New NSW Liberal Government's Policies On Public Transport!

I have located the details that the new NSW Liberal Government's policies on public transport. 

Express Trains For Western Sydney And Central Coast

Commuters from the Central Coast, South Western and Western Sydney could save up to two and half hours a week under a NSW Liberals & Nationals policy to provide an additional 135 express and semi-express train services a week, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell announced today.

"These additional trains are about making life easier for families on the Central Coast and in Sydney's South West and West to get to and from work," Mr O'Farrell said.

"More time spent on a train is less time spent with loved ones," he said.

"This policy is believable, achievable and will deliver real benefits for commuters in Western Sydney and the Central Coast.

"More express services means less overcrowding, reduced travel times and fewer stops."

The new express services are:

• Blue Mountains Express – one extra AM peak hour express train service each weekday (stopping Katoomba-Springwood-Penrith-Blacktown-Parramatta-Strathfield-Central) saving a commuter up to 1hr 40 min a week;
• Penrith Express – five new services including one extra AM peak hour express train service each weekday and two extra AM and two extra PM semi-express services (stopping Emu Plains-Penrith-all stops to Mt Druitt-Blacktown-Seven Hills-Parramatta-Granville-Strathfield-Redfern-City) saving up to 1hr 25min a week;
• Campbelltown Express – 16 additional express train services – one per hour from 6am to 10pm – (stopping Macarthur-Campbelltown-Glenfield-Wolli Creek-International Airport–Domestic Airport–Mascot–Green Square-Central) saving up to 1hr 15min a week;
• Central Coast Express – six new services including the first direct link between the Central Coast and the Macquarie Park/Macquarie University – three additional AM peak and three additional PM peak services (stopping Wyong-Gosford-Woy Woy-Hornsby-Epping–Macquarie Uni–Macquarie Park–North Ryde-Chatswood-Artarmon–St Leonards–Wollstonecraft-Waverton-North Sydney–Milsons Point–Wynyard–Town Hall– Central) saving up to 2hrs 30min a week for commuters to Macquarie Park.

"I understand train commuters, particularly in Western Sydney and the Central Coast, are fed up and frustrated after 16 years of failure and incompetence from Labor," Mr O'Farrell said.

"These express services are in addition to our commitment to build the South West and North West rail links.

Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian said the NSW Liberals & Nationals are determined to be responsible with our commitments, so we can actually do what we say.

"One CityRail train can take up to 1,000 cars off the road, so these additional services could help ease traffic congestion by getting up to 27,000 people off the road and onto public transport every day," Ms Berejiklian said.

Service	Extra train services per week	Travel time savings of up to	Travel time savings per week of up to
Blue Mountains	5	20 minutes (AM)*	1hr 40mins
Penrith	25	17 minutes (AM)*	1hr 25mins
Campbelltown	80	15 minutes (AM)*	1hr 15mins
Central Coast	30	15 minutes (AM & PM)**	2hrs 30mins

* Calculated between each location and Central
** Calculated between Wyong and Macquarie Park

Labor's Record Over 16 Years

Under Labor, there are fewer daily rail services today than in 2005 and people have been forced back into their cars.

After 16 years of Labor, commuters in Western Sydney have put up with fewer services, longer travel times, overcrowded and non air-conditioned carriages. In 2004 a trip to Penrith was more than six minutes faster then what it is today.

Commuters from the Central Coast are spending an extra 13 minutes on the train due to 2009 timetable changes.

Peak hour trains from the Central Coast take as long as 94 minutes – compared with as few as 70 minutes in 1960.

Despite growing road congestion and strong population growth, in 2009/10 some 2.5 million fewer annual trips were taken on the CityRail network compared with 2008/09.

New NightRide Bus Services

The NSW travelling public deserves a safe, reliable and 

accessible public transport system, particularly late at night.

NightRide bus services play a valuable role in ensuring that

people in Sydney are able to get home safely from shift

work or following a night out. However, currently across

many destinations the service is simply not available, or is

too infrequent.

A NSW Liberals & Nationals Government will:

• Provide a weekend timetable service on Thursday nights. In many cases this means that the frequency of services will be doubled.
• Introduce a new NightRide Bus Service to Richmond. On weekends four bus services terminate at Blacktown. We will extend these services to Richmond with an additional ten stops – Marayong, Quakers Hill, Schofields, Riverstone, Vineyard, Mulgrave, Windsor, Clarendon, East Richmond and Richmond.
• Increase the frequency of weekend NightRide services to Macarthur. We will extend the current weekend N50 Route that terminates at Liverpool to Macarthur, meaning there will be a service to Macarthur twice an hour on weekends. This will further assist people living in Campbelltown, Leumeah, Minto, Ingleburn, Macquarie Fields, Glenfield and Casula.
• Introduce a new weekend NightRide Bus Service along the Carlingford Line and increase NightRide services to Parramatta. A new service will be established to run from the City to Carlingford. This service will follow the existing N60 Route between Town Hall and Lidcombe and then extend from Lidcombe to seven stops – Clyde, Rosehill, Camellia, Rydalmere, Dundas, Telopea and Carlingford. The service will run every hour, which will provide increased frequency for commuters on the N60 Route between Town Hall and Lidcombe and a new service for commuters on the Carlingford line.

