Lonie Report
Encyclopedia
The Lonie Report, officially titled Victorian Transport Study, was a thoroughgoing study of freight and passenger transport within the state of Victoria
, in Australia. It was first organised on 13 June 1979 by the Parliament of Victoria, and was finally published on 26 September 1980.
The Report developed from an earlier inquiry into land transport in Victoria in 1972, but extended that report to cover a much greater number of topics, including, but not limited to, port
s and air transportation. There were special sections for the transport of certain important commodities, including cement
and grain. There were a few essentially similar recommendations about a number of rail lines that Parliament had originally wanted to keep open.
and BHP
, Murray Lonie. The secretary was the head of the Country Roads Board
, Robin Underwood. Between June and December 1979, 41 individuals, 21 government agencies and 28 of the then-211 local government areas wrote submissions to the report, as did a large number of lobby groups representing various positions on the question of transport planning.
The actual writing of the study was done from December 1979 until its final publication in September 1980. It was given to then-transport Minister Rob Maclellan
for publication and was released as a total of twenty-five volumes and a final report covering recommendations on every topic covered by the report.
The Lonie Report argued that, despite the immense change in demand for various modes of transportation since the beginning of the twentieth century, the transportation system was still run by the same methods as prevailed in the nineteenth century. It argued for large-scale deregulation
of transport markets, especially through removing protection to antiquated railways, and that prohibitions on the transport of such goods as Geelong cement, Gippsland
sawn timber, fertilisers and grain by road be eliminated.
The Lonie Report was particularly concerned about the operating loss
es made by VicRail
due to large declines in patronage and large increases in car
ownership. The Report fundamentally argued that it would be much too expensive to upgrade the rail system to be competitive with the car or even with buses and that therefore:
The Lonie Report also argued that because of increasing demand, there should be major plans to duplicate and divide all of Victoria's major highway
s. It also argued to reserve land for bypassing major towns on these highways. Within Melbourne
, it argued for extensions to the Eastern and South Eastern Freeways, for the linking of the West Gate Freeway
to Port Melbourne, and for the building of a ring road around the city, believing that these increases in road capacity were needed to meet predicted demand for road transport. it also argued for a bypass of Lilydale on the Maroondah Highway
. On another note, there was an argument for the introduction of clearway
s to speed up road traffic.
Another recommendation of the Report was the staggering of school and work hours in order to spread out the demand for the most economic public transport services, which it was argued would reduce the overcrowding on these services during peak periods and the number of empty services at other times. It argued that this be done through employers being encouraged by government to develop more flexible hours.
led immediately to severe criticism from large numbers of people who used rail services that the Report recommended eliminating. As a result of public protests in the last three months of 1980, the Hamer Government was forced to greatly tone down the recommendations of the Report. All tram services were retained, and the $115 million dollar 'New Deal' for Country Passengers
plan for the reorganisation of country passenger services was unveiled in February 1981.
Only the following country passenger rail lines were closed:
The Hamer Government planned to close several suburban rail lines but did not do so because of continuing protests. However, it did eliminate late night services on the Upfield Line (restored in 1997) and introduced a multimodal fare system that - unpredicted by the Report - boosted patronage to such an extent that historians believe it has been responsible for the very survival of the system today.
Some of these lines lost their passenger service. The lines themselves were not closed and were used for freight. Some of these services were reinstated by the incoming Labor government. i.e. Cobram, Stony Point and Leongatha. The Cobram and Leongatha passenger services were then converted to buses by the Kennett Government.
Nonetheless, the Lonie Report has proved very influential in transport planning, especially since the election of Jeff Kennett
as premier. Indeed, the Report could be seen as providing the basis for Kennett's "Linking Melbourne" project carried out during his seven years as Premier, and also for his elimination of the large number of regulatory mechanisms that governed transport in Victoria before the 1980s, culminating in the privatisation of public transport in the 1990s. Some of its recommendations were indeed carried out before Kennett became Premier, such as the linking of the South Eastern Freeway
to the Mulgrave Freeway.
