COMMUTERS URGED TO HAVE THEIR SAY ON TIMETABLE CHANGES

Parramatta City Council
Media Release
23 August, 2010

Parramatta City Council Lord Mayor, Cr Paul Garrard, has encouraged Western Sydney commuters to voice their concern about proposed changes to Sydney’s ferry timetable, before August 25.

Cr Garrard said the draft timetable on exhibition offered little benefit for Parramatta commuters and that Council’s calls for an effective ferry service which picked up passengers in Drummoyne, Meadowbank, Abbotsford and Cabarita, had once again been ignored.

“The State Government announced the River Express last November and it has been a sinking ship since day one,” Cr Garrard said.

Click here for Transport NSW consultation.

Progress On Light Rail in Sydney Inner West

While light rail system isn't being developed in Western Sydney, it is interesting to see the development of the new light rail corridor through the Inner West from Lilyfield to Summer Hill and Dulwich Hill. This is an extension of the existing system from Central to Lilyfield via Star City, Fish Markets and Glebe.
There are some community meetings scheduled: Click Here from more information from Transport NSW.

Sydney Light Rail Extensions

Completed Bankstown Bus Interchange

The new bus interchange on the South side of Bankstown Station was completed earlier this year and has made a great improvement to the amenity of the area and improved the flow of buses through the Bankstown town centre. You can see pictures of the work being done on google maps here
The whole area around Bankstown Station is looking really good and working well. It will be a good interchange for the new Metrobus system when it starts. The M90, M91 and M92 will be going to Bankstown.
There is a second wave of changes due to happen around Paul Keating Park.
It would be good to get more train services on that South Line.

Closing the Accessibility Gap for the Bus System

At the WSPTU Transport Symposium 2010, Dr Rhonda Daniels and Professor Corinne Mulley from the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) at Sydney University presented a paper called "Closing The Accessibility Gap". This refers to the distance to the nearest bus stop that is specified in the Bus Planning Guidelines in NSW.

You can see the full Powerpoint presentation here.

The suggestions which came from this workshop were to lobby government to:

› Measure the distance properly
– actual 400 m, not straight line

› Increase resources to meet the Govt’s 90% of households
within 400 m criteria in all metro bus contract regions

› Improve all aspects of the accessibility gap:
spatial, timing, cost, physical access, information

› Encourage more flexible transport services
– trial integrated approach in one bus contract region

› Increase funding for community transport and broaden
role

Faster Trains - Action For Public Transport

Action For Public Transport is lobbying for faster trains on CityRail.Following a meeting with CityRail on 10 August, APT focus has shifted slightly, to the more rapid implementation of faster train services. APT tells us that CityRail is committed to faster trains, but only very gradually, spread over many years.
Click here for the story

CityRail Customer Charter

At our recent WSPTU Transport Symposium, Vicki Jarvis from Rail Corp provided us with information about the CityRail Customer Charter. Vicki suggested that participating in the Customer Charter was a way for people to influence the planning and operation of CityRail.
People can read about the CityRail 2010 Customer Charter and click through to provide their thoughts about next year's charter here - http://www.cityrail.info/about/charter/update

Meet The Manager - CityRail

At the recent WSPTU Transport Symposium, Vicki Jarvis provided us with information about the CityRail 'Meet The Manager' program. In this program Customer Service Managers attend local train stations to be available to talk to customers about CityRail services.

You can find a timetable of Meet The Manager events on their website:
Click Here: Meet The Manager

Great Day at the WSPTU Transport Symposium 2010

We had a great day at the WSPTU Transport Symposium 2010 last Saturday, August 7, at the Granville Youth and Community Recreation Centre.

WSPTU thanks our guest presenters for their terrific contributions:
Prof Corrine Mulley and Dr Rhonda Daniels from the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the Univeristy of Sydney
Vicki Jarvis from Railcorp
John Evenden from Accessible Public Domain and Dave Davies from Busways

We had people attending, as individuals and representing groups, from the Macarthur, the Hills, Parramatta, Fairfield, Bankstown, Liverpool, Blacktown, Mt Druitt, Penrith and the Blue Mountains.

It was also great to connect with a lot of new people who are interested to work to help improve public transport in their local areas.

Also thanks to Ray Williams MP, Liberal Member for the Hawkesbury, and Stacy Ryan, from Minister David Borger's Office, for attending and adding to the day. Thanks also to the people who attended from the NSW Commuters Council, Action For Public Transport and EcoTransit. Thanks also to Western Sydney Community Forum for supporting the day and the WSPTU.

We will process all the information gathered and we will publish that as soon as possible. We will also prepare a report for participants and develop a follow-up program of recommendations and actions for local groups and the WSPTU Steering Committee. We will also contact all the people who nominated for the WSPTU Steering Committee.

Thanks to everyone who came and participated.