News

University of Melbourne experts available to comment on the ‘Eddington Report’ release

Media Release, Wednesday 2 April 2008

Transport experts at the University of Melbourne are available for comment following the release of the ‘Investing in Transport’ report, completed by Sir Rod Eddington and presented to the State government this morning.

These include Professor Bill Russell and Professor Nicholas Low, Directors of the the Australasian Centre for the Government and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT) at the University of Melbourne.

Journalists please note: contact details are listed below.

The report, commissioned by the State government in 2006, has made numerous suggestions, including building a major freeway through central Melbourne to alleviate traffic on the West Gate Bridge, and constructing two new tunnels.

Professor Russell has had long experience as an academic, consultant and public administrator, during which he headed two government departments and several research units. In recent years he completed a major strategic study of Victoria’s ports for the state government, as well as studies in Melbourne of new rail lines to Doncaster, Craigieburn and Rowville. He was consulting editor for the International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration.

Professor Nicholas Low is the author or editor of eight books, two of which have won national and international prizes. He is known for his contributions to the study of the politics of planning and transport, and for his international research on urban sustainability published in numerous international journal articles. He convened the 1997 conference at the University of Melbourne on Environmental Justice. His book (with Brendan Gleeson) Justice, Society and Nature won the Harold and Margaret Sprout Prize of the International Studies Association 1998 for the best book published on ecological politics in that year.