, which negates the benefit of building the road in the first place. It has also been argued by the Public Transport Users Association
that the Report did not consider that further public transport service reductions would not recover more cost but would instead lead to larger deficits and a vicious spiral of falling patronage on public transport.
The fact that the Lonie Report was written by people with a vested interest in increasing road transport has also led many professional planners at universities
to doubt its accuracy. The Russell Report of 1991, written by an academic, suggested that the benefits of freeway building, which had been propagated by governments before and ever since the Lonie Report, were overstated.
The way the Lonie Report was written, indeed, could be seen as evidence the relatively recent findings of car, mineral and fossil fuel lobby groups (see Greenhouse Mafia
) having written government policy on energy and transport in Australia for much longer than Pearse's study confirmed.
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, in Australia. It was first organised on 13 June 1979 by the Parliament of Victoria, and was finally published on 26 September 1980.
Scope and aims
The Lonie Report aimed to, in the words of the authors:
institute a study into all freight and passenger transport within Victoria, and to and from Victoria, in order to produce a co-ordinated transport system capable of meeting the needs of all residents of Victoria, having particular regard to the effect of transport on the balanced development of the State
The Report developed from an earlier inquiry into land transport in Victoria in 1972, but extended that report to cover a much greater number of topics, including, but not limited to, port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
s and air transportation. There were special sections for the transport of certain important commodities, including cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
and grain. There were a few essentially similar recommendations about a number of rail lines that Parliament had originally wanted to keep open.
Study and recommendations
The person appointed almost immediately after the Report was convened to head it was a retired executive of General MotorsGeneral Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
and BHP
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
, Murray Lonie. The secretary was the head of the Country Roads Board
VicRoads
VicRoads or the Roads Corporation of Victoria is a statutory corporation which is the state road and traffic authority in the state of Victoria, Australia. It is responsible for maintenance and construction of the state arterial road network, as well as driver licensing and vehicle registration. ...
, Robin Underwood. Between June and December 1979, 41 individuals, 21 government agencies and 28 of the then-211 local government areas wrote submissions to the report, as did a large number of lobby groups representing various positions on the question of transport planning.
The actual writing of the study was done from December 1979 until its final publication in September 1980. It was given to then-transport Minister Rob Maclellan
Rob Maclellan
Robert Roy Cameron "Rob" Maclellan is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing the seats of Gippsland West , Berwick and Pakenham...
for publication and was released as a total of twenty-five volumes and a final report covering recommendations on every topic covered by the report.
The Lonie Report argued that, despite the immense change in demand for various modes of transportation since the beginning of the twentieth century, the transportation system was still run by the same methods as prevailed in the nineteenth century. It argued for large-scale deregulation
Deregulation
Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
of transport markets, especially through removing protection to antiquated railways, and that prohibitions on the transport of such goods as Geelong cement, Gippsland
Gippsland
Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
sawn timber, fertilisers and grain by road be eliminated.
The Lonie Report was particularly concerned about the operating loss
Income statement
Income statement is a company's financial statement that indicates how the revenue Income statement (also referred to as profit and loss statement (P&L), statement of financial performance, earnings statement, operating statement or statement of operations) is a company's financial statement that...
es made by VicRail
Rail transport in Victoria
Rail transport in Victoria, Australia, is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. Victorian lines use broad gauge, with the exception of a number of standard gauge freight and interstate lines, a few experimental narrow gauge lines, and...
due to large declines in patronage and large increases in car
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
ownership. The Report fundamentally argued that it would be much too expensive to upgrade the rail system to be competitive with the car or even with buses and that therefore:
- all country passenger rail lines except the service from Melbourne to Geelong should be replaced by coaches
- trains on the Port Melbourne, St. Kilda, Altona, Williamstown, Alamein and Sandringham lines should be replaced by busBusA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es, as should the Hurstbridge line beyond Eltham. - tramTramA tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s on Routes 1Melbourne tram route 1Tram route 1 is a public transport service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs from the terminus at Nicholson Street and Bell Street in East Coburg to the corner of Victoria Avenue and Beaconsfield Parade in Albert Park....
