O-Bahn Tunnel

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:16): Earlier this year, the Labor government announced version 3 of the O-Bahn extension, and since then my office has been flooded with calls and emails from concerned residents. I would like to put their concerns and thoughts on the record. First of all, there is great concern around $160 million being spent to save 2½ minutes in the morning and 3½ minutes in the afternoon. It is by most—or, I would say, all—not considered the highest priority for spending, particularly when government money is limited and there are limited resources.

This is not considered the highest priority, especially in light of the Repat being closed, the electrification of the Gawler line being cancelled due to a lack of money, the Motor Accident Commission having been sold, the Lotteries Commission having been sold, and the forests in the South-East having been sold to prop up this Labor government's state budget, along with South Australia having the highest unemployment in the nation.

There is also outrage at the destruction of Rymill Park, having a busway through it, causing the removal of 200 trees and a loss of public amenity of arguably one of the most beautiful parks in the Parklands. I read from today's Adelaidenow:

The first designs for the O-Bahn tunnel openings on Rymill Park and Hackney Rd have been released and not everyone is happy with them.

A 60m-long, 6m tall steel canopy will be built in the middle Hackney Rd as part of the $160 million O-Bahn tunnel project.

A second 20m-long canopy will be constructed in Rymill Park, near Grenfell St, designs released this week reveal.

To quote the Adelaide Parklands Preservation Association, they have described the so-called tunnel as:

…actually a trench through the parklands with a roof on top [that would] would definitely have [a great] impact.

From the Environment, Resources and Development Committee, I would like to quote from the Hon. Mark Parnell in the other house:

The Adelaide Park Lands Act of 2005 amended the Development Act, and it amended it by saying that the methods that governments traditionally use to bypass third-party appeal rights and to fast-track development, those two mechanisms declaring something to be a Crown development of a public infrastructure project or declaring it to be a major project. The 2005 act specifically said that you can't use either of those development processes for the Parklands because they are a special case. Effectively—and I think what Mr Hutchins—

who he was referring to—

has said that those protections have been in place. They are now no longer in place because of a change of planning policy, not because it's gone back to parliament to reassess.

This government has used its power to override the protections that were brought in to protect the Parklands in order to get their politically motivated O-Bahn project through at great speed.

There are many concerns throughout my community that there will be an increase of 30 buses per hour through the residential part of Grenfell Street (between East Terrace and Frome Street) raising concerns regarding the 10 residential driveways for access and safety. There will be a reduction of two lanes along Rundle Street (a very popular parking area) where cars are often queued waiting for car parks and backing out; so, this will cause lots of traffic congestion.

There is also a loss of 93 car parks along Hackney Road, which will affect users of the Botanical Gardens, the Zoo, the Wine Centre, the Ellington Function Centre, the Hackney Hotel, the church and also the future school that is proposed on Frome Street. For time costs and disruption for an estimated two years of the construction period for the 79,000 vehicles that use Hackney Road every day is also a major consideration that I do not believe has been included in the 1:6 cost-benefit ratio calculation.

There are also questions about what is the breakdown of the costs and the estimated time savings for the project with or without the tunnel or trench through Rymill Park. I call on the government to consider other more cost-effective ways to increase the reliability and speed of the O-Bahn, including gated ticketed waiting areas on Grenfell Street, park-and-ride stations at Paradise, manually operated intersections (for example, North Terrace and Hackney Road) during the only 2½ hours of peak time for five days a week, improving the condition of the tracks so that buses can resume their 100 km/h instead of the 85 km/h, to extend the right-hand turn bus lane of Hackney Road inbound and to add a second left-hand turn lane from North Terrace into Hackney Road.

Whilst I am a strong advocate of improving the speed and reliability of public transport, this project costing $160 million of public money does not provide any extra buses or any extra capacity.