WSPTU Inc Selected To Meet With NSW Minister of Transport!

Yes, WSPTU has been invited to meet the NSW Minister of Transport, Gladys Berejiklian prior to the NSW Cabinet Community Meeting at Panthers on 1st July 2013.

We'll represent public transport issues  that affect commuters on public transport seeking  improved services and infrastructure and a very good result for Western Sydney.

Click Here For Original Blog on Invitation to the NSW Community Cabinet meeting at Penrith

Federal MP Lobbying for State Members and constituents Lifts on Doonside and Rooty Hill Train Station - Blacktown Sun Newspaper

MP angry as state budget omits funding for railway station lifts at Doonside and Rooty Hill 

By Nick Soon

June 26, 2013, 7 am.

• 
  Lift please. Carol Israel(fourth from the left) with other campaingers and Ed Husic at Doonside train station.

Commuters are angry that funds for the installation of lifts at Doonside and Rooty Hill railway stations have not been included in the latest state budget.

Edgewood Residents Association president Carol Israel said she set up a petition after receiving a complaint from a young mum and seeing many people with disabilities struggling up the ramp at Doonside.

She said it was very unfair for these people to suffer while there are lifts at other stations.

‘‘I also find it very hard when taking the train with luggage at Doonside train station,’’ she said.

Ms Israel, who also sought the help of federal MP for Chifley Ed Husic, will present the petition to Blacktown MP John Robertson.

Mr Husic criticised the NSW government for once again not including the funds to install lifts at Doonside and Rooty Hill stations in the 2013 budget.

 “I’m disappointed that the residents around Doonside and Rooty Hill have again been overlooked,’’ he said.

“The plans and money for the lifts were set aside in 2010/11 but the incoming NSW government cancelled their construction.

 “People have been raising with me the accessibility of these railway stations from the last federal election and I have been campaigning for them since.

 “The Coalition has had many opportunities in the last two years to correct this situation, even when the Auditor-General found funds overlooked by the NSW government.’’

Mr Husic said he would continue to press this issue until the lifts were installed.

Copies of the the Doonside and Rooty Hill lift petitions are also available from Mr Husic’s electorate office on 96254344.

Free Shuttle Bus Losses In Western Sydney - Hit Hard!

See the short story on Doubt of Mount Druitt Free 
Shuttle Bus Petition:

Shuttle in doubt as services cut

A FREE shuttle bus for the Mt Druitt area is less likely to go ahead after the State Government dumped seven shuttle services, including Blacktown and Penrith, due to low patronage.

The $7 million spent by the State Government on running taxpayer-funded shuttles each year will instead be invested in new bus and train services.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said the patronage figures showed most of the shuttles only carried a handful of people each trip.

“We can’t afford to be wasting millions of dollars a year on ghost services that are not used,” she said.

Mt Druitt Commuters Improvement Group president Angela Plows was devastated. She said they had a 1700-signature petition for a free shuttle bus in Mt Druitt.

“We have lost so many bus services already in the area – what’s next?” she said.

See the story of the Liverpool Free Shuttle Bus (mind you the picture of the Free Shuttle Bus is not from Liverpool!)

Liverpool's free CBD shuttle bus withdrawn 

By Farah Abdurahman

June 25, 2013, 1:08 p.m.

• 
Axed: Liverpool's free shuttle bus will be cancelled so money can be invested in new bus and train services

LIVERPOOL'S free "taxpayer-funded" shuttle bus will be cancelled so that money can be invested in new bus and train services.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian made the announcement last week.

She said a review into the bus scheme found that the 12 free shuttle services across Sydney cost taxpayers about $7 million a year to run.

Ms Berejiklian said Liverpool was the worst-performing suburb, with only one passenger boarding every two kilometres on average.

The buses for the shuttle services in Blacktown, Bankstown, Cabramatta, Campbelltown, Newcastle and Penrith will also be used elsewhere.

Ms Berejiklian said the cost of these services could no longer be justified because so few passengers used them.

