James O’Doherty: Trains meltdown plus Carbone withdrawal equals a good day for Labor

Sydney’s trains meltdown may have left commuters stranded on Wednesday, but it made Opposition Leader Chris Minns’ trip to government a little easier, writes James O’Doherty.

The catastrophic failure of Sydney’s transport network may have been fixed in a little over an hour but it will take far longer to fix the reputation of a rail system beset with problems.

Wednesday’s shutdown was the second time in basically a year that trains across Sydney ground to a halt with no warning, leaving the commuting public stranded with nowhere to go.

It was just one year and one week ago that the network was shut down amid an industrial dispute with the union.

This time, the culprit was a “failed component,” according to Sydney Trains boss Matt Longland.

Longland was at pains to highlight how quickly the problem was fixed, declaring the system was back up and running “after 60 minutes”.

But that would have been cold comfort for tens of thousands of commuters still stuck late into the night.

Even six hours later the system was still comprehensively broken.

Commuters crowd outside Central Station on Wednesday after the train network ground to a halt. Picture: Getty Images

At 10pm, Central Station was packed with dejected travellers darting from one platform to the next in an attempt to follow sporadic schedule changes.

When trains did limp into the station, they sat idly waiting for further instructions.

It was quickly shot down by bureaucrats but you can see why Transport Minister David Elliott would moot that the shutdown could have been the result of “foreign interference or industrial sabotage”.

It was not out of the realms of possibility. The timing of the network’s comprehensive failure is a cruel coincidence for a government seeking a fourth term.

It is a pretty basic job of government to keep the trains running, and having the public stranded for hours when they are trying to get home is a terrible way to convince voters you deserve another four years.

Premier Dominic Perrottet’s campaign suffered two blows this week. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tim Pascoe

Premier Dominic Perrottet offered his apology for the failure on Thursday, pledging a day of free transport to make it up to commuters.

“When these things happen, what is most important is that they are fixed quickly. And that is exactly what occurred,” he said.

Labor claimed that the entire mess was Perrottet’s fault, with opposition transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen accusing the government of having “fundamentally failed”.

That stretches the realms of credulity; no system is perfect. Haylen knows she cannot promise a fault-free network.

But there is something both parties could do to safeguard against a “failed component” causing mayhem: spend more on maintenance and less on bureaucratic fat cats.

Perhaps the money spent on Transport for NSW’s “Make it Happen” program could be better used actually making public transport happen.

Maybe the Director of “Breathtaking Simplicity” could suggest the breathtakingly simple idea to install more failsafes.

There is good reason that Labor, in pledging to slash the number of top tier public servants by 15 per cent, has the bloated Transport cluster squarely in its sights.

That move was quickly one-upped by the Coalition, which pledged to cut the number of government senior executives by 20 per cent (double a commitment, before the last election, on which they comprehensively failed).

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone’s announcement that he will not run is a huge boon for Labor. Picture: Richard Dobson

While families across the state are tightening their belts, both major parties are trying to be responsible with taxpayer dollars.

That is a large part of why Perrottet refused popular Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone’s repeated pleas for his region to get extra funding.

As The Daily Telegraph revealed on Wednesday, while Carbone was mulling over whether to run in the Labor seat of Cabramatta, he was playing both major parties against each other in a bid to get more money for Fairfield.

Apart from Labor’s earlier commitment of $115 million to upgrade the local hospital, Carbone says neither side took the bait.

“I know Frank is very passionate about his local community, like many others are. But I will make decisions based on what I believe is right. Not for some political advantage,” Perrottet said.

“The commentary around this is somehow that we should have provided taxpayer funding in a certain area, or an electorate, to encourage somebody to run for parliament — because it might have benefited the Liberal government.

“Well, I’m sorry, I’m not doing that.”

The benefit to Labor of Carbone’s decision not to run cannot be overstated.

Party insiders knew that if the popular mayor ran for Cabramatta, they would basically have no chance of holding the seat.

But Labor leader Chris Minns insists that despite early discussions, he made no deal with Carbone to keep him out of the race.

“Those negotiations did not extend to any deal about any matter. I said to him in no uncertain terms: ‘that it’s a matter for you’.”

Questions remain, though, about Federal Minister Chris Bowen’s involvement.

He denied doing a deal with Carbone, but would not deny speaking with the local mayor about his possible run for state office.

Carbone’s decision not to run keeps one, if not two, seats firmly in Labor’s camp.

While commuters were left stranded this week with no way to get home, the journey Minns hopes will take him into government got a little easier.

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