Announcement of New Bus Contracts

This could be very important for people in Greater Western Sydney.

Transport for NSW has announced the successful tenders for the bus contracts in several regions including Region 1 (Penrith to Blacktown) and Region 3 (Liverpool, Fairfield, Holroyd).

Busways was successful for Region 1 and Transit Systems Australia was successful in Region 3. Busways www.busways.com.au is well known to people in Region 1 but the other existing service providers, Westbus and Hawkesbury Valley Buses, appear to have missed out on contracts in Region 1.

The new contract for Region 3 has gone to Transit Systems Australia. They seems to be a new business in Western Sydney http://www.transitsystems.com.au/overview . Previously Region 3 was operated by a consortium of MetroLink, Busabout, Hopkinsons and Westbus. It's unknown what will happen with those businesses. http://www.a3mc.com.au/

http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/new-bus-contracts-benefit-customers-and-taxpayers

Filling In 'The Gap' - SMH

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a story this week about the difficulties some people in Sydney face while trying to access the bus system.

People associated with WSPTU groups in Mt Druitt and Bankstown are in the story.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/for-many-public-transport-is-now-a-private-hell-20121110-294wx.html

The Sydney Alliance has created maps showing where services aren't available within 400 metres and with a frequency of 15 minutes. The Sydney Alliance have created a formula for quality services: 400:15:1 SCAA.  This means 400 metres to the nearest stop, every 15 minutes, available on 1 ticket, safe, clean, accessible and affordable.

Here is a story in the SMH about how people could be linked to high-frequency services through the use of local-level 'feeder' services and 'flexible' transport services. Prof Corrine Mulley from the Institute of Transport and Logistics at Sydney Uni is quoted. Professor Mulley has presented at the WSPTU Symposium.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/linking-services-vital-to-get-the-city-moving-20121111-296h0.html

New NCOSS Transport Newsletter - "Interchange"

The Council of Social Services NSW (NCOSS) has started a new transport newsletter called Interchange. The first edition has an interesting article about changes to the way in which people can pay their transport fines and a report from the National Transport Commission conference.
Interchange
We will archive the link to Interchange on our Transport Links menu on the left of this page.

NSW Budget 2011/12

The NSW Budget was delivered this week and was the first budget since the change of Government last March. Here are the transport highlights taken from the Budget papers:
Rail Services
$314 million to develop the 23-kilometre North West Rail Link
$292 million to continue the $2.1 billion South West Rail Link
$103 million to expand light rail in central Sydney and the inner west, integrating it with other forms of transport
$51 million to start building the Wynyard Walk
$159 million for the Country Regional Network
$198 million for the Rail Clearways Program
$106 million to improve infrastructure to meet the needs of new Waratah trains
$152 million to buy and upgrade rollingstock
$7.5 million for a new program to boost Easy Access upgrades and $22.5 million on programmed Easy Access station upgrades
$16.9 million as part of an increased commitment to spend $40 million over four years for Park and Travel Safety improvements
$102 million over four years to provide more express rail services
$2 million to conduct a study of North Coast rail services.
Bus Services
purchase 261 new buses, worth $118.8 million
$45 million for new bus depots
$7.6 million over four years to increase Nightride bus services
$9.2 million over four years to continue support for free bus services
$3 million for studies into a bus rapid transit system for the northern beaches.
Ferry Services
continuing the Fixing Sydney Ferries program, by franchising Sydney Ferries, restoring and expanding services, upgrading wharves and looking at fleet replacement an additional $7.5 million over four years to improve ferry wharves.
Transport Interchanges and Commuter Car Parks
$76 million on interchanges and car parks.
Ticketing, Concessions and Community Transport
$110 million to deliver a fast, convenient and integrated electronic ticketing system for greater Sydney
providing concession schemes for pensioners, tertiary students, people with disabilities and others using public transport, estimated at $438 million
subsidising travel under the School Student Transport Scheme, estimated at $550 million
an extra $12 million over four years to boost community transport services
$1.6 million over four years to deliver free seniors’ photo cards to eligible Seniors Card holders and older people receiving a disability support pension.
You can find a link to the budget overview here . And for the keen people a link to all the budget papers here.
WSPTU will provide some commentary over the next few weeks.

Last Chance to Register for the Transport Symposium Tomorrow

There are only 5 places left for the WSPTU Transport Symposium which is on tomorrow at the Dooley's Club in Lidcome, tomorrow, Saturday August 13 from 10.30 to 4pm.

Guest Speakers:
Professor Corinne Mulley - Institute of Transport and Logistics
David Borger - Former Minister for Roads and Lord Mayor of Parramatta
Stuart Palmer - Premier Cabs
Amy Williams - Sydney Alliance
Philippa Vale - South West Community Transport

The headline topics are:
Free Shuttle Buses - are they useful and how can people contribute to their evaluation?
Shared Taxis - can shared taxis be used as part of the public transport mix?