She said the most popular services — in Parramatta, Wollongong and the Sydney CBD — would be retained and changes made to the Kogarah and Gosford shuttle services on a trial basis, but that the other seven would be discontinued.

Liverpool MP and shadow attorney-general Paul Lynch said this move by Ms Berejiklian "treated the people of Liverpool with utter contempt".

"They [state government] can find plenty of money for the North West Rail Link but not enough to provide our free bus service," he said. "The service is particularly helpful for people with limited mobility and the elderly.

"I know lots of people who regularly use this service and will be disadvantaged by its abolition.

"This will particularly hurt people who can least afford not to have this service."

Read the story of the Loss of the Penrith Free Shuttle Bus, what's good here is the State member for Penrith is not ruling  the service out in the future:

UNDERUSED FREE BUS AXED                     

THE free shuttle bus service in the Penrith CBD will stop operating at the end of next month due to low patronage.

Passengers alight at Penrith railway station.

Penrith state Liberal MP Stuart Ayres said although the current Government had changed the route to try and get more residents to use it, the service still wasn’t being used.

“The figures speak for themselves. The bus has 0.7 patrons per kilometre. It was burning a hole in the taxpayer’s pocket,” he said.

“We haven’t been able to increase patronage. Penrith Council were involved in marketing it and didn’t work. There simply aren’t any other options.

“We have a very sound bus network that is in operation. Perhaps with population growth and the evolution of the Penrith CBD, something like this might be viable in future.’’

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said the bus was funded per kilometre by taxpayers and the Government could not afford to be wasting money that could be spent on other transport services.

“There is so much to do in transport we can’t afford to be wasting millions of dollars a year on ghost services that are not use,” she said.

Figures from the Transport for NSW showed the 12 shuttle services in Sydney cost more than $7 million a year to operate.

Ms Berejiklian also said the previous Labor government had introduced the shuttle services without proper planning.

“These nine routes were introduced either three months or less than one month before the last state election by Labor in a clear election stunt, all without proper planning and with little logic.

“In many cases they duplicated services that already existed,” she said.

Read the story from the Fairfield City Champion, regarding the axing of the Fairfield Free Shuttle Bus

Axing of free bus 'stingy' 

By Kerri-Ann Hellier

June 25, 2013, 11:43 a.m.

• 
  Angered: Cabramatta MP Nick Lalich reads a letter from Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian to say funding for the free Cabramatta 88 shuttle bus service would be stopped.

THE free Cabramatta 88 shuttle  bus service was cut in the state budget despite elderly and less mobile people heavily relying on it, says Cabramatta MP Nick Lalich.

Mr Lalich said the bus allowed people on fixed incomes in Cabramatta, Canley Vale, Canley Heights and Cabramatta West to get around.

"These shuttle services help people in our local area get by, making it easier for people who don't have cars to visit medical appointments and the shops and catch up with friends and family," he said.

"This free shuttle service was fought for and championed by local community members who saw a gap in public transport provision.

"The removal of the free shuttles is a stingy attempt by the O'Farrell Government to force people to pay more for public transport."

The Cabramatta bus service is one of nine free shuttles being discontinued across the state. There are three remaining. The cost to run the 12 shuttles was $7 million.

However, Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said the free shuttle buses were carrying only a few people each trip.

"There is so much to do in transport we can't afford to be wasting millions of dollars a year on ghost services that are not used," Ms Berejiklian said.

Here is the story on the Blacktown Free Shuttle Bus Route Closure:

BLACKTOWN’S free shuttle service will be discontinued due to low patronage.

State Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian announced the end of the service last Friday so funding can be invested in new bus and train services.

It was one of seven free shuttle services across the state to be discontinued. Five, including the service in Parramatta, will be retained.

Patronage figures compiled by Transport for NSW show most of the 12 shuttles, which cost more than $7 million a year to operate, run small loops with only a handful of passengers.

“Each of these shuttles is funded per-kilometre by taxpayers and we can’t afford to be wasting money that could otherwise be spent on muchneeded extra transport services including those that will be introduced for bus and train customers in the October timetable and are desperately needed,’’ Ms Berejiklian said.

