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Good morning ,
Last Tuesday, we kicked off our fundraising appeal to raise $20,000 for air quality monitoring. With a fourth coal terminal proposed for Newcastle, we want to know how much coal dust is in the air we’re breathing in suburbs between the mines and the port. Seventy people have so far donated $3,000. Thank you so much!
We’ve received a generous offer to match our fundraising dollar for dollar. If we reach $10,000, our donor will match every dollar and double it to $20,000!
Doubling our funds will double how many locations we can monitor. In the Hunter Valley, more than 25,000 children attend school within 500 metres of the coal corridor. We urgently need to know how coal trains are contributing to local air pollution. Newcastle is already the world’s biggest coal exporting port. If the fourth coal terminal (T4) is approved, we’ll have twice as many coal trains and twice the coal pollution where we live, work and play.
Since August, our alliance of 16 community groups has met with several politicians to express our concerns about T4, including the NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard and Member for Newcastle Tim Owen. Both have declined our invitation to speak at a public meeting in Newcastle. That isn’t slowing us down, though, and we’ve been getting excellent media coverage and community support.
We hope you can make a donation. Every little bit helps.
Thanks for your involvement in this campaign.
Warmly,
Annika (for the Coal Terminal Action Group)
Ps. For regular updates, ‘like’ our Facebook page. And please spread the word!
New satellite data reveals sea–level rise CNN (CNN) — Sea–levels are rising unevenly around the world, with Pacific countries in particular suffering significant increases over the past two decades, according to accurate new satellite data. On average, global sea–levels have been rising at about … See all stories on this topic »
‘Irreversible’ warming to raise sea levels UPI.com Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, published by the Institute of Physics in London, scientists said as a result of greenhouse gas emissions up to now the world is committed to a sea–level rise of 3.6 feet by the year 3000. The study … See all stories on this topic »
Thousand years of sea rise ‘inevitable’ TG Daily Whatever we do, greenhouse gas emissions have alreadytriggered an irreversible warming of Earth that will cause sea levels to rise for more than a thousand years to come, claims a European team. The researchers modeled sea–level changes over … See all stories on this topic »
The O’Farrell government said today it would set aside $1.8 billion for the WestConnex motorway to run from Parramatta to Sydney Airport.
The 33-kilometre extension of the M4 in Sydney’s west, which will connect with another M5 East tunnel, were the major projects in a $30 billion infrastructure plan for the state released this morning.
This afternoon, the NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, said he would back the project.
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“Even though times are tough, we recognise the need to invest in economic infrastructure to help boost productivity and create jobs,” Mr O’Farrell said.
“We said we would start work on one of Sydney’s missing motorway links in this term of government and WestConnex is that project,” he said.
“Today I can announce the next important phase in this project – the immediate establishment of the Sydney Motorways Project Office, within Roads and Maritime Services, which will be responsible for the detailed work required to make this road a reality.
The Infrastructure NSW plan, called “First Things First”, also proposes a motorway connection between the F3 and M2 motorways in northern Sydney to be built in the next five years.
The plan, released by Infrastructure NSW chairman Nick Greiner and chief executive Paul Broad at a press conference this morning, would require $20 billion in government funding in the next 20 years. Another $10 billion can be raised in tolls, the plan suggests.
The combined M4 and M5 extensions, dubbed WestConnex, are said to cost $10 billion, with just $2.5 billion in government funding.
The plan also proposes pushing buses underground in Sydney’s CBD to clear road space.
This would hinge on new underground interchanges at Wynyard and Town Hall stations, to be built within five to 10 years.
The report recommends light rail from Central to the University of NSW, but not in the city centre.
It says the next train line to be built could be an extension of the eastern suburbs line to Randwick and Maroubra.
The chairman of Infrastructure NSW said he hoped the community would regard the report as “independent of the politics of both sides, of the bureaucracy and of the various interest groups”.
Mr Greiner said he hoped people would see the plan as “coherent” and “practical”.
“The last thing the average person in NSW [wants] is another theoretical exercise that has no likelihood of being achieved.”
He said that he hoped that “people see it as a step towards good things happening in infrastructure in NSW.”
The Infrastructure NSW plan proposes that $10 billion of the estimated $30 billion cost of the projects be funded through user charges.
The project proposes tolling on motorways but only on new and upgraded roads.
It also supports the idea of “value capture” to impose new taxes on properties that will benefit by being close to newly built infrastructure.
The report also proposes the government consider public private partnerships, including so-called “availability PPPs” where the risk is carried by the taxpayer, not the private sector.
Tale of two plans
The Infrastructure NSW report departs, in a number of respects, from a separate master plan released last month by Transport for NSW.
The Infrastructure NSW report is meant to be independent advice, which the government is free to accept or reject.
It remains unclear how the O’Farrell government will weigh the differences in the two reports.
