Upfield Railway campaign notes for West=On=Track Ireland
In my previous blog about Ireland's West=On=Track community meeting from May 2024, I mentioned our experience in the campaign to save the Upfield Railway in Melbourne, Australia. The campaign was successful, the railway was saved and I hope to bring the same experience to the West of Ireland.
Whether I am elected or not, one of the highlights of my campaign was supporting the West=On=Track group. One of the local radio stations used some of my quotes with a picture of a train. The quote is derived from similar principles as Metcalfe's law in telecommunications networks.
Various newspapers have listed me as a supporter of the railway.
- Europe hopefuls endorse Sligo-Galway railway
- Huge show of cross-party support for rail reopening at Sligo conference
Here is a picture of me speaking at the West=On=Track summit:
and a group photo of all the candidates and local representatives at the summit:
It has been an honor competing against some of the experienced candidates in this election process. It has been generally more dignified than the politics of open source software groups.
I found some old news clippings so we can look at how the final stages of the campaign evolved for the Upfield Railway in the 1990s.
Many years later, in 2016, The Age published a report Not the end of the line: How people power saved the Upfield rail line.
They tracked down the former transport minister, Alan Brown and published the following quote, approximately 20 years after the railway's future was secured:
"There was really nothing in it for us politically," he says."It was a line that serviced electorates that the Labor Party held and would clearly continue to hold, but it was the right decision for Melbourne."
It's his proudest achievement in the transport portfolio, along with the city circle tram, he says.
There are two ways to look at Minister Brown's comments. One viewpoint is that he was simply a smart guy surrounded by smart experts who reached a smart conclusion. The other viewpoint is that the Minister was subject to psychological operations (PsyOps), that the community bent his will to our way of thinking to such an extent that he believes it was his own decision all along.
It could be a bit of both. As we can see from the Melbourne Airport railway fiasco, Australian cities are a hybrid of American and European planning. Nobody is holding their breath waiting for the Melbourne Airport railway construction to commence. Some regions of Melbourne are car dominated while others, such as central Melbourne, are served by world class public transport.
1997-02-06 Upfield rail closure raises ire
One of the first reports about the temporary closure of the line. There is concern about how long it will close and whether it is going to be temporary or permanent this time.
1997-02-07 Options for Upfield line
A letter from Stan Vine, in Box Hill South, which is 20km away on the other side of Melbourne, argues for the line to be torn up and replaced with light rail. This is similar to the arguments about removing the old Irish railway tracks and replacing them with greenways.
In other words, these letters were part of a PsyOps counter-offensive against our group.
1997-02-08 Upfield closure unnecessary
This letter from Bronwen Machin at Environment Victoria, a lobbyist, argues that the freeway construction could be completed without the temporary closure of the railway.
I feel she is correct about this but it would have been more expensive to keep the line open. Keeping the railway open may have required larger cranes and other equipment to be installed on land alongside the railway and this would have caused more disruption to surrounding properties.
1997-02-21 Transurban looks at more City links
The article covers various issues, including the developer's interest in building more freeways and comments about the railway.
1997-04-22 advertising about the closure
The railway company publishes advertisements about the temporary closure of the railway and the replacement bus services.
1997-05-01 Not quite at the end of the line
An article about the gatekeepers, men who operate the gates when a train approaches. The government is replacing them with automatic boom gates while the freeway construction is in progress.
This article appeared on the first day of the temporary closure
1998-02-02 City Link builders urged rail shutdown
The company building the freeway wrote letters to the government promising to build the freeway more quickly if they can shut the railway while they work above it.
The intended completion date of the project was in April 1999, just before the next state election. They appear to be suggesting the freeway would not be finished until after the election if they don't get their way.
1998-02-03 Transport Memories, Not much of a choice
Two more letters appear about public transport. The second one is from Bronwen Machin at Environment Victoria again, she writes about the Upfield railway.
1998-02-04 When equity is a one-way street
A letter from Mark Waters of Brunswick about the latest extension of the temporary closure.
1998-02-16 Upfield travel free for a month
The reopening of the line is finally confirmed for 23 February.
Passengers will have one month of free travel as compensation for the disruption.
1998-02-18 advertisements for the reopening
Advertisements appeared telling us about the reopening of the railway.
2019 in Renens, Switzerland
A new road bridge is constructed on a temporary platform beside the railway. One of Europe's biggest cranes, the Terex CC9800-1 is used to remove the old bridge and then lift the new bridge into position in the middle of the night. The trains continued to operate normally during the day time.
They could have used similar equipment and techniques to avoid the temporary closure of the railway in Melbourne.
