Public Transport

Mr PHILLIP COSTA: My question is directed to the Premier. Will the Premier update the House on measures to help commuters?

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the Leader of The Nationals to order for the second time.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: The people of Sydney are coming back to public transport. CityRail has experienced patronage growth of just under 4.5 per cent in one year and we are investing record amounts in rail to meet this demand. The Epping to Chatswood rail line will provide extra capacity for 12,000 commuters each day and 748 new rail carriages will replace old trains and increase capacity on the network.

[Interruption]

That is correct. There will be extra capacity on the rail line through the electorate of the member for Epping. The first outer suburban cars are already running and are providing thousands of extra seats each day. The south-west rail link and the new North West Metro will also provide fast, efficient and reliable services to rapidly growing parts of Sydney. CityRail is also meeting the challenge with an extra 12 million passengers each year. Commuters are seeing better reliability with 92.8 per cent of trains running on time.

[Interruption]

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Willoughby to order for the third time. I remind her that she has been called to order three times on several occasions during question time.

Mr MORRIS IEMMA: No, it was one of the transmission workers who had a t-shirt on. That was what that was about. He is a transmission worker from the Central Coast and a good fellow too. He was in the middle row, just near the pool camera. We know the daily expense of commuters in Sydney is not just about on-time running statistics. The people of Sydney expect and deserve a system that is consistently safe, reliable and comfortable, something that Government is committed to. We are looking at a range of initiatives that can be introduced to continue to deliver improvements to services. It is a comprehensive plan, unlike the Opposition, who wanted to set up another bureaucracy. How many more bureaucracies is the Opposition going to set up in RailCorp? The transport Minister informed the House last year that the board of RailCorp had engaged Boston Consulting to jointly design a comprehensive customer service improvement program. The program will deliver practical strategies for improvements in fleet availability, cleanliness, on-time running, queuing, crowding, service frequency and timely, reliable information for passengers.

As customers have noticed, a number of pilot projects have begun across the network. For example, commuters who use Wynyard and Town Hall stations will have noticed additional staff on the platforms directing people along the platforms. The staff help to make sure trains leave the station on time and ensure that customers know the best place to board the train to find a seat. I can inform the House also of measures RailCorp is taking to improve the experience of purchasing tickets for CityRail customers. From 21 May, a fortnight from today, RailCorp will be introducing a trial of fortnightly tickets. This convenient new 14-day rail pass will mean customers will spend less time queuing for tickets. The new payday ticket provides travel for 14 days for the price of 8 return journeys.

We are conducting this trial because our research has shown that people are interested in these types of initiatives. A recent survey of more than 800 rail commuters showed that nearly 6 in 10 regular train commuters have their salary paid fortnightly. Over two-thirds of current weekly ticket purchasers said they were interested in purchasing a new 14-day ticket. It makes sense: buying a ticket on pay day is a convenient way for commuters to take care of their transport needs for the fortnight, and it halves the queues on Monday morning. This initiative that commuters have asked for is part of our customer service improvement program and will be rolled out at a number of stations across the CityRail.