These additional services will help people commuting to work at night, and ensure people having a night out arrive home safely.

South West and North West Rail Links

People in South West and North West Sydney, our major residential growth and employment areas, expect and deserve high quality public transport.

Many people bought homes and started businesses in the growth areas believing Labor promises and commitments would deliver new transport infrastructure to match population and commercial growth.

The North West Rail Link was first promised in 1998, to be open by 2010 at a cost of $50 million per kilometre. It was then cancelled, resurrected as a North West Metro, cancelled again, and announced once again in Labor’s latest discredited transport plan.

Labor’s latest plan, has the North West Rail Link commencing in 2017 and not opening until 2024, at a cost of $300 million per kilometre.

The South West Rail Link has a similar story – announced, then cancelled, and then re-announced. Based on Labor’s current promises, the South West Rail Link will not carry a passenger until 2016.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals will:

• build the South West Rail Link; and
• build the North West Rail Link, starting work in our first term.

The NSW Liberals & Nationals believe the priority for new public transport links should be areas currently without such options.

Many long suffering commuters in Sydney’s north west and south west have no effective public transport alternative and are forced to use cars.

It is estimated that under NSW Labor’s regime, commuters who travel daily to the city from

the north west will have spent $65,000 in road tolls over 14 years before they have any public transport alternative.

Our commitment to building these essential links will help restore investor confidence in NSW and improve choices and quality of life for NSW residents and commuters.

Integrated Transport Authority

The NSW Liberals & Nationals have committed to an Integrated Transport Authority. It will improve the delivery of public transport services by better co-ordinating different transport modes, and enabling more efficient delivery of major transport infrastructure projects.

The Integrated Transport Authority will be responsible for transport policy including planning, infrastructure, fares, ticketing and customer information. It will ensure that different transport modes work together, and that the interests of the travelling public are put first.

Under this structure, the operational transport agencies, such as RailCorp, State Transit Authority and Sydney Ferries, will be focused on front line service delivery.

Each frontline agency will play a lead role in their specific transport mode. These agencies will be required to focus on their core role – delivering clean, reliable, safe and efficient transport services, while the Integrated Transport Authority is responsible for planning and policy.

An Independent Board comprising a panel of experts will oversee the new Authority. The Board will be at ‘arms length’ from the day-to-day running of transport services but will play a critical role in keeping the State Government accountable on transport policy and providing expert advice.

Specifically, the new Authority will:

• provide a central point of management for the provision of public transport services across Sydney and NSW;
• be responsible for transport planning including the development of workable transport interchanges;
• deliver better co-ordination between transport modes;
• provide a central point of accountability for the planning and delivery of major transport infrastructure projects; and
• put commuters first by providing more accessible real time information about services and ticketing.

For the first time since the 2000 Olympics, Sydney will have an intelligent, strategic and responsive public transport system to give its customers the service they expect and deserve.

Easy Access Funding For 

Rail Commuters 

The Liberals & Nationals will boost funding for easy access upgrades by over 50 percent to make train travel for seniors and people with a disability more convenient, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell and Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian announced today.

"Today the NSW Liberals commit to an additional $60 million in funding to boost the Easy Access Program across CityRail train stations," Mr O'Farrell said.

It's estimated this funding could provide up to an additional eight stations with wheelchair access," he said.

"Currently 184 CityRail train stations out of 307 are not wheelchair accessible – we want to change that so that's why we've committed to this 50 percent boost in funding.

"The NSW Liberals & Nationals boost will ensure more commuters than ever will have access to the rail network, irrespective of whether they have a disability, are elderly, are less mobile or travel with a pram.

"Whether a parent with a pram, a senior with a walking frame or a person in a wheelchair, public transport should be as accessible as possible for all commuters.

"We want to ensure that as many people as possible can use public transport," Mr O'Farrell said.

Ms Berejiklian said Labor has failed to deliver easy access upgrades.

"It is simply unacceptable that the Labor Government has only delivered four easy access station upgrades in two years – at that pace it will take 93 years before all rail stations become accessible to the whole community," Ms Berejiklian said.

"Our plan will be partly funded by an expansion of public transport advertising revenue," she said.

"We believe there is an opportunity to utilise un-used advertising space to raise much needed revenue to improve access at our rail stations.

"We will re-invest the funds from better managing the valuable advertising space on our public transport network, to improve public transport access.

Ms Berejiklian said today's announcement would make the CityRail network more attractive to a greater number of people.

"If commuters are not confident that they can negotiate the rail network safely, they will simply not use the system," she said.

"We should be doing everything in our power to encourage more people out of their cars and onto our public transport network."

Liberal Candidate for Oatley, Mark Coure has been a long time advocate for easy access upgrades at Oatley train station.

"Today's announcement means the NSW Liberals are taking the issue of accessibility at our local train stations seriously," Mr Coure said.

"I will continue to lobby Barry and Gladys to ensure Oatley gets the funding we deserve under the boost announced today," he said.

"Local commuters already face a daily struggle to get to and from work on overcrowded and unreliable train services, let alone being faced with using the stairs.

"We want to encourage as many people as possible to use our trains both to decongest our roads and to improve the environment," Mr Coure said.