Almost as much a no brainer as the need to reduce, and maintain, population at sustainable levels........

Like all public transport, these things are so last century.

They will spend billions, or probably trillions, giving a huge part of it to mates & unions, to cater to a very small percentage, [10% isn't it], of commuters & travellers,

So a few hit the big jackpot, building the thing, a small number get to use the thing when built, & all of us, including many who will never get access to any form of public transport, get pay for it.

God I hate the stupidity shown by planners.

Well, yes it is! And needs to be proactive in advance of, like topsy expansion, instead of reactive or the product of preelection pork barreling.

If I were planning a future vision urban rail network it'd be like a wheel with a hub and spokes then as expansion demanded it another larger outside wheel ( a wheel within a wheel, within a wheel within a wheel and so on and on) with even more spokes (loops) and all built underground, given, we will of necessity have to build or move all of them there anyway?

Think, at some time not too far ahead, we will have depressurised sealed loops with airlock doors that allow levitating, very high-speed trains to move, one way only, nearly at light speed, the finite limit of the electrically powered rail gun.

And out from them, other similarly sealed permanent loops that are the ultimate, vacuum-sealed, people movers or RAPID transport systems

As we are forced to adapt to runaway climate change just to survive and still somehow prosper.

We also need to move all taxation of off the productive side of the economy and onto the consumption side of the economy and make all our social service dispensed as a means-tested endowment the recipient directs.

And eliminate profit demanding paper shuffling middlemen by legislation, that would force the lazy producers to sell direct and as they did, half the cost of living and or doing business in this country!

And a universally applied social template, eliminate the armies of paper shuffling bureaucrats from the equation.

The very reason we have no future vision just reactive pollies taking their advice from pen pushing empire builders protecting their patch and ENTITLEMENTS?

One way loops that then become wheels or spokes, the traveller walks to and from, as they move toward their ultimate destination, will serve us as long as we survive as a species!
Alan B.

Other than trains to move masses, we could have demand-driven moving walkways and escalators. Swipe your card or put your coin in to move?

And Hasbeen and his mates could move in completely Autonomous flying cars, with a cruise speed of 400 klicks and a range in excess f 200, through a highway in the sky. And possibly just a couple of years away?

Given we also deliver all goods and services via buried vacuum tubes?

Allow that as our final urban distribution network and abandon urban roads and road maintenance altogether?

Other than that, the central grassed divide in highways could also serve a space to locate monorail transports, that are inward bound only, during the early morning and outward bound gondolas during the afternoon?

Or have a dual system supported by the same central pillars or pylons? I'm only advocating this as a plan we can build as demand, demands!
Alan B.

ateday
We could easily sustain a much higher population than we now have. But if we continue to treat the environment with as much contempt as we currently do, even the current population is unsustainable.
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Hasbeen,
Opposition to public transport is so last century. The people who won't use it are dying out now.

Now it's almost a case of build it and they will come. But deciding what's best to build is not so simple, and currently there are a lot of flaws in the decision making process.

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Alan B.,
"If I were planning a future vision urban rail network it'd be like a wheel with a hub and spokes then as expansion demanded it another larger outside wheel ( a wheel within a wheel, within a wheel within a wheel and so on and on)"
That might be quite sensible (though probably not ideal) for a new city surrounded by a large plain. But as I pointed out before, Melbourne is on the coast!