NSW State Rail:
More funding, but it's misdirected

Peter Mac

One of the areas of prime concern in the NSW Government's 
recently released (and highly controversial) "mini-budget" is the 
allocation of funding for the State's rail system.

In the public discussion of the budget most attention centred on 
matters such as the proposed new stamp duty on sale of real 
estate. However, the mini-budget also contained chilling 
implications for the State's public transport system.

There has been much public anxiety in NSW since the recent 
release of government-commissioned reports which proposed 
privatisation of parts of the transport system, such as the 
Sydney ferries, the eastern suburbs buses and much of the state's 
country rail network.

NSW Premier Bob Carr made much play of the extra $2.5 billion in 
funding going to state rail projects over the next six years, and 
the extra funding is indeed welcome. However, a closer scrutiny 
of the proposals reveals that it is specifically allocated for a 
series of projects involving highly disturbing business deals.

The first of these involves the "Rail Clearways" Plan for 
Sydney's CityRail. Some of the proposed works are well justified, 
for example the construction of extra lines on rail bottlenecks 
such as between Erskineville and Sydenham stations.

However, the plan also involves splitting the present integrated 
network into five "independent" lines. The State Government is 
promoting this move enthusiastically, describing the current 
arrangement as "complex". 

In point of fact, the complexity of the rail system as a whole is 
simply a reflection of the city's intricate harbour-centred 
topography. Splitting the existing network into five separate 
line systems (i.e. operating independently of each other) would 
involve multiple station changing and increased delays, and 
offers commuters the prospect of chaos, rather than greater 
efficiency.

The Carr Government has admitted openly that initial works have 
begun, for example of major "turnarounds" at MacDonaldtown and 
other stations. There has been no public discussion on this 
massive alteration to the Sydney rail system, planning of which 
has obviously been underway for years.

Privatisation

Moreover, the Carr Government has made no secret of its 
preference for the involvement of private firms in public 
transport and other government operations. Several stations on 
the most recently-constructed rail line, which links the airport 
to the city, are already privatised, and travelling to them is 
much more expensive than for comparable distances to other Sydney 
stations. 

(Not that this satisfied the private station owners, who 
complained that they were still not making sufficient profits. 
The Carr Government responded by cutting down the cheaper and 
more popular airport bus service, thus forcing the public to use 
the private rail stations.)

The only logical explanation for the creation of independent rail 
line systems would be the eventual privatisation of the entire 
rail network. In Victoria the Kennett Government divided public 
transport according to regions and services before its 
privatisation. This would appear to be what's in store for Sydney 
commuters, if the Carr Government has its way.

Secondly, the government proposes to replace the 498 ageing non 
air-conditioned carriages with new rolling stock under the 
"Steady Fleet Purchasing Plan", under a "private/public 
partnership" (PPP) arrangement. Such arrangements involve turning 
the prime aim of public transport into making private profits. 
Service comes a poor second.

Such deals have been widely introduced into government works in 
other countries, for example in public education in Britain. 
However, they have almost invariably been found to involve severe 
conflicts of interest in terms of people's needs and profit 
motives. Every individual route and trip has to turn a profit or 
it is cancelled.

Moreover, they almost invariably involve the provision of funding 
for the works from private sources offered by the contractors. 
The terms of loan deals for specific projects are cloaked in 
"commercial in confidence" secrecy. No transparency of government 
operations here! In fact, taken as a whole they're known to have 
crippling long-term debt implications for future governments and 
the hapless taxpayer.

And thirdly, the government intends to replace the current rail 
service between Casino and Murwillumbah with a coach service that 
will carry the official Countrylink badge, but will actually be 
privately owned. 

The Minister for Transport attempted to justify this decision 
with the statement that "It would have cost $188 million to 
maintain this section of line over the next 20 years." However, 
the government has provided no alternative plans for purposes of 
comparison, for example the upgrade of regional services and/or 
the provision of supplementary government-owned branch-line coach 
or rail services. And it has so far altogether failed to deal 
with questions of reduced passenger safety and comfort in coach 
services. 

Privatisation and closures of vast sections of the NSW 
Countrylink rail and Cityrail networks, as well parts of the 
Sydney ferry services, was signalled in one of the reports 
recently commissioned by the Carr Government.

The government was cautiously non-committal in responding 
publicly to the recommendations of these reports. But it's quite 
clear that the Carr Government, like its federal counterpart, has 
sought out people who will tell it just what it wants to hear. It 
is also crystal clear that the Carr Government is fully in favour 
of the wholesale handover of public enterprises to the private 
sector.