Mood:
sadTopic: nsw govt
Ironically - given SAM's penultimate post - it was Fairfax that carried the story earlier this week about the awful, awful problem of what looks like a badly designed, too steep track on the Chatswood to Epping link under the Lane Cove River:
October 23, 2008 - 8:38AM"RailCorp chief executive Rob Mason said the noise exceeded acceptable levels when train carriages tested on the track travelled the steep, curved section under the Lane Cove River.
"Yes, the noise, using our existing CityRail trains is too high compared with the same trains in our other tunnels of the network," Mr Mason told ABC Radio on Thursday.
Fairfax newspapers reported that train noise levels reached 90 decibels, comparable to a Boeing 737 plane coming in to land."
The SAM editor knows a bit about why the steep section was constructed. We know that the Urban Bushland mafia with Dr Judy Messer as their champion as chair of the NSW Nature Conservation Council would brook no counter arguments from Friends of the Earth Sydney (this writer's then home group) or other public transport campaigners about the extra stations from a 14 metre high bridge option.
The letter writer to the Sydney Morning Herald 24 Oct 2008 rings true. It saddens me to say so, but they are so right.
The Urban Bushland mafia within the green movement had to have every last fraction of the Lane Cove National Park sacrosanct, as daily some 2,500-3,000 native trees in public forests are woodchipped down at Eden, and 400 plus people die prematuresly from bad air quality in the greater metropolitan area. Losing perspective? We do think so. Some of that 200 square metres of the park was already disturbed land apparently.
It's only a consolation now for the green movement that it was not the now ascendant Green Party sector nor was it several other peak groups.
Dr Judy Messer, you should face up to this disaster, not least your haughty policy agenda to the exclusion of other public policy concerns and other credible voices in the green movement. Bring on the accountability we say, both within and outside the green movement. Talk about Baby Boomers sitting on their digs too long.
The whole grim affair was reported by SAM micro web news back in December 2007, bouncing off a News Ltd front page screamer:
Friday, 7 December 2007Split in NSW green movement in 2000 prefaces Lane Cove River rail crossing 'debacle'
Mood:d'oh
Topic: nsw govt
