Canberra’s light rail network will become wireless through the Parliamentary Triangle as construction continues into the city’s south, following a joint investment from the federal and ACT governments.
Key points:
Work to raise London Circuit as part of light rail stage 2A is expected to begin soon
Five new vehicles will be added to the network, allowing the light rail to become wireless through the Parliamentary Triangle
Existing vehicles will also be modified under the new joint funding by the federal and ACT governments
It was announced this morning that a contract had been awarded for early works on stage 2 of the network, with five new wire-free light rail vehicles to be introduced from 2024, while the existing vehicles would be retrofitted with onboard batteries.
In a statement, the ACT government said this would enable the vehicles to operate wirelessly along the route’s extension throughout the parliamentary zone, stage 2A to Commonwealth Park and stage 2B towards Woden respectively.
The government said it would also be expanding its light rail depot at Mitchell to facilitate the ongoing maintenance of the fleet, with construction expected to be completed in mid-2024.
Contract for wireless network a ‘critical milestone’
Work will be done to expand the light rail depot at Mitchell, before five new vehicles are introduced to the network.(ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
The government said work to raise London Circuit as part of the construction of light rail stage 2A was expected to commence “soon”.
“This will be followed by the submission of an environmental assessment and works approval application for the stage 2A project, so construction of the light rail line can commence soon after raising London Circuit is complete,” the statement said.
“Canberrans will be able to have their say on the final light rail design early next year, when it goes on public display as part of the works approval application.”
ACT Minister for Transport and City Services Chris Steel said the joint contract with the federal government was a “critical milestone” for the delivery of the light rail extension.
“We need to order new LRVs now, and upgrade our existing fleet and depot, to ensure we have enough vehicles manufactured, delivered, tested and ready to start services to Commonwealth Park when construction of the track is completed,” Mr Steel said.
“Moving to retrofit all existing LRVs with onboard energy systems for wire-free running shows our commitment to delivering light rail, not only to Commonwealth Park, but right through the Parliamentary Triangle to Woden.
“The five new vehicles will be built for Canberra’s future light rail system and will support the same high frequency services on the next stage that have been embraced by Canberrans on the first stage.”
Federal Member for Canberra Alicia Payne said the project would boost local employment.
“The LRV modifications and depot expansion will increase the network’s capability to improve connectivity for people needing to travel for work or to access services and events in the southern part of the city,” she said.
“This project and associated works are expected to support up to 1,000 jobs over its life, which is a significant amount of local employment.”
NSW rail workers are ramping up industrial action for a month from Sunday by refusing to issue fines, leaving gates at train stations open and taking part in rolling targeted strikes.
Key points:
The rail union wants the government to commit in writing to safety changes for the intercity fleet
The $2 billion fleet was due to be rolled out in 2019
A ban on driving foreign-made trains and cleaners using vacuum cleaners is part of the industrial action
The action is part of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s (RTBU) ongoing campaign to secure safety changes to the new intercity fleet, in the face of what they say is the NSW government’s stubborn refusal to do so.
RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens said workers were hopeful the government would sign a document committing to the modifications.
“We’ve done everything by the book in order to get these vital safety changes, but the government is refusing to listen,” he said.
“We’ve had plenty of verbal promises before, which is why this time we need to see it committed to in a binding document.”
Alex Claassens hopes the NSW government will commit to fixing the intercity fleet.(abcnews)
The union and the state government have for months been at odds over the safety of the $2 billion intercity fleet, which has remained idle in maintenance sheds despite a planned rollout in 2019.
One of the main points of concern for the union is guards not being able to see children “during crucial moments.”
Rolling strikes will start on Wednesday, August 10 from 10am to 4pm, with the union saying strikes will occur in one area at a time — meaning that trains will be able to continue to run in most areas of the state.
Commuters will also face rolling strikes on Wednesday, August 17, Tuesday, August 23 and Thursday, August 25.
Other industrial action includes a ban on operating foreign-made trains, transport officers not issuing fines and a ban on cleaners using vacuum cleaners or scrubbing machines.
Mr Claassens said he accepted there would be some impact on commuters, but said the union would try to minimize it.
“We’ve done a lot of work to ensure that our actions will impact management and the government and not the traveling public,” he said.
“There’s no reason why, with some planning and common sense, trains cannot continue to run relatively smoothly while our actions are happening.
“We understand that commuters will be frustrated because we’re frustrated too.”
Towering cranes and scaffolding dominate inner-city Brisbane right now with major infrastructure projects like the Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro and Queen’s Wharf set to change the face of the CBD.
The developments are also occurring in some of the oldest parts of the city.
Then on Wednesday morning, traffic gridlock and hours-long delays gripped the CBD after contractors working on the city’s new bus network, Brisbane Metro, discovered a “void” below Adelaide Street.
