March 25, 2009

The Mari­time Uni­on says the Gov­ern­ment’s trans­port fund­ing plan is an envir­on­ment­al and eco­nom­ic trav­esty.

The Nation­al Gov­ern­ment has changed spend­ing com­mit­ments of the pre­vi­ous Gov­ern­ment and and released a state­ment on money it will put into devel­op­ing land trans­port (includ­ing sea trans­port) for the next ten years.

The new plan includes a three year com­mit­ment to spend­ing over sev­en bil­lion dol­lars on road related expendit­ure – and even includes $51 mil­lion for cyc­ling and walk­ways.

In com­par­is­on, it puts for­ward $1 mil­lion for “rail and sea freight” and $3 mil­lion for “domest­ic sea freight devel­op­ment.” (Yes — the fig­ure is mil­lion not bil­lion.)

That’s about one cent on rail and sea freight devel­op­ment for every twenty dol­lars on roads.