The major difference between the two documents is that the Transport for NSW report argues that a second rail crossing for Sydney Harbour is needed within the next 20 years to add capacity to the city’s train system.
But the Infrastructure NSW report argues this project would deliver little benefit for great expense.
Instead, it says Sydney’s train capacity could be increased by converting to single-deck trains.
The two reports also depart on the question of light rail in the CBD. Transport for NSW is pushing the project, but today’s report warns against it.
Mr Greiner said it could constipate the city and that light rail had a dubious record as a mass transport option.
The report says: “A high capacity light rail service on George Street is likely to be incompatible with a high quality pedestration boulevard, and the negative impacts on bus passengers from inner suburbs may be considerable.”
Water Matters Distribution Listwatermatters@ris.environment.gov.au
4:46 PM (36 minutes ago)
to ‘watermatters
Dear subscribers,
Please find the link to issue 21 of Water Matters below.
This issue of Water Matters features articles about the Wetlands Australia and Wetlands and the Carbon Cycle publications, a new Aquatic Ecosystems Toolkit, a brief update from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office and information about an on-line Groundwater atlas.
Mapping sea–level rise Deccan Herald The research will help scientists to tease out the scale of the various contributions, to long-term sea–level rise and understand better the annual and interannual changes that can occur. It is crucial to identify the extent to which sea–level rise may … See all stories on this topic »
Sea level alert for councils Auckland stuff.co.nz Sea levels are rising by about 1.5 millimetres a year. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts a rise of 180mm to 590mm by the end of the century. Guidelines and advice to help coastal communities adapt to climate change … See all stories on this topic »
NC’s coast can live with warming News & Observer According to the state Coastal Resources Commission, each passing year brings an even greater threat, thanks to rising sea levels. The CRC scared everybody by predicting a median of 38 additional inches of sea–level rise in the next 86 years. See all stories on this topic »
This is a misguided comment from the minister concerned, From a railway working perspective, this will be an adminstrative nightmare. To tranship passengers onto services already at peak capacity is not a solution. Spare us from idiots not conversant with peak rail capacities.
Chatswood will cope with rail link passengers: minister
There are mixed opinions from commuters at Chatswood station over the government’s plan to build the north-west rail link as a shuttle between Epping and Chatswood, instead of a straight run to the city.
The Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, has dismissed concerns raised by her own department that Chatswood station will not be able to cope with an influx of passengers transferring off the north-west rail link.
The Herald this morning revealed analysis showing almost half of passengers in the morning peak hour would not fit on connecting services to the city because of the need to change off the north-west rail link at Chatswood.
The analysis was conducted by consultants from the engineering firm Arup, at the request of the Transport Projects Division within Ms Berejiklian’s Transport for NSW.
Crowd concern … rail passengers at Chatswood station. Photo: James Brickwood
But speaking on 702 ABC Sydney this morning, Ms Berejiklian said the analysis was based on incomplete information.
“It did not take into consideration all the operational changes that will happen on the rail line between now and then,” the minister said.
“It didn’t take into consideration that we will be increasing the number of services from the north shore to the city to 24 an hour; currently we are getting about 17 or 18 across, so that will increase substantially by the time the rail line is open.”
However, Ms Berejiklian has not explained in detail how she will be able to add another six services an hour to the North Shore Line.
She has said there will be a new, simpler timetable, and technology upgrades on the existing rail system.
“I have every single confidence that, once the north-west rail line opens, commuters everywhere else in Sydney will be saying ‘Can I have that in my area because it will be world class.’ “
The opposition transport spokeswoman, Penny Sharpe, said: “Commuters will come last under the Hills to Chatswood shuttle.”
“[Premier] Barry O’Farrell promised a fully integrated direct rail link between the north-west and the CBD, but, instead, commuters will get a service slower than the bus and will be standing all the way to the city with no chance of a seat,” she said.
The Greens transport spokeswoman, Cate Faehrmann, said the plans for the rail link would be a disaster.
“The government’s obsession with building and privatising the link will come at the expense of improving services across the network,” Ms Faehrmann said.
“A shuttle service to Chatswood simply won’t provide residents in the north-west with a genuine alternative to driving,” she said.
“Apart from the fact that commuters will be forced to travel long distances standing, Sydney’s rail system needs a boost to capacity that can only be provided by integration with a heavy rail second harbour crossing.”
At Chatswood station this morning, commuters were divided about whether the station could handle the impact of more interchange.
“It’s already overcrowded; it doesn’t surprise me that it could become more overcrowded in the future,” one commuter, Caroline Bathje, said.
Another, Kevin Adams, said: “I think this is a brilliant station. I can’t see any major issue with people disembarking … the station is big enough. Just as long as we get this new link done, that’s all that matters. I think the government are very, very proactive in finally getting things done.”