She said people who used the shuttles could make use of the more than 1000 additional bus services the government had provided where the shuttles operate.

City Rail Graffiti - Costing 1 Years Worth Of New Waratah Trains!

Here is a Channel 7 News Item on Graffiti  costs for the NSW Government. The costs over 2 years would allow for the purchase of 1 years supply of Waratah Trains.

Both Western and Northern line have had high incidents of graffiti, within the last year!

Click here for the Channel 7 News Report!

One of the issues facing NSW Government is preventing graffiti by the young who want to be known but yet not their faces shown.

Talking to a few commuters, this is one of the hardest issues to control, although I know if I wasn't worried about funding issues, how to try to rid the issue, with multiple measures introduced.

• I would like to see  implemented 24 hour Police Transport Command Officers, on all train stations and platforms, ensuring that all avenues are blocked for these artists to mess up the trains.
• Offenders be charged to clean the trains with strict supervision of their parents/guardians watching as well as Police Transport Command Officers, for periods starting from a  week and repeat offenders extended time as well.
• A Sydney Rail Website where videos/photo's of commuters catching graffiti artists on trains can be viewed by the NSW Police and investigated to late theses offenders.
• NSW Government runs a graffiti competition that their pictures can be seen on real pictures and properly exhibited, with a prizes awarded, as along as they are not still being graffiti artists on Sydney Rail Trains.

Action For Public Transport - Bus Fares Submissions to IPART

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal is currently considering new fares for buses in NSW. They have been taking submissions to help them with their work. Here are the submissions provided by Action For Public Transport:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Byj1I8NDqFEacm1fdkhDaWxRdW8/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Byj1I8NDqFEaU2R5bEU5eDJGTWs/edit?usp=sharing

Western Sydney Affected With Cut Free Bus Shuttle Services

The NSW Government is deciding to cut essential Free Bus Shuttle Services from a various areas in and around Western Sydney, which is based on low patronage per kilometre ( Not per trip - Bus Operators get paid per Kilometre, so this is just another way to measure it).

Per kilometre doesn't represent the true amount of commuters per trip. If the route is around around 6 kilometres the figures would be multiplied by the kilometre rate , which looks better!

We know the Free Bus shuttles are great community links to get to important areas of the community in a major urban area, where it can be inaccessible or hard to get to to with that hub, for the needy: young and elderly, the commuters that have disabilities and ordinary commuters that need to get to job employment agencies, to reach entrainment areas, visits to doctors and specialists, reaching educational facilities, child care centres, hospitals, major shopping centres, community groups and government agencies.

In the past, the NSW Governments have approved Free Bus Shuttle  Bus Services, without extensive advertising as that is Government protocol to advertise in the TV media and promote a free Bus service. If you don't promote the less commuters use it. Advertising is limited to local newspaper media and local radio and only in announcements is it only  a general broadcast to the wider media, for a 'once only promotion!'

It is understood that these maybe resulting in financial reasons to drop these Free Bus Shuttle Services - yet this is not good if you want to promote a community pride within communities - a sense of  promoting goodness around the community. People knowing that their life is made easier, by using these services that should made readily available to them. By removing these services will place more cars possibly on the roads - replacing them with paid services it only saying not our problem 'yours'.

I'm sur the WSPTU members wiuld the NSW Government to review their decision to remove theses services
Click Here For Release of Free Bus Shuttle Services being Discontinued

Here are the results:

Service and date started	Boardings per kilometre	Decision
Wollongong 2009	7.4	Retain
Sydney 2008	8.8	Retain with altered route
Parramatta March 2011	12.1	Retain
Cabramatta March 2011	4.5	Discontinue and reallocate buses to other local services
Blacktown March 2011	2.2	Discontinue and reallocate buses to other local services
Campbelltown January 2011	1.6	Discontinue and reallocate buses to other local services
Gosford January 2011	1.2	Retain as paid service with altered frequency
Newcastle March 2011	1.3	Discontinue and reallocate buses to other local services
Penrith March 2011 (Route changed after community feedback in December 2011)	0.7	Discontinue and reallocate buses to other local services
Bankstown March 2011	1.9	Discontinue and reallocate buses to other local services
Liverpool January 2011	0.6	Discontinue and reallocate buses to other local services
Kogarah March 2011	0.7	Retain on six month trial as paid service with altered route