Plus the opportunity to meet local people who are interested to improve public transport in their local area. Register now, it's free!

Notes from WSPTU Meeting on Nov 21

WSPTU met again last Saturday November 21 at Western Sydney Community Forum.

Seven WSPTU members attended representing groups from the Hills, Liverpool, Mt Druitt and St Marys, Oatlands and North Parramatta. We had apologies from our Bankstown, Blue Mountains and Penrith reps.

Members from Ecotransit attended and we discussd how Ecotransit and WSPTU members could work together better. Thanks to Ecotransit for coming to the meeting.

Local reports featured:
- meeting at Whalan regarding the bus network changes
- the upcoming implementation of the Region 3 bus network changes in the Liverpool area
- the problem of a reduction of bus services into Miller which has 21 local doctors and other medical services
- Liverpool Council is considering putting a toilet into Bigge Park to help with the lack of a toilet at the bus interchange
- Western Sydney Community Forum (WSCF) attendance at the IPART bus fare inquiry and the Sydney Morning Herald Independent Transport Inquiry.
- WSCF discussion paper 'the Gap' describing the gap between access to community transport and the route bus system.

If you have a local group which is interested in working on local transport issues and you would like to make contact with the WSPTU please contact us because we would like to invite you to be part of our work: wsbustop@gmail.com or phone Hugh on 02 9633 5068.

NEXT MEETING
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2PM
AT WSCF - 146 MARSDEN ST, PARRAMATTA

Whalan Protests Loss Of The 755

Around 60 people attended the Whalan Community Hall last Saturday to tell their local NSW parliamentary representatives, Richard Amery, Alan Sheeran and Ray Williams, that they were unhappy about some of the changes to the Region 1 buses in the Mt Druitt area. The meeting was organsied by a new local action group called SOBS (Save Our Bus Services).

Like other areas in Western Sydney, it seems to be older people and people with mobility problems that can be badly effected by some of the changes in the Bus Network Review. Several people with serious medical conditions and disabilties told their stories about how they had organised their lives around knowing that they could catch the bus only to find it had now been taken away.

While some areas also celebrated the fruits of 10 years of lobbying which seems to have paid off in the Region 1 changes (Willmot was finally connected to Emerton) people in Whalan who had previously had the 755 come into their street to take them to Mt Druitt and Blacktown were now finding it too difficult to get to the new services which only run down the main roads - Woodstock, Luxford, Belmore and Popondetta - and no longer go to Blacktown.

The local MPs committed to approaching the NSW Transport and Infrastructure department to discuss the issues and to try and find ways to get services to the people who had been disadvantaged by the changes. They were unconvinced that they could get the 755 restored. That, however, was what people wanted.

The WSPTU Met on August 22

The new WSPTU representative committee met for the second time on Saturday August 22. We had representatives from Liverpool, Bankstown, Penrith, Blue Mountains, The Hills and Camden. We recieved reports from transport activities that are happening in each local area.

The WSPTU saw the call for submissions from the Sydney Morning Herald for an inquiry into transport issues in Sydney and decided to put a team of people together to make a submission for the inquiry. If you have any ideas for this submission, please make a comment on this blog below this message or email us as wsbustop@gmail.com .

The meeting decided to create a small Governance Team to work on building the administrative structures of the WSPTU and to keep the representative group of the WSPTU as the main engine of ideas and policy.

If you are part of a local transport action group, or some other group like a resident's action group that is working on local transport issues in your area, and you would like to be part of the WSPTU please contact us so we can include you.

WSPTU Umbrella Meets For The First Time

People representing public transport users in Penrith, the Hills, Oatlands, Bankstown, Chester Hill, Liverpool and the Blue Mountains met for the first time last week to discuss the creation of the WSPTU umbrella group.

This meeting was to follow-up from the Transport Symposium where people clearly said that they wanted an 'umbrella group' to support the work of people working in local groups. We wrestled with how this could work and decided to develop the idea further. We want something that can give Western Sydney public transport users a more powerful voice.

The idea of the Umbrella is to be able to identify issues which are common to many Western Sydney public transport users and to try and gather support to advocate for solutions to these issues. The issue which is most strongly represented to us is that of 'local transport'.

Older people, and people living with mobility difficulties, who have been badly effected by the Bus Network Review are looking for people to support them to get transport services in their local area that better suit their needs. People repeatedly, and with great passion, say that they want their independence and don't want to be confined to their house.

Of course other issues, such as a better mass transit system into the Hills and the need for an integrated ticketing system are also issues likely to be important to the WSPTU. We also did a brainstorm about why Community Transport isn't working as an effective local transport system for older people. Most of the WSPTU participants (many in their 80s) are too young and healthy to qualify for community transport!!

We also decided to pick up on some local issues in between meetings to see if we could progress them.

Watch this space!