The Hon. E. M. OBEID: On 14 October the Hon. D. E. Oldfield asked a question about railway station staffing and ticketing. The Minister for Transport, and Minister for Roads has provided the following answer:

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I am advised by CityRail that as of 30 June 1999 there were 2,289 staff on CityRail stations following the implementation of the job and work redesign staffing changes undertaken in consultation with staff and relevant unions. I am further advised that the ticket checking gates and ticket vending machines used by CityRail are manufactured by Cubic Corporation. The system has been in operation since 1993. The Cubic ticketing system was selected through an open tender process and not on the basis of its origin of manufacture. Ticket machines operate on all stations in the CityRail network area only, which extends to Bomaderry, Goulburn, Scone, Dungog and Bathurst, the latter of which has recently been added to the network and does not have a CityRail ticket machine at present.

The ticket machine at Kingswood station has been subject to an amount of vandalism this year which usually involved persons placing glue in the locks, rendering the machine inoperable. Since 1 July the problem has not arisen and the machine has been reliable. The Government is undertaking a comprehensive upgrade of security which will see the installation of closed-circuit television, high-intensity lighting and help points at each one of the 301 stations on the CityRail network. This work is expected to be completed by July 2000. In addition to this, two security guards patrol every train from 7.00 p.m. each evening until the last service and randomly patrol services from 3.00 p.m. Security guards also patrol selected stations.

Questions without notice concluded.