuwen]

Truck traffic forecasts spell disaster for Sydney
Media release - December 13, 2004

The expansion of Port Botany will spark a crisis on Sydney’s roads that can only be averted by sharing the load with Newcastle and Port Kembla, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said today.
 
“The forecasts for increased truck traffic on Sydney’s motorways as a result of developing Port Botany reveal a major crisis in the making,” Ms Rhiannon said.
 
“If Sydney is polluted, noisy and gridlocked within 20 years, it will be our so-called ‘green’ Premier who is to blame.
 
“In 1995, Bob Carr promised not to turn Sydney into another Los Angeles. Since then he has neglected the rail system while building motorway after motorway, and tunnel after tunnel.
 
“Faced with the nightmare scenario of three times as many trucks on the roads within two decades, surely the Carr Government cannot ignore reality any longer.
 
“Sydney cannot handle an unfettered increase in port traffic through Botany * particularly under the Carr Government, which has no solution other than to build more motorways.
 
“The Carr Government must bring Newcastle and Port Kembla into play, and it must build rail infrastructure to underpin the port network.
 
 “The Greens call on the Government to end this motorway madness and go back to the drawing board. We welcome the proposed levy on truck freight, but it’s only the first step. Let’s build more ports and more rail freight lines, not more roads,” Ms Rhiannon said.



Hans van Leeuwen
Media Adviser, Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon
Tel: (61 2) 9230 3551
Fax: (61 2) 9230 3550
Mob: 0425 310 562
hans.vanleeuwen at parliament.nsw.gov.au