(to South Melbourne Beach only), 12, 57Melbourne tram route 57Tram route 57 is a public transport service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs from the corner of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street in the city centre to West Maribyrnong in the inner Western suburbs....
, 69, 72Melbourne tram route 72Tram route 72 is a public transport service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs from the University of Melbourne in the city centre to Camberwell in the eastern suburbs. It runs through the suburbs of Melbourne, South Yarra, Toorak, Malvern, Glen Iris, and Camberwell...
, 78Melbourne tram route 78Tram route 78 is a public transport service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The route starts at the Victoria St terminus , then runs along Church St, Richmond, crossing Bridge Rd and Swan St . It continues over the Yarra River along Chapel St, crossing Toorak Rd at stop 49...
/79Melbourne tram route 79Tram route 79 is a public transport service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs from North Richmond to St Kilda Beach through the suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor, Balaclava, and St, Kilda. Like most tram routes in Melbourne, it is entirely within Metcard ticketing Zone 1...
, and 82Melbourne tram route 82Tram route 82 is a public transport service in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs from the corner of Leeds and Irving Streets near Footscray railway station in Footscray to the corner of Ascot Vale Road and Puckle Street in Moonee Ponds. It is one of Melbourne's very few tram routes which...
should be replaced by buses - all night and weekend rail services be replaced by buses or multi-hire taxisShare taxiA share taxi is a mode of transport that falls between taxis and conventional buses. These informal vehicles for hire are found throughout the world. They are smaller than buses, and usually take passengers on a fixed or semi-fixed route without timetables, usually leaving when all seats are filled...
- fareFareA fare is the fee paid by a passenger allowing him or her to make use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used.-Uses:...
s should be increased more frequently to eliminate public subsidiesSubsidyA subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
as soon as possible - closed rural freight lines should remain closed and be dismantled for recyclingRecyclingRecycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
sleepersRailroad tieA railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...
and steelSteelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten... - small-volume freight should be shifted from rail to roadRoad transportRoad transport or road transportation is transport on roads of passengers or goods. A hybrid of road transport and ship transport is the historic horse-drawn boat.-History:...
- development of a multimodal fare system
- developing a system of multi-hire taxis to provide public transport in new suburbs
The Lonie Report also argued that because of increasing demand, there should be major plans to duplicate and divide all of Victoria's major highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
s. It also argued to reserve land for bypassing major towns on these highways. Within Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, it argued for extensions to the Eastern and South Eastern Freeways, for the linking of the West Gate Freeway
West Gate Freeway
West Gate Freeway is a freeway in Melbourne, Australia, linking Geelong to Melbourne CBD and beyond. It is also a link between Melbourne and the west and linking industrial and residential areas west of the Yarra River with the city and port areas. The iconic West Gate Bridge is a part of the...
to Port Melbourne, and for the building of a ring road around the city, believing that these increases in road capacity were needed to meet predicted demand for road transport. it also argued for a bypass of Lilydale on the Maroondah Highway
Maroondah Highway
Maroondah Highway , is a major east-west thoroughfare in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and a highway servicing the lower alpine region Victoria, Australia.-History:...
. On another note, there was an argument for the introduction of clearway
Clearway
The term clearway is used in several commonwealth countries to refer to stretches of road or street where parking is limited or prohibited.-Australia:...
s to speed up road traffic.
Another recommendation of the Report was the staggering of school and work hours in order to spread out the demand for the most economic public transport services, which it was argued would reduce the overcrowding on these services during peak periods and the number of empty services at other times. It argued that this be done through employers being encouraged by government to develop more flexible hours.
