TRUCKS on the stop-start Great Western Highway run to Sydney go through brakes at around 10 times the rate of trucks on other routes, Bathurst transport operator Graeme Burke has revealed.
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Mr Burke says it is a farcical situation and he questions whether the route should still be called a highway.
After compiling some damning statistics about the highway and stewing about the inadequacies of this major transport corridor, Mr Burke has decided to speak out.
He told the Western Advocate that he pays in excess of $300,000 a month in both state and federal taxes to run his trucking business and wants to know what he gets back in return.
“That’s $3.6 million a year,” Mr Burke said. “If you started adding up the revenue the government takes from other transport operators, it’s horrendous how much it is. It’s all one-way traffic to the government.”
Figures compiled by Mr Burke are damning.
“Okay, you’ve got 28 sets of traffic lights from the top of Mount Victoria to the top of Lapstone Hill,” he said. “That’s 59.8km of road which has an average distance of just 2.14km between each set of lights. It’s little wonder it’s a stop-start trip. It’s just like being on Parramatta Road.
“Then there’s the 40 different speed zones over the same distance and seven school zones. From 7am at Warrimoo onwards it’s gridlock and at 6pm at night heading back it’s bumper-to-bumper from the moment you hit Lapstone Hill.”
Mr Burke said that even with the roadworks going on over the Blue Mountains, the highway is at capacity and there is no sign of the congestion easing.
“The situation has to change if the politicians are serious about opening up the Central West,” he said.
“They are making a mockery of us and starving further economic development out this way. They need to bore a tunnel from Mount Vic that comes out at the bottom of Lapstone Hill. It’s feasible. They do it overseas.”
Mr Burke said the Great Western Highway forces his mechanics to reline the brakes on his trucks on the Bathurst to Sydney run every 70,000 to 100,000km.
“On the Bathurst to Melbourne route it’s every 800,000 to one million kilometres,” he said.
He had a blunt message for Bathurst’s political representatives.
“My message to Mr Toole [Member for Bathurst Paul Toole] and Mr Cobb [Member for Calare John Cobb] is to kick up a stink when they next go into caucus with their mates.
“Mr Toole has said in the past he’s not afraid to stick up for his constituents when he goes to Macquarie Street, so here’s his chance.”
Mr Toole told the Western Advocate a Blue Mountains tunnel would be a major undertaking that would require federal funding help.
“We’re talking billions and billions of dollars,” he said.
He said the NSW Government was in the process of spending $48 million on putting in seven new overtaking lanes on the Bells Line of Road.
