This could be fixed in a number of ways; the cheapest would probably be to replace the heavy rail on the Upfield line, with light rail, and redirect the last past of the trip along Royal Parade (have a look at Google Maps). The more elaborate fix, as proposed by the Greens plan, is to put in a north-south rail tunnel with a station at Melbourne University, with the tunnel continuing to connect Melbourne Central, and Flinders Street.

As far as cycling goes, personally I don’t find it too bad. The traffic is so slow along Sydney Road most of the time, it’s not a hassle. And, as mentioned, there are a number of alternative routes.

Interesting point about the trains, Robert. I wasn’t aware of that. But what are the services like? Convenient? Frequent? Clean? Enough space?

Sydney road has trains 100 metres from most of its length, trams running up it every 10, a mostly off-road cycle path along the train line. There are bike lanes on just about every cross-street, too, and cross-city buses.

The alternatives are more satisfactory in this particular area than just about anywhere else in Melbourne. Frankly, it’s got me buggered why anybody bothers to drive on Sydney Road at all; it’s almost always quicker to head across to Lygon Street and go round.

“The best solution for congestion on Sydney Road is of course road pricing.”

Actually, that’s not the case. Road pricing, just like taxing the carbon content of fuel, can only go so far if the alternatives are not widely, cheaply and conveniently available. Unless and until Melbourne’s public transport, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure is upgraded to the point where it can easily accommodate a very substantial influx of extra passengers, the only impact of road pricing will be greater inequity and more pissed off Melburnians.

Buses, by contrast, can stop at the side of the road, letting traffic past on the right.

Not on Sydney Rd they can’t. It’s too narrow.

And as you point out, people like trams more than buses, anyway.

Sydney Road is however a gordian knot. If I knew how to cut through it I would, but alas I do not.

I notice that not even the Greens are prepared to grab that particular hot wire, and Labor runs away in fright at the wrath of the Herald-Sun at the very thought

Some reality needs to be injected here. Trams don’t cause congestion. Cars do. parked cars, cars turning right, cars doing silly things. The ideas that buses would make things better is just, in my opinion, plain silly.

There’s not enough room to put in tram stops with barriers in the center of the road to let cars pass while a tram is stopped. Therefore, the cars have to stop every time a tram does.

Buses, by contrast, can stop at the side of the road, letting traffic past on the right.

As far as buses go, as well as hybridizing them, a key technology for reducing their emissions to switch away from diesel and run them on CNG or LPG.

Another option is the trolleybus, which might work quite well on Sydney Road where there’s already overhead tram lines.

Robert – how would buses on Sydney Rd cause less noticeably congestion than trams?

wilful – of course, Sydney Rd shopkeepers are hardly likely to be a different breed to Bridge Rd shopkeepers. But a government committed to working out the whole city’s transport difficulties should be able to do better than to fold to that sort of pressure, unless a highly convincing case can be made that the loss of business along that stretch of road would cost more than the economic benefits to the whole state from allowing traffic to run smoothly along Sydney Rd. By all means, pay them some sort of compensation if necessary.