THE omission of any reference to country passenger rail in the government’s $20 billion State Infrastructure Strategy is another ominous indicator as to the government’s intentions with regard to this service.
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The government was advised in 2012 that the XPT fleet would need major refurbishment or replacement after 2016. To date the government’s response has been a deafening silence.
Since that time, however, the ubiquitous Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian has announced billions of dollars worth of improvements to Sydney’s rail system, including:
l Revamping the Sydney train timetable, providing an additional thousand services.
l Starting the north-west railway, promising a train every four minutes during peak hour, at a cost of $10 billion.
l Giving the go-ahead for trams through the Sydney CBD, then to the eastern suburbs, at an estimated cost of $1.6 billion but already suffering cost blowouts.
l Calling for proposals for another 250 carriages to operate on the intercity i.e. Wollongong, Newcastle and Blue Mountains networks at a cost of $2.8 billion.
All this in addition to completing major Sydney rail projects instigated by the previous government, including:
l The delivery of over 1000 Waratah rail carriages.
l The construction of the south-western railway.
l The extension of the inner-west tram way.
The government’s State Infrastructure Strategy shows that these projects are only the beginning, with plans for a second rail crossing of Sydney Harbour ($10 billion), a tram network focused on Parramatta, a metro line from Chatswood to Bankstown etc, all being proposed into the foreseeable future.
At the same time, despite the apparent urgency, not a mention of country rail passenger services.
It is time the government came clean as regards its intentions in this matter.
Peter Moore, Orange
