Derailed to privatisation

The NSW Carr Government has announced a new timetable for 
Sydney's trains to come into force in September next year. The 
extent to which the Government has allowed the service to 
deteriorate is evident in the proposed regime which will see 720 
services a day cut from off-peak services, amounting to3500 a 
week. The claim that fixing the system can be achieved by 
slashing services is not so ludicrous if seen in connection with 
the Government's longer term goal of privatisation.

The scheme is being implemented even though it has been pointed 
out by commuters that with the changes taking place in the 
workforce — increased casualisation and shift work being 
prevalent among them — many workers now go to and from work 
during non-peak hours.

Central to the privatisation process is the "clearways" program, 
which will break up the rails themselves into segregated lines. 
The Government says this is aimed at stopping a problem on one 
line from affecting other lines. Clearly the cause of such 
problems is not the integrated system but the failure to fully 
fund its maintenance. After the lines are separated it will be 
easier to sell them off.

Already commuters who use the Inner West line between Homebush 
and the city are being forced to change trains at Redfern station 
on the outskirts of the CBD because their service now terminates 
at Central's Country Link platforms. This is because the 
Government has dumped what it calls "low-patronage off-peak 
services" which go through the city circle line — those CBD 
stations on the loop between Town Hall and Museum.

This change spells serious difficulties for disabled and less 
mobile passengers.

For example: this year the State Government spent $6 million 
upgrading Summer Hill Station with lifts and ramps to allow 
disabled access. However, disabled passengers who use Summer Hill 
will now no longer have direct access to the city. An 
announcement in transit advises passengers travelling to the city 
or transferring to other lines to change at Redfern Station. 
However, Redfern station is notorious for its inaccessibility 
with no lifts or ramps between platforms.

Disabled passengers who stay on the train and terminate at 
Central are then forced to travel about 100 metres — and up and 
down two more lifts — before they can get to a city-bound train 
and continue their journey.

North Shore line trains will be reduced by half between 10am and 
2pm. The Southern Highlands line which services the towns between 
Picton and Goulburn — which were left without a direct service 
to the city when its weekend services were cut by 30 percent in 
July — doesn't even figure in the plan; no timetable has been 
developed for it.

For nearly a decade now people have been conditioned to accept 
that trains will not run on time, and in many cases not at all. 
This has now manifested itself into City Rail policy with trains 
that run five minutes late officially considered as on-time.

The cuts in funding and services are also reflected in the fact 
that, except for the Olympic year in 2000, there has been no 
significant increase in patronage on the service since 1996. This 
has another implication: Sydney has grown by almost half-a-
million people in that time. This can only mean there are more 
cars on the road.