* Patronage counts are from April or March 2013 and are consistent with previous months

We Need You To Send Your Questions To Us - Re: NSW Community Cabinet In Penrith

We omitted to tell you that if you are unable to come to the  NSW Community Cabinet meeting in Penrith on 1st July 2013, we encourage to write to us or contact us:

Contact us:

wsbustop@gmail.com

Secretary: nsjpas@ gmail.com

phone 9689 0114 and leave a message.

Post: C/O PO Box 208, Parramatta, 2124

Click Here For Previous Blog On This Issue

Community Cabinet Visit -Western Sydney Stake Holder Meeting at Penrith Panthers!

This is to inform Western Sydney Commuters o f a NSW Community Cabinet Meeting to be held at Penrith Panthers 123 Mulgoa Road, Penrith NSW, 6.30 pm - 8 pm.

This is not based on only public transport, yet it is a good opportunity for us to push for improvements in public transport in the Greater Western Sydney. A lot of areas are crying out for improved public transport as we all cater for a rising population and  a push for median density housing in Local Government Areas around the Western Sydney. 

Don't miss out! Even if you live in Liverpool, Blacktown, Parramatta, Richmond, Auburn, Bankstown, Camden, Rouse Hill and any other area in Western Sydney.

So if you would like to come along to this event - all you will need to do is respond to the R.S.V.P. by sending e-mail to:
communitycabinet@dpc.nsw.gov.au

After this meeting you e-mail/ contact us to give us your feedback!

Over Parramatta Station Skies - Colourful Rainbows!

It is unusual that many people look into the sky at trains and it seemed to be a day that people did this. Seen over Parramatta train Station was a colourful  rainbow spread across the background of the sky unbeknown to others.

So I decided to take  two picture, one a bit further and one a bit closer - see the difference. A lady  who I had been speaking to today advised that many people were taking pictures of the rainbow sky in Granville.

If you have pictures you would like to provide to us to see who had the best shot today, send to us and we will upload them on our blogspot.

Delays Catching M91 Bus - Penrith Commuter

David  from Penrith  - travels by City Rail train to Parramatta and then changes for a Metro bus M91 to Bass Hill. Although, it is not a a popular transport corridor that commuters use that I know of - there seems to be a treacle of commuter that tend to use a similar corridor.


His issue is the waiting time at Parramatta Bus interchange, this is due to late running bus services. According to David - the bus services should be every twenty minutes but  in most cases it tends to arrive every half an hour. this can make his one length journey trip take up to two hours. Although he acknowledges that the M91 is comfortable and there is plenty of seating, he just that if buses are on time, not running late it will make his life easier.

IPART Review of Bus Fares

Submissions due by June 24 (extended deadline).

Click here for information: IPART Review of Bus Fares

Footpaths and Bus Stops in Oatlands and North Parramatta

Since 2007, a group of determined older people from Oatlands and North Parramatta have been trying to get improved local bus services as well as footpaths and bus stops to improve their access to the fast route buses. Here is a video update from them:

Update ON North West Rail Link Received

Subject: Fw: North West Rail Link Project Update
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2013 11:00

West Rail Link Project Update

You have been sent this email because we’d like to keep you informed about the North West Rail Link project. If you would no longer like to receive project updates, please reply with ‘Unsubscribe’ in the subject box

This month the North West Rail Link team we will issue the request for proposals to the two consortia competing for the Operations, Trains and Systems (OTS) contract.

As part of the request for proposal, the NSW Government has today announced that the North West Rail Link will be delivered as a fully-automated rapid transit system.

