It’s ironic that the rail system opened up the state and country before the advent of motor vehicles, that it has been allowed to fall into such disrepair. I joined the railways in 1954 and have watched branch lines being closed and rail freight hived off to road transport, resulting in the road chaos we are seeing today. If only we could turn the clock back and start anew.I can also report that top-level strategy was to discontinue all long distance passenger rail travel and only provide a metropolitan and interurban service Devised by David Hill, Neville Wran and Peter Cox, in some respects this has already been done.
RailCorp repairs likely to take years not months according to NSW Transport Minister
- From:The Daily Telegraph
- April 21, 2012
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NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Justin Lloyd Source: The Daily Telegraph
DRAGGING RailCorp into the 21st century will take years, not months, Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian admitted yesterday.
The state government is reviewing the organisation and will get a report in six months – but Ms Berejiklian said implementing the changes would take much longer.
“It’s a massive, massive undertaking and, to be honest, to get the organisation from where it is to world best practice won’t take months, it will take years,” Ms Berejiklian said in a lunchtime address hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.
“I guess if RailCorp was providing a world-class service every day of the year you could excuse the cost of $10 million a day but under the current circumstances we do need to give that organisation a shake-up.”
Ms Berejiklian said nothing was ruled in or out of the review and the results of the privatisation of Sydney Ferries services would determine whether more public transport services were sold off.
“I think by the end of the year when we have the operator in place, that will be for us a key milestone for how we might view those arrangements in the future,” she said.
Ms Berejiklian said the current timetable would be completely overhauled next year.
“Rather than tinker with the timetable we will start from scratch, which means we can deal with issues like frequency and travel times.”
She said previous governments also made cuts to the organisation but they cost more in the long run, adding: “For too long we have let things slide and that won’t continue into the future.”