LESS than 10% of Canberra’s population will be within walking distance of a light rail stop according to the Liberals’ Alistair Coe.
“The data shows that if people are willing to walk 800 meters for light rail, 7% of Canberrans will be within walking distance,” Alistair said.
“If people are only prepared to walk 400 meters, as is the distance used by ACTION for their route planning, only 3% of Canberrans will be within walking distance.
“Further to this, approximately 5000 people who live in the notional catchment around the city will have no need to use the service.
“The Opposition is very concerned that the catchment area for light rail will not support a viable system,
“Given more than 90% of Canberra’s population will still need cars, buses or bicycles, the project will hardly be ‘transformational’ as over-promised by the Government.
“The ACT Government should present all the data used to underpin their decision to go ahead with light rail,” Alistair concluded.
These calculations, however, probably don’t account for planned high density re-development of the Northbourne corridor.
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