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Transport

The sell-off of Victoria’s public transport has cost us a fortune. Last year, the government handed $2.7 billion to the private companies that run our trains, trams and busses. Yet we still pay an average of $171 per month for public transport tickets. Privatisation has been a total failure. Victorian Socialists believe that public transport should be publicly built, owned and managed. We could create thousands of green jobs and save Victorians thousands of dollars every year if we put the system back in public hands.

What we think

  1. Access to reliable, safe, efficient and free transport is a social right.
  2. Transport infrastructure should be manufactured, owned and operated by public bodies.
  3. Our transport systems must be environmentally sustainable. New investment must prioritise low- and zero-emission, energy-efficient, affordable modes of transport, including electric and alternative-fuel vehicles.
  4. Fossil fuel reliant vehicles, freight and traffic must be phased out without causing disadvantage to working-class people.
  5. Transport infrastructure, planning and development must be democratic, and decisions must be guided by social equity and ecological sustainability.

What we'll fight for

Public Transport and Infrastructure

  1. Reverse the privatisation of public transport by putting Victoria’s train, bus and rail system back into public hands, without compensation.
  2. Make public transport free.
  3. Make public transport easy to use by establishing a “turn up and go” model, extending timetables so that key services run through the night, increasing bus, tram and train frequency, and establishing a high frequency orbital bus network that connects with other transport modes. 
  4. Waive all outstanding public transport fines issued for travelling without a valid ticket. 
  5. Construct new and extended public transport routes to improve public transport access and frequency in suburban and growth corridors, particularly by extending rail to the northern and western growth corridors. 
  6. Get rid of Authorised Officers and Protective Services Officers, who are to be made redundant and offered new roles, with training, in the public transport network or with other state agencies. 
  7. Ensure all ride-share companies provide drivers with conditions equivalent to the minimum pay and conditions under the relevant Award.

Cyclists

  1. Improve and extend bicycle paths and lanes by:
    1. Prioritising protected bicycle paths and lanes over street parking.
    2. Ensuring that protected bicycle lanes continue at intersections so that bicycles are not forced to merge with traffic.
  2. Introduce a free bike share scheme for the Melbourne CBD and inner suburbs.
  3. Build missing links in the bicycle network. 
  4. Invest $20 per person per year, or $126 million, into cycling infrastructure.
  5. Expand secure bike parking at public transport hubs such as train stations.

Roads and Cars

  1. Immediately reverse the privatisation of VicRoads.
  2. Amend infringements issuing rules so that traffic and parking fine amounts are proportionate to the recipient’s taxable income.
  3. Return toll roads to public hands.
  4. Build a publicly owned network of charging stations for electric vehicles.
  5. Initiate a scheme to subsidise low- and moderate-income motorists who upgrade to electric vehicles.
  6. Abolish car registration costs and slowly phase-in an increased petrol tax, the revenue from which will be used to offset the costs of subsidising low- and moderate-income motorists who upgrade to electric vehicles.

Infrastructure

  1. Reverse the privatisation of the Port of Melbourne.
  2. Reverse the privatisation of Melbourne Airport.
  3. Tax private jets using all airports in Victoria.
  4. Oppose the construction of a third runway at Melbourne Airport.
  5. Evaluate the likely health and environmental effects of all major transport infrastructure projects in planning stages, with any identified negative effects to be considered in assessing the suitability of the project.
  6. Upgrade Victoria’s rail network and push to standardise rail gauges across Australia by insisting that other states and territories upgrade their networks to conform with gauges used in Victoria.