Sydney hit with commuter chaos on the Anzac Bridge and trains
TRANSPORT Minister Andrew Constance has hit out at Labor’s plan to offer refunds to commuters who suffer “avoidable” delays of 30 minutes or more, claiming it would require around $100 million in technology upgrades to the Opal system.
NSW
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TRAIN commuters who suffer “avoidable” delays of 30 minutes or more will get a full fare refund under a NSW Labor government.
Seizing on the government’s train dramas, Opposition Leader Luke Foley on Monday morning announced that passengers affected by driver shortages, mechanical breakdowns and other events that are the fault of the rail system will be fully compensated for their journey.
Wet weather and a slew of sickies are being blamed for lengthy train delays across the city today as people woke to the cancellation of several services across the Sydney rail network, with transport authorities blaming “an operational issue”.
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In August, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was open to considering Opal card refunds in the wake of a train meltdown that stranded thousands of commuters but the government is yet to do anything about it.
If elected in March 2019, Mr Foley said his government would foot the bill for avoidable delays of 30 minutes or more because “there’s just no incentive on the people running the railways to do better”.
He said it was estimated the new system would cost $5-6 million over a four-year term. However, the costing is still subject to advice from the Parliamentary Budget Office.
“Where’s the incentive on the people running Sydney Trains to do better?” he said.
“What I suggest is if the government’s obliged to foot the bill and give you a refund because of the avoidable delays, that’ll be a powerful incentive for government and the people inside it to provide a better service.
“I think a transport minister presiding over such a system would be working very very diligently to ensure the government isn’t forking out lots of money in refunds.”
Transport Minister Andrew Constance hit out Mr Foley’s Opal refund plan as “impossible” and claimed it would require around $100 million in technology upgrades to the system.
“This so-called policy shows just how out-of-touch and unfit for office Luke Foley is,” he said.
“The way the current Opal system works means passengers tap on and off at station gates — not specific trains.
“It is impossible to track which trains passengers are boarding, therefore impossible to know if they are late.”
Mr Constance said the “pie in the sky” idea would also require around $100 million in technology upgrades to the Opal system which would take years to implement.
He claimed 0.27 per cent of peak services last month were delayed by 30 minutes or more, or 36 trains out of more than 13,340 peak services.
“Patronage on Sydney Trains has increased by 100 million over the past five years,” he said.
“That’s why the Berejiklian Government is investing in new trains, new rail infrastructure and building Sydney Metro — which will be turn up and go, no timetable, a train every four minutes in the peak.”
Opposition transport spokeswoman Jodi McKay said the Opal system was already designed to provide commuters with refunds.
She said passengers would be given a 28 day window of opportunity to apply for a refund online, adding the independent pricing regulator IPART would be heavily involved.
“We don’t accept that it’s not possible — we will do this,” Ms McKay said.
Mr Foley said delays on the Sydney Trains network under the management of Ms Berejiklian and Transport Minister Andrew Constance were “just not good enough”.
“It’s the responsibility of the people who run the railways to run a system that gets millions of Sydneysiders around in proper order and that is not happening under this government — the train system lurches from crisis to crisis,” he said.
However, he said the avoidable delays would not cover “freak of nature” events such as flash flooding and bushfires.
When Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins made his pitch for the Opal card in 2013, he said: “When people have had a delayed journey, we can automatically refund their journey on the Tube. And I think that will be something for Sydney to look forward to.”
Speaking to reporters in Wahroonga this morning, Mr Constance said more than 110 railway staff had called in sick — almost 40 more people than authorities had planned for.
“We’ve had 112 off — we were expecting 76 off, that’s what we projected,” he said.
“I want to reiterate nobody should be blaming any staff here. This is just a little bit of a blip … there is nothing industrial in this, there is nothing untoward, it’s just an unfortunate day in which this has occurred.”
Mr Constance said many railway workers were off work due to mental health issues and were undergoing counselling following a string of “terrible tragedies” on the network.
It comes after a 37-year-old man died when he stumbled before being hit by a train at Sydenham station on Friday night.
“To those commuters affected this morning, yes, we’re very sorry,” Mr Constance said.
“But we’ve also had some enormous challenges in the flexibility of our staff. In the last two weeks for instance we’ve had some terrible tragedies on our railway. That has affected staff availability. We’ve got staff being counselled. So I just want to make this point — those who seek to denigrate the railways are on the wrong track.”
Mr Constance defended railway staff who had called in sick, saying they were doing a “phenomenal job” as demand on Sydney’s public transport networks grows.
“I have this message to our staff — and I’ve seen some of the reports today — our staff are doing are phenomenal job,” he said.
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“They’re working around the clock. The men and women driving our trains and crewing our trains are doing a phenomenal job. Today, like any other workplace, we’ve had some additional sick leave, but that is no reflection on a staff that our now carry an extra 100 million passenger trips per year than five years ago.”
The delays affected services on the T1 North Shore, T2 Inner West and Leppington, T3 Bankstown, T5 Cumberland and T8 Airport South lines, with buses called in to assist passengers.
Sydney was hit with commuter chaos following the cancellation and a fatal motorbike crash on the Anzac Bridge.
A motorcycle rider has died in a crash on Sydney’s Anzac Bridge.
The rider was struck in the eastbound lanes of the bridge just after 7am and died at the scene, police say.
“Anyone with dashcam vision should contact police,” a spokesman for NSW Police told AAP.
Yesterday, thousands of school holiday travellers have been left stranded after two air traffic control staffers called in sick at Sydney Airport.
At least 26 outbound domestic flights have been cancelled at the airport, effecting Qantas, Qantas Link, Tiger Air, Jetstar and Virgin passengers.