Survey reveals what Sydneysiders would like to fix in city
TELEGRAPH readers were asked what they would fix in Sydney. House prices and lockout laws were high on the list of gripes. But one issue made up 50 per cent of the total complaints.
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MORE than half of the problems Sydneysiders have with this city would go away if they had a better commute every day.
A Facebook survey of more than 1300 Daily Telegraph readers found public transport, traffic, roads and tolls made up 50 per cent of the total complaints.
The price of real estate, general cost of living and the city’s contentious lockout laws also topped complaints.
But by far and above the biggest gripe was the daily commute and Tim Reardon, boss of Transport for NSW, said Sydneysiders’ concerns were being addressed.
In an exclusive interview Mr Reardon acknowledges the disruption the big works cause: “Clearly that tests people’s patience …. I have access to information so I am not surprised by road works when I am trying to get my kids to sport on a Saturday morning”.
“We will only need to get better and better with communicating with people through the disruption we are causing on the networks at the moment.”
He vows Sydney and the state will become a world-class transport system and “there’s absolutely no reason it should not be,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Reardon said the challenge for transport chiefs was to meet mid-century population estimates of 8 million people, up from 5.2 million today and up to the levels of London or New York.
“But Sydney travels in a different way because we are more widespread,” he said.
“People might actually, in much vaster numbers, travel west, southwest or northwest to their job in the future as opposed to the current approach of very strong west to east commutes and long commutes for work. We want to see more and more local commutes to work, we want more and more people to actually live what the greater Sydney Commission’s 30-minute commute vision of Sydney actually means.”
He said it would take some time to “rebalance the shape of this city” when its future transport strategy is released next year to provide for the additional one million people over the next decade who will be using the network — more trains, more services as part of a $1.5 billion response to the recent 20 per cent growth in train network users.
He promised better infrastructure and new Waratah trains “just to keep up with that growth”.
Mr Reardon said the focus was also squarely placed on Sydney’s west and Sydney Metro West was “certainly a next-phase project”.
He said there was a need for more rail access in greater western Sydney in relation to a western Sydney airport rail and north-south rail link.
ROADS
On tolls, Mr Reardon said the city’s network of toll roads has built up over decades and commuters were willing to pay for a “travel-time benefit”.
“People in Sydney have been used to paying a toll where they expect a travel-time benefit. If you take the recent opening of the new M4 WestConnex 1A, they are certainly seeing that travel time benefit right now. Certainly there is a travel time benefit on that, without a doubt. People are willing to pay for something where they see a direct benefit.
“The tolling to deliver infrastructure earlier is largely what has been put into the state of NSW, it’s delivered us the M2 the M4 the M5, the M7, Lane Cove Tunnel, Eastern Distributor, Cross City Tunnel and now the new M4 NorthConnex and the other stages of WestConnex. All of those have brought forward infrastructure that would otherwise have been delayed, in certain circumstances by multiple years. So the community has benefited by getting on and building those and putting an orbital in place.
“I think there’s a direct understanding of the bringing forward of infrastructure and the payment of the toll. Otherwise we wouldn’t have the orbital network in place that we take for granted now.
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“Current government policy is set for the tolling that we have on the system. There’s always a broader discussion, which the commonwealth government are looking at, broader road pricing and congestion pricing. (London-based) Congestion pricing is not government policy in this city”
“But we have worked really hard on putting in co-ordination around the city, changing the bus plan . working through a travel choices campaign with, quite literally, hundreds of businesses within this CBD to tell them to re-mode, to retime to re-route or not travel at all if they don’t need to within the CBD. That has resulted in us achieving a sustainable more than 10 per cent reduction in some of the peak travel within this CBD, which is what’s kept this CBD working. So without pricing, we have achieved a similar level of benefit — quite proud of that — the fact that we’ve achieved that in a sustainable way and kept the city moving.
LIGHT RAIL
Mr Reardon said light rail was a trigger for more flexible working environment.
“You close the main street of the biggest city in this country, it will trigger some change … We’ve got on the front foot, the government’s really got on the front foot with that, in terms of putting quite an incredibly strong and straightforward fair dinkum message to the community and saying, ‘This is the level of disruption, be patient, bare with us, work it through, we will tell you about all your options and choices, help us out, get some innovation involved, see where we drop freight off in the city, use all the apps we’ve got available so you can work out when you can and can’t work, yes we are going to take some parking out, we’ll try and give you alternatives whenever we can’.
Worked with taxis hirecares ride share, cyclists, other couriers.
“In the main they’ve all responded really positively to keep the city working.”
“We are the pre-eminent city when it comes to having to work through disruption and having to quite literally host hundreds of major events every year …. We have to juggle all of that each and every weekend
HOW HE TRAVELS
The transport boss revealed he commutes on the bus. I drive every now and then, and try to do a few different routes, just for the experience. I used to have a mantra of trying to do as many modes as I could in a quarter. I still try and keep that up, whether it’s bus, jumping on the light rail.”
THE FUTURE
He said there plenty of good things to come like the Barangaroo ferry, light rail extension, opal card, credit card opal on the Manly Ferry.
“We are transport for NSW for a reason … and just as many experiences as you can so you can walk in the shoes of customers because, you can imagine I receive fearless and frank feedback from a lot of customers in the community, as I should. We think we’re doing reasonable well … but we know we’ve got a long way to go to make it world class. We see that Sydney and the state will become a world-class transport system and there’s absolutely no reason it should not be.