Costing millions to give it away

The Sydney rail system, which performed brilliantly during the 
Sydney Olympics, has since been reduced to near chaos, 
principally because of corporatisation, staff cuts and 
privatisation of maintenance and failure to update 
infrastructure. Rather than increase staffing, the Carr 
government cut weekend services in half, which they said would 
free up drivers for weekday work. It didn't work.

Passengers are fed up — as evidenced by the fare-free day forced 
on the Carr Labor Government last Monday. Staff are fed up with 
the appalling conditions they have to work under, made worse by 
the government trying to blame them for the system failures.

The corporatisation and subsequent cost-cutting are forerunners 
to privatisation. Don't be surprised if very soon the government 
comes up with a "solution" — in the form of public private 
partnerships (PPPs), where it cries poor after all these years of 
willful neglect and calls in the private sector to provide the 
capital.

It has been tried before, as we were reminded last week when the 
government announced that it was contributing an extra $98.3 
million to the failed Sydney Airport Rail Link (SARL).

This private company operates the four-station airport rail link, 
constructed some five years ago. Despite the government having 
shut down the former airport bus service in order to force 
commuters to use the rail link, comparatively few passengers use 
the line because of its extraordinarily high fares. (A one-way 
ticket costs $11.60 from the city, about four times the cost of 
an equivalent journey on the publicly-owned rail network.)

The airport line was initiated in 1995 by the Fahey Liberal Party 
Government, which claimed that because it involved a public-
private partnership, construction would cost the taxpayer 
nothing. And that might be true. But it is not the whole truth.

Post-construction the government — taxpayers — have been hit 
with ongoing costs, and there is no end in sight.

The typical PPP provides guarantees to the private half of the 
partnership of profits based on certain levels of usage by the 
public. If these are not met (as seen on tollways) then the 
government makes up for the shortfall in cash.

SARL argued that because patronage of the line was below that 
predicted by the government, the company should be bailed out at 
taxpayer expense. And that is what the government has been doing.

Rather than resume control of the line as a government 
enterprise, the Carr Government has to date paid the company some 
$558 million. Its latest bail-out allocation will bring the bill 
so far to almost $700 million, all to be met by the taxpayer.

PPPs are a form of privatisation where the public funds the 
profits and the private sector pockets the profits.

Sydney voters will doubtless wreak vengeance on the Carr 
Government at the next election. However, both major parties are 
wholeheartedly committed to the disastrous PPPs, the failings of 
which are so dramatically illustrated in the saga of Sydney's 
airport link railway.

And the government has more of this in line for Sydney rail 
commuters and tax payers.