One city’s trash is another city’s treasure - a push is on for Canberra to claim Sydney’s dumped monorail.
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The Tuggeranong Community Council has formally called on the ACT Government to buy the Sydney monorail as alternative public transport option for Canberra.
Tuggeranong Community Council president Darryl Johnston said it wasn’t an early April Fool’s Day joke.
‘‘Well, why not?’’ is his response to the naysayers.
The NSW Government announced last week it was pulling down the monorail to make way for a new convention centre at Darling Harbour, Premier Barry O’Farrell saying ‘‘the monorail is not integrated with Sydney’s wider public transport network and has never been truly embraced by the community’’.
And NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian is not discounting the interest from Canberra or other cities such as Hobart.
‘‘We are open to offers,’’ her office said.
‘‘If the Tuggernong Community Council wants to make a submission to Transport for NSW, it will be considered.’’
Mr Johnston believes the monorail could be bought at a fraction of its original cost and re-erected in Canberra in a way that was more useful to commuters.
‘‘Unlike the Sydney monorail route that was aimed at tourists, this would be a regular commuter service,’’ he said.
‘‘It is not such a fanciful idea because other cities, such as Hobart, have already expressed an interest in purchasing the Sydney monorail.’’
Mr Johnston said while the council was calling for the monorail to possibly link Tuggeranong to Civic via the Monaro Highway, in reality he didn’t mind if it was used for a link on other routes such as between Gungahlin and Civic or Civic and the airport.
The Sydney monorail has eight stations on only 3.6km of track.
‘‘My answer to that is just add some extra track. That’s all we need to do. Why not?’’ Mr Johnston said.
A monorail could be ‘‘just the start’’ of a ‘‘rail-based mass public transport system linking Tuggeranong to Civic, Queanbeyan and the other major town centres’’.
‘‘People might want to pooh-pooh the idea but I don’t particularly care. At least it gets us talking and thinking about an alternative system of public transport which is what we need in Canberra,’’ he said.