This is an Australian-first and includes driverless trains and high-tech customer safety and security measures.

The requirement for full automation will be part of the RFP as will a series of customer service requirements which the operator will have to meet – like ensuring trains are on time, that trains and stations are clean and safe, and that customer service is paramount.

Fully-automated train technology has been in use around the world for 30 years.

The technology is focused on safety and reliability.

Millions of people on more than 40 rail lines in at least 14 countries travel every day on fully-automated rail systems.

Features of the system will include:

·         Driverless train operations, with trains constantly monitored by a team of expert controllers at a new state-of-the-art train control centre;
·         Platform screen doors on all platforms, making loading and unloading faster and safer;
·         Cooling and heating at underground stations for customer comfort;
·         Multiple cameras and help points in trains and on platforms and stations,  with live links to the train control centre; and
·         The Police Transport Command and transport officers patrolling the new rapid transit network, the same as the rest of the rail network.

When rapid transit expands beyond Chatswood with the crossing under Sydney Harbour, this automated system will allow the operation of up to 30 trains an hour on the wider network – a massive boost to future capacity.

The two consortia have until the end of this year to finalise their proposals.

The OTS contract will be awarded in the second half of next year.

For further information on the North West Rail Link you can go to www.northwestrail.com.au
Call our Community Information Line: 1800 019 989
Visit our Community Information Centre: 299 Old Northern Road, Castle Hill

Kind Regards,

The North West Rail Link Team
Transport for NSW

T 1800 019 989
Community Information Centre - 299 Old Northern Road, Castle Hill NSW 2154
www.northwestrail.com.au

  


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Membership of the WSPTU

Membership of the WSPTU is now available to individuals as well as groups. We also have "associate member" categories for individuals and groups who are supporters but not eligible for full membership (aren't public transport users from Greater Western Sydney). You can find the new constitution and membership forms in the left hand menu under "Who Is The WSPTU?" Or you can just download it here Membership form . Note that there are people and groups who are ineligible to be members because of a conflict of interest (eg transport providers and property development companies). The rules are on the forms provided.

Join now while it's free!

Steam Train Painting

For you enthusiasts. A fabulous steam train wall mural by artist Geoff Demain on the wall of  the Broken Hill train station. This mural would measure 3 metres x 4 metres (ie: it's big).
Here's the google map reference if you want it Broken Hill Train Station

Signage for MyMulti Tickets - Will Opal Change All This?

Sometimes it is hard to get people to buy pre-paid tickets from outlets rather than on the bus. We often see people cuing with change for the bus driver even though there is an outlet near the bus stop. Here at Strathfield (a very busy interchange), Woolworths have amped up the signage to make people realise they can prepurchase tickets. It's a good lesson - make the signs clear and direct.
It will be interesting to see the transition to the new Opal Card and to see the uptake by casual and irregular transport users. Hopefully this will make an improvement.

Bus Ramp Working

Here's the Parramatta City Shuttle Bus using it's ramp. One of the most important functions of all the city shuttles around Sydney is to make city centres more accessible. Here we see the Shuttle doing it's job. WSPTU, with local groups, has tried to get the local shuttle services, that ones that aren't working well, improved so that they service the communities, reduce city centre traffic and improve access around the city centres, but there is a lot of resistance from the Government bureacracies to doing this. It's not clear why ...

No WestConnex Face Book Group & Website

Here is a  Face Book group that is advocating against the WestConnex proposal by the NSW Government introduced via the NSW Long Term Transport master Plan:


http://www.facebook.com/NoWestconnex?ref=ts&fref=ts


This is their website!

NEW WSPTU Steering Committee Elected 2013

On Saturday 1st June 2013, a new WSPTU Committee was elected and there was a well represented. The following were the elected Office-bearers:

President:  Susan Day, Vice President: John Seedsman, Secretary/Treasurer: John Svoboda, Acting Secretary Chris Pandilovski and Committee Members: Leonie Clark and Paul Turner.

Hugh Worrall Showing the way!

WSPTU POLICY COMMITTEE