Outer suburban transport solutions welcomed

More innovation, more investment and better long term planning are all welcome recommendations of a new Infrastructure Australia report on delivering public transport to outer suburban residents.

The Property Council of Australia today welcomed Infrastructure Australia’s new report, Outer Urban Public Transport: Improving Accessibility in Low Density Areas.

“The lack of effective public transport is vitally important for millions of Australians who live in outer suburban areas of our cities”, said Property Council Chief Executive Ken Morrison.

“The report nails the public transport bind for outer suburbs – low densities which make public transport less viable, and low frequencies which make it less useful for people.

“Densifying sites around public transport, working with private transport operators on solutions that better fit dispersed suburbs, and ensuring interchanges are seamless all make a lot of sense.

“This report once again calls for the investment focus of governments to be targeted at the places where the growth pressures are greatest.

“We can’t allow our cities to fall behind in infrastructure and public transport makes an enormous difference to people’s lives, including in the outer suburbs.”

The Infrastructure Australia report also notes the importance of growing employment centres across our cities.

“High amenity, high liveability cities around the world all have multiple job centres. 

“But achieving this takes long-term planning, a clear-eyed approach to which employment anchors work and which don’t, and must be underpinned by infrastructure.

“These were all important recommendations of the Property Council’s Creating Great Australian Cities report earlier this year and should be a core focus of future City Deals negotiated by the three tiers of government.”