Bill F.
The B-grade cult movie The cars that ate Paris featured a scary looking Volkswagen covered in spikes terrifying and intimidating the inhabitants of an Australian country town.
Much more terrifying and intimidating is the prospect of huge B-triple semis hurtling along most of the duplicated main roads, highways and free/tollways of Melbourne, yet this is what has been agreed to by the Federal and Victorian governments.
These monsters are equivalent in length to eight sedan cars, and weigh anything up to 80 tonnes. Changing lanes near to or overtaking large trucks is hazardous enough without one of these behemoths suddenly filling your rear view mirror.
It’s all about moving long-haul freight between the large distribution centres in the capital cities, ports and regional cities, generally places already served by rail lines with yards and terminals already equipped to handle container loads.
Why does this long-haul traffic have to go by road when rail could easily handle it and remove many thousands of large trucks off the road network, thereby easing the current chaos and congestion and making travel safer for everyone?
The answer is both simple and complex. The simple answer is that while it might be a sensible, rational thing to do for a government concerned about the quality of life for its citizens, it would restrict the ability of the capitalist class to turn a profit from all sorts of ventures associated with road transport – roadwork repairs, fuel, tyres, transport, insurance, accidents, legal costs, etc. There is much less scope for this activity with rail transport and the profit margins are less.
Hence we see massive investment in roads and minimal investment in rail traffic. The national and state railway networks are starved of the necessary funds to upgrade tracks and signalling systems beyond that needed to facilitate the movement of coal and grain trains and some regional passenger services.
The complex answer relates to the realisation of surplus value. The labour power of workers, which is never paid at its true value by the capitalists, embeds each commodity with a surplus value which is, in turn, the source of industrial profit. However, the commodity must be sold for its surplus value to be realised, and any delay in the sale, any extension of the time that it remains in circulation before profit can be drawn from it, places the producer at risk of having to get by on credit, with all the risks and additional costs that this entails. The speed of road transport, including the smaller amount of handling required to get from manufacturer to retailer or direct consumer, makes road transport the preferred option for many capitalists for movement of commodities.
Melbourne’s East-West Road Tunnel
No surprise therefore that the Victorian government under Premier Napthine has budgeted $294 million for work to start on the East-West road tunnel, bolstered by the promise of Tony Abbott that an incoming Liberal government would commit $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money to the project. This money has been committed in spite of no ‘business plan’ having been submitted to Infrastructure Australia.
Napthine says that construction of the road tunnel would ease commuter traffic congestion, but this will do little for the major bottle-necks around West Gate and Bolte bridges. As yet details and locations of on/off ramps have not been released, but there is an expectation that these will dump even more traffic into the CBD area.
However, it seems the East-West road tunnel is primarily designed to move large trucks, including B-triples, to and from the South Eastern semi-industrial suburbs and the recently announced construction of a major new deep water port terminal at Westernport. Don’t be surprised if another refinement is the creation of ‘trucks only’ lanes, for ‘safety reasons’ but really to ensure that pesky motorists can’t break up fast moving truck convoys.
Metro rail tunnel
Labor has backed the Metro rail tunnel as a priority and this would certainly achieve a good deal in relieving the congestion for commuter traffic on both rail and road. However, their commitment is on the never-never, $44 million for planning now, with little else until 2019, in spite of Infrastructure Australia saying it was “ready to go”.
The anarchy of capitalism
The current mess simply reflects the lack of rational planning where ‘market forces’ determine what is built, how it operates and who benefits. The needs of the people and society as a whole come second to the amassing of profits.
Big business doesn’t care if hundreds of thousands of workers and school kids have to spend hours getting to and from work or school, if trains run late or are cancelled. “That’s your responsibility – catch an early one to be sure! Don’t be late again!”
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