Brisbane City Councillor Ryan Murphy said a decision was made “out of an abundance of caution” to close the stretch between George Street and North Quay, to ensure no vehicles drove over the weak point.
Could this happen again as the city develops?
This is what those in the know say about what could have caused the “void” and the likelihood of it happening again.
What is a void and how common are they?
Put simply, it’s a hole.
Professor David Williams, director of the Geotechnical Engineering Center at the University of Queensland, said in this instance a void “is a loss of support below the ground surface leading to surface settlement”.
“Most people would agree it’s not that common, we don’t usually have the whole of Brisbane brought to a standstill because … a void is revealed,” Professor Williams said.
“It’s more likely a bit of a one-off — it makes sense that it’s related to the construction activity.”
Professor David Williams says voids are uncommon. (Supplied: Professor David Williams )
A void is also referred to as “ground subsidence”.
It can cause major disruption to roads, resulting in fracture, unevenness, and in some cases, sinkholes.
What happened under Adelaide Street?
The exact cause of yesterday’s void is yet to be determined, but Mr Murphy said it was “uncovered through excavation works”.
“We don’t know how long it was there, we don’t know exactly the cause.
“Workers were doing vacuum excavation … which found a void below one of the traffic lanes on Adelaide Street,” he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
“Some free-flowing material … flowed onto our work site which caused a slight sag in the road.
“Essentially a void [was] created, and that void needed to be filled before we could safely reopen that road – this is not a tunnel collapse.”
Professor Williams said “it’s a little unclear” whether the “excavation activity revealed or caused the void.”
Adelaide Street is subject to heavy traffic and was partially closed as a precaution.(ABC News: Lucas Hill)
What could have caused a void?
Tom Brown from the Rail Tram and Bus Union questioned Brisbane City Council’s explanation.
“The story doesn’t seem to stack up to me, because if there was a void underneath Adelaide Street surely the city’s engineers would’ve picked it up with the ultrasounds when they were marking up this job,” Mr Brown said.
“The report I got was they had over-excavated … taken too much dirt out and they obviously weakened the street structure and what council later called a subsidence occurred, which means that Adelaide Street sank.”
Mr Murphy told ABC Radio Brisbane that claim was “categorically untrue”.
“There was no over-excavation,” he said.
While intense rainfall or flooding can create road cavities, Professor Williams said this was a highly unlikely cause.
“It’s not due to surface creeks being revealed, there’s been no flooding associated with this – it’s too high an elevation to be related to flooding in this case.
“It could be related to old buildings or old building foundations, or foundations that were impacted by construction works.”
“People [council] should give as accurate a description of the cause of things like this to allay public anxiety and so on, people are entitled to know what the causes are,” he said.
How big was the void?
Workers have now backfilled the subsidence with quick-dry concrete but the council have not said how big it was.
“I don’t have the exact detail of that,” Mr Murphy said.
“It wasn’t the size of a car or anything like that, the sag in the road was minimal, but obviously this is a street that takes heavy vehicles.
“We weren’t in a position to reopen that [the street] to traffic until the afternoon.”
A void found under the Brisbane CBD is very unlikely to occur again. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)
Could it happen again?
Mr Murphy said the chances of another void being discovered are “very, very low”.
“We are taking steps to ensure this cannot happen again.
“[But] this is one of Brisbane’s oldest streets, it’s built on top of a swamp so the ground conditions under Adelaide Street are very challenging.
“We know that there have been a number of things under there that we weren’t expecting when we went in, things like a road that was built over in the 1970s, the footings of convict buildings – this is a challenging site.”
Most adults wouldn’t even think of “playing” outside, but with parkour, Amy Han does just that.
Amy is not jumping off any buildings though. She’s there for the softer side of parkour, that almost anyone can do.
“I can’t think of a better way to incorporate movement and exercise and play into life,” she said.
“I don’t really think about it as training, I just think about it as going outside. I’m just going outside to move.”
The discipline was founded in Paris in the 1990s.
“Parkour is based on functional movements like running, climbing, jumping, etc., and in play and curiosity,” Women of Parkour Melbourne coach Kel Glaister said.
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“It’s all about using the capacity of your own body to explore and play in your environment.”
‘It felt like being on a playground’
Amy’s introduction to parkour was in a gym room in London, about 10 years ago. A friend invited her to a class because he thought she’d like it. Curious, Amy went along with her friend of hers.
They entered a room full of gymnastics equipment and watched as the instructor moved across the obstacles to get to the other side. Amy had never been sporty, but for the next two hours she moved, people helped her and they helped each other.
“Although it was hard, it didn’t feel like exercise — it felt like being on a playground,” she said.
