To lodge an objection to the WestConnex New M5 , please:
- download a copy of westconnex_newm5_objection.doc
- add your own comments, if you wish
- upload to http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=6788
Or for other ways to object to the WestConnex M5 EIS, visit: http://m5eis.org/category/how-to-make-your-submission/
Submissions close at Midnight!
Alexandria Residents' Action Group 
thnkyou for last night I see protest coming alive again, will it disappear if an electoral vote makes voices unheard and despair remains its only vigour. I hope not, I hope. Noel, Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2016 20:29:20 +0000 To: noeljeffs@hotmail.com
Pingback: Save Sydney Park from WestConnex | Alexandria Residents' Action Group
The WestConnex will make a huge change to the lifestyle residents enjoy in the Alexandria and surrounding suburbs. The rate of high rise buildings, with little foresight to the parking problems they create, plus the amount of traffic that will be funneled into bottleneck standstill situations. More public transport that move hundreds of people very quickly is the way to go.NOT more cars to create havoc in the AM & PM traffic.
It took me a little while to get use to living in Alexandria but in the 10 yrs I have been here I have grown to love the neighbourhood. It is family friendly as well as a stimulating environment b/c of the mix of people who choose to live here. Lets not make it like living close to Parramatta Rd where the pollution and noise of constant traffic dull the senses, create anxiety and unnecessary stress for those who live there. An increase in cars in Lawrence St as a result of WestConnex Rd changes will do that. Mike Baird and company lets come up with a better solution! Prove that you are a Premier who does care about the people .
Pingback: WestConnex, if it goes ahead, will be devastating for Sydney Park. | A People's New M5 EIS
For the record, this is what I uploaded as my own submission.
———————————–
I strongly object to the New M5.
It is a project with no winners.
The costs will exceed the benefits for those that use the M4/M5, and for those that don’t.
The EIS predicts that the project will reduce, not increase, the number of users of toll roads, precisely because the costs to commuters exceed the benefts.
Even those that continue to use the road will have their utility reduced. For only a very small number of users will the minutes saved justify the dollars spent.
On the numbers in the Updated Strategic Business Case, the cost in tolls per hour saved are well in excess of $22/hour, the estimated value of time saved. Further, evidence is that the actual value of travel time saved to motorists is well under $22/hour, perhaps as low as $6/hour. See, for example, http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-motorists-unwilling-to-pay-for-more-toll-roads-study-20151110-gkv5b3.html
According to the business case the time saved is ‘up to’ 10 to 15 minutes, but only on the longest trips.
Saving 15 minutes for a toll of around $8 means a cost per hour saved of around $32 – well in excess of the estimated value of time saved for all users except ‘business users’ and heavy vehicles, but heavy vehicles pay three times the toll. For heavy vehicles, the cost per hour saved will be around $96, again, in excess of the estimated VTTS, and probably well in excess of the real VTTS.
Further, the Updated Strategic Business Case estimates that 24% of travellers are business travellers. This is not in line with State recommendations, which recommend using a figure between 8% and 12% – meaning that at most, 8% to 12% of users might be better off. The rest will be worse off.
People may still use the New M5, to avoid congestion on parallel arterial roads, but even so, they will be worse off than if the New M5 were not to be built.
Last, but not least, those that do not drive will also be worse off, because the benefits of the project, low though the are, will still exceed the revenue.
Typical recent toll roads have been sold for 1/3 of the cost of construction – and that may be optimistic for WestConnex, given its higher than average cost to patronage ratio.
If the direct cost to build WestConnex exceeds the revenue achievable by 2/3rds, it will represent a loss of $12B of tax-payers money.
None of this considers the very real costs on residents of the areas that the New M5 will travel to, from and through.
This risks being a missed opportunity for a real solution to the very real problems that Sydney faces.
WestConnex is an expensive way to make Sydney’s roads worse.
It should not be allowed to proceed.
PS. State recommendations are here: http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/b2b/publications/tfnsw-principles-and-guidelines-for-economic-appraisal-of-transport-initiatives.pdf. The 8% to 12% is from Table 8 on page 236.
Thank you for all your efforts in raising awareness of this issue. Were it not for the actions you have taken I think this would have passed me by – which is I presume what they want to happen.
The mailbox drops must have been tough, but I think made a great impact and hopefully drummed up the kind of opposition that we will need.