On Monday 26th August, the Public Transport Association of Canberra held our election forum – an opportunity to discuss transport policy proposals and issues in light of the upcoming territory election. We were joined by transport spokespeople from the major parties: Jo Clay MLA – ACT Greens, Mark Parton MLA – Canberra Liberals, and Minister Chris Steel MLA – ACT Labor. Across two hours they made the case for their party’s transport policy, answered a range of often curly questions, and chatted with attendees. Check out some pictures below!
We had a great turnout of over sixty people, who brought a wide range of questions and concerns to the event. Topics covered included: ways to improve public transport accessibility, cost of future light rail stages, candidates’ views on the relationship between transport and planning, how to fix Transport Canberra’s poor on-time running numbers, how to improve public transport access to key tourist destinations, how to rein in infrastructure costs, and how to encourage more people to use public transport in the ACT.
PTCBR believes that transport is one of the most important issues in our city: if we don’t get transport right, it’s very hard for the rest of the city to function well. Public transport features heavily in ACT election discussions – yet our public transport system is underfunded, our light rail network is incomplete, our buses don’t run on time, our public transport mode share is shamefully low, and spending on road projects goes largely unquestioned. PTCBR are doing our best to make public transport a major election issue, and an event like this election forum helps to shift the conversation.
A big thank you to all speakers and attendees for contributing your time and energy to a fantastic evening. We’ve been thrilled to receive positive feedback from so many people. A special thanks to all who donated to the cost of venue hire – it’s a big deal for a small volunteer-run community group to hold an event like this, and we deeply appreciate your support.
Stay tuned for more election-focused content from PTCBR here on our website, in our Facebook group, on our Twitter account, and in the news.