Influence
The release of the Lonie Report by the government of Rupert HamerRupert Hamer
Sir Rupert James Hamer, AC, KCMG, ED , generally known until he was knighted in 1982 as Dick Hamer, Australian Liberal Party politician, was the 39th Premier of Victoria, serving from 1972 to 1981.-Early years:...
led immediately to severe criticism from large numbers of people who used rail services that the Report recommended eliminating. As a result of public protests in the last three months of 1980, the Hamer Government was forced to greatly tone down the recommendations of the Report. All tram services were retained, and the $115 million dollar 'New Deal' for Country Passengers
New Deal (railway)
The New Deal' for Country Passengers was a timetable introduced on 4 October 1981 in Victoria, Australia that revolutionised the provision of country passenger railway services. 35 little-used passenger stations were closed, rolling stock utilisation improved, and new rolling stock introduced...
plan for the reorganisation of country passenger services was unveiled in February 1981.
Only the following country passenger rail lines were closed:
- Lilydale - Healesville: 1 March 1981
- DonaldDonald, VictoriaDonald is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Richardson River, at the junction of Sunraysia Highway and Borung Highway, in the Shire of Buloke. The town is named after William Donald, a Scottish pastoralist who was the first settler in the area in 1844...
to BallaratBallarat, VictoriaBallarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...
: March 1981 - ToolambaToolamba, VictoriaToolamba is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the City of Greater Shepparton Local government area, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Toolamba and the surrounding area had a population of 873.The Post Office opened on 1...
to EchucaEchuca, VictoriaEchuca is a town located on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe river in Victoria, Australia. The Border town Moama is on the northern side of the Murray river in New South Wales. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Shire of Campaspe...
: 2 March 1981 - NumurkahNumurkah, VictoriaNumurkah is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Goulburn Valley Highway, north of Shepparton, in the Shire of Moira. At the 2006 census, Numurkah had a population of 4,643.- History :...
- CobramCobram, VictoriaCobram is a town in Australia. Cobram is located on the Murray River which forms the border between Victoria and New South Wales. Cobram along with the nearby towns of Numurkah and Yarrawonga is part of Shire of Moira. Its twin town of Barooga is located on the north side of the Murray River....
: 27 April 1981 - Baxter - Mornington: 20 May 1981
- DandenongDandenong, VictoriaDandenong is a suburb and major urban centre in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 30 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Situated on Dandenong Creek and mostly flat land at the foothills of Mount Dandenong, it is the main administrative centre for the City of...
- LeongathaLeongatha, VictoriaLeongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located south-east of Melbourne. The town is the commercial, religious, educational and civic centre of the region. At the 2006 census, Leongatha had a population of 4,504.The Murray...
- YarramYarram, VictoriaYarram , is an isolated town in Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Wellington, located in the southeast of Gippsland. The term 'Yarraam Yarraam' is thought to be an aboriginal phrase meaning 'plenty of water,' however it is not known which language group the name is taken from...
: 6 June 1981 - Frankston - Stony Point: June 1981, 1981
- PortlandPortland, VictoriaThe city of Portland is the oldest European settlement in what is now the state of Victoria, Australia. It is the main urban centre of the Shire of Glenelg. It is located on Portland Bay.-History:...
to AraratArarat, VictoriaArarat is a city in south-west Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera...
: 12 September 1981
The Hamer Government planned to close several suburban rail lines but did not do so because of continuing protests. However, it did eliminate late night services on the Upfield Line (restored in 1997) and introduced a multimodal fare system that - unpredicted by the Report - boosted patronage to such an extent that historians believe it has been responsible for the very survival of the system today.
Some of these lines lost their passenger service. The lines themselves were not closed and were used for freight. Some of these services were reinstated by the incoming Labor government. i.e. Cobram, Stony Point and Leongatha. The Cobram and Leongatha passenger services were then converted to buses by the Kennett Government.