Amy Han does parkour on some wooden poles in a park. (Supplied: Amy Han)
The parkour class came at a pivotal time in Amy’s life when things were heavy and disheartening. She said she connected with parkour in a metaphorical sense.
“I came to this class and [said to myself]: ‘Here are all the obstacles, it doesn’t matter how you go over them, just find your way. It doesn’t matter if you scramble over them, if it takes you a long time, if you have to try a few times, just get through to the end’,” she said.
The power of visibility
After that first class, Amy moved rapidly from participant to instructor, working with Melbourne Parkour for several years.
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She said people were often surprised to see her as an instructor because they weren’t expecting a woman. But Amy believes a lot of women stayed because of her.
The taller and stronger male instructors would be able to step up and pop themselves over a wall, but Amy would have to take a big run-up and use a rail as a step before hopping up onto the wall.
“I’d say: ‘This is the way that this person would move over the obstacle because that’s the most-efficient way for them, but for me, I’m going to have to find another way because I’m not 6- foot tall, and I don’t have the same level of upper body strength’,” she explained.
“If you have a female instructor, more girls will join because it shows it’s for them too. And I think that applies for all kinds of diversity.”
Women of Melbourne Parkour is an organization working to diversify the sport.
“It’s a discipline that remains dominated by young men,” Glaister said.
“But there are loads of people and organizations worldwide working to change that, to make space for more people — of all genders, ages, abilities and backgrounds — within parkour.
“Women of Melbourne Parkour is one of those organisations, and we have regular training sessions that [cater for] women and other genders.”
Growing up, Amy said she was told not to do the types of jumping and climbing inherent in parkour because they were dangerous, and she would hurt herself.
However, her brother was never given the same caution.
“For me, it was a huge ‘unlearning’ and almost like a new childhood when I discovered parkour,” she said.
Amy Han coaches a younger girl to do parkour on some concrete steps.(Supplied: Amy Han)
For Amy, parkour is more about play and movement than rigid training.
“As adults, we don’t give ourselves permission to play enough,” she said.
“It’s always, ‘I’m going out to train’ or ‘I’m going to the gym’, for a specific purpose. But how many adults just go out to play?”
‘Possible but scary’ — learning how to dance
Amy said she believed in the maxim “find your own way”, not just in parkour, but in life.
There’s a common misconception that parkour is just big jumps and jumping off rooftops.
However, Amy said, parkour was different for each person. It doesn’t have to be about the big jumps. It can also be about smaller movements.
“It can be just walking around on a rail,” she said..
“It can be just going to a playground and finding a challenge for yourself, it can be a park bench. It can be just looking at a park bench and thinking, ‘How many ways can I move over this park bench’?”
Amy Han does a handstand against a park bench. (Supplied: Mel Lyons Photography)
Amy’s favorite technique, she said, was balancing. She walks on rails a lot and, often, if she’s on her own de ella, she’ll go to a local oval and set herself the challenge of walking on the fence around the oval without falling off.
“You need to be strong, but you need to have fun with it. It’s just a balance of all different things,” she said.
Amy said it was also about gaining the confidence to approach things that might look uncomfortable, with the knowledge that they were still possible.
“Every training session I try to find that point where it looks possible but scary,” she said.
Parkour is also about learning how to dance.
If Amy slightly misses a jump, she knows how to fall in a way that doesn’t end in hurting herself.
This means reminding herself that the worst thing that can happen is landing on her bum.
“In parkour, you will fall sometimes, but we learn very early how to fall,” she said.
Existing fitness base isn’t necessary
While many people believe they need to get fit before they start parkour, Amy said that was not the case.
“You get stronger by starting,” she said. “Just start. Everybody in the parkour community is super friendly. If you feel drawn to it, just give it a try.”
She recommended finding your local community or classes, like Women of Parkour Melbourne.
Amy Han stretches in front of the Melbourne museum as a woman looks on. (Supplied: Scott Bickle)
These days, there’s an increasing variety of male and female instructors who come from all different backgrounds.
Amy said it would be fantastic to see more girls and women involved in the sport.
“I would love to see more girls doing parkour from a young age and being shown what they’re capable of — that they don’t have to be afraid of everything and they don’t always need someone to help them,” she said .
Although Amy doesn’t coach parkour anymore, parkour is integrated into her life and is a part of her lifestyle.
She still does parkour two to three times a week, both indoors and outdoors, in a class, with friends or by herself.
She said she wanted to keep moving until she gets old, however, she wanted to keep doing it in the playful way she was doing it now.
“I want to just keep having fun with it and challenging myself, but in a sustainable way,” she said. “Always playing.”
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Julie Dickson is a freelance writer based in Melbourne. She is studying a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) at Deakin University and was recently an intern with ABC Sport.