Nonetheless, the Lonie Report has proved very influential in transport planning, especially since the election of Jeff Kennett
Jeff Kennett
Jeffrey Gibb Kennett AC , a former Australian politician, was the Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999. He is currently the President of Hawthorn Football Club. He is the founding Chairman of beyondblue, a national depression initiative.- Early life :Kennett was born in Melbourne on 2 March...
as premier. Indeed, the Report could be seen as providing the basis for Kennett's "Linking Melbourne" project carried out during his seven years as Premier, and also for his elimination of the large number of regulatory mechanisms that governed transport in Victoria before the 1980s, culminating in the privatisation of public transport in the 1990s. Some of its recommendations were indeed carried out before Kennett became Premier, such as the linking of the South Eastern Freeway
Monash Freeway
Monash Freeway is an urban freeway in Victoria, Australia linking Melbourne's CBD to its southeastern suburbs and the Gippsland region. The entire stretch of the Monash Freeway bears the designation...
to the Mulgrave Freeway.
Criticism
The Lonie Report has been severely criticised ever since it was first released. Professional transport planners have generally believed that it factored only direct financial cost into the equations for considering its recommendations. It has also been criticised for not fully considering how building additional road capacity changes people's incentives in choosing between private or public transport, sometimes inducing increased demandInduced demand
Induced demand, or latent demand, is the phenomenon that after supply increases, more of a good is consumed. This is entirely consistent with the economic theory of supply and demand; however, this idea has become important in the debate over the expansion of transportation systems, and is often...
, which negates the benefit of building the road in the first place. It has also been argued by the Public Transport Users Association
Public Transport Users Association
The Public Transport Users Association is a community-based public transport lobby group in Victoria, Australia, based in Melbourne.- History and Aims :...
that the Report did not consider that further public transport service reductions would not recover more cost but would instead lead to larger deficits and a vicious spiral of falling patronage on public transport.
The fact that the Lonie Report was written by people with a vested interest in increasing road transport has also led many professional planners at universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
to doubt its accuracy. The Russell Report of 1991, written by an academic, suggested that the benefits of freeway building, which had been propagated by governments before and ever since the Lonie Report, were overstated.
The way the Lonie Report was written, indeed, could be seen as evidence the relatively recent findings of car, mineral and fossil fuel lobby groups (see Greenhouse Mafia
Greenhouse Mafia
Greenhouse Mafia is allegedly the "in house" name used by Australia’s carbon lobby for itself. It was also the title of a program aired by the ABC on the 13 February 2006 episode of its weekly current affairs program Four Corners....
) having written government policy on energy and transport in Australia for much longer than Pearse's study confirmed.
See also
- Ashworth Improvement PlanAshworth Improvement PlanThe Ashworth Improvement Plan was a report that recommended a number of improvements to be made to the electrified suburban railways of inner city Melbourne, Australia. It was produced in 1940 by a committee headed by John Marmaduke Ashworth, the Victorian Railways Chief Engineer for Way and Works...
- Operation PhoenixOperation Phoenix (railway)Operation Phoenix was a post World War II rehabilitation program carried out by the Victorian Railways in Australia. The program commenced in 1950 and was originally planned to take 10 years and cost £80 million pounds...
- 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan1969 Melbourne Transportation PlanThe 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan was a road and rail transport plan for Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia instituted by Henry Bolte's state government...
- New DealNew Deal (railway)The New Deal' for Country Passengers was a timetable introduced on 4 October 1981 in Victoria, Australia that revolutionised the provision of country passenger railway services. 35 little-used passenger stations were closed, rolling stock utilisation improved, and new rolling stock introduced...
- Regional Fast Rail projectRegional Fast Rail projectThe Regional Fast Rail project was a rail transport project of the State Government of Victoria, Australia undertaken between 2000 and 2006 aimed at improving the passenger services on the Victorian regional railway network , specifically to reduce travel times, enhance service frequency and...
- Victorian Transport PlanVictorian Transport PlanThe Victorian Transport Plan is a now defunct transport planning framework for the state of Victoria, Australia announced on Monday 9 December 2008 by then Premier of Victoria, John Brumby...
Further reading
- Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Engineers; The Lonie Report in Brief; published 1980 by the Victorian Division.