- Home
- Hansard & Papers
- Legislative Council
- 21 October 2004
CityRail Services
Printing Tips |
Print selected text
| Full Day Hansard Transcript
« Prior Item |
Item 12 of 47
| Next Item »
Page: 11
The Hon. MICHAEL GALLACHER: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Transport Services, who is not in the Chamber. Perhaps the Minister needs to be instructed about question time. He is probably hiding under a chair somewhere.
The PRESIDENT: Order! I remind Ministers that question time commences at 12 noon sharp.
The Hon. Don Harwin: Point of order: I ask that the clock be reset as a substantial amount of the time of the Leader of the Opposition has been wasted.
The PRESIDENT: Order! The clock will be set back one minute.
The Hon. MICHAEL GALLACHER: Will the Minister apologise to Higher School Certificate [HSC] students who rely on trains to get them to and from their examinations in light of the large number of trains that ran late during the first three days of the HSC? Did approximately 770 trains run four or more minutes late during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday peak hours, and were 366 of those trains 10 or more minutes late? In light of the fact that CityRail's web site reveals that wet weather conditions accounted for only 94 of those 770 peak hour delays, while operational problems, broken-down trains, dirty trains and broken equipment accounted for the rest of the delays, will the Minister apologise to each and every HSC student who is late for examinations because of the Minister's inability to manage the rail system?
The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: I certainly will not apologise for my inability to manage the rail system because I am very capable of managing it. As the Leader of the Opposition knows, I am in the process of overseeing a major capital investment in the rail system that will see massive improvements. That ongoing program will ensure that the rail system is properly positioned not only for the rest of this decade but also well into the next decade. I refer, of course, to the program of rail clearways in which the Government is investing over $1 billion. It is also investing in new rolling stock. I certainly apologise to all commuters—something that I have done on a number of occasions—for the problems that have recently been experienced. We are well on the way towards resolving them.
I do not want to go through all the problems in chapter and verse, as people are well aware of them. We have had driver shortages and problems associated with the introduction of new safety measures as a result of the Waterfall inquiry. We know the Opposition's position is to do nothing about safety. That is certainly not the Government's position. It will continue to implement recommendations from all the inquiries, which have caused disruption to the rail system and for which I again apologise. However, there is no alternative other than to undertake those safety measures, introduce data loggers, introduce new medical standards and improve driver training. Those measures will go ahead.
I refer specifically now to HSC students. I am advised that students travelling to their HSC examinations who are delayed should immediately approach station staff who will organise alternative transport. Despite the problems being experienced over the past two weeks—and the Leader of the Opposition clearly knows this because he has been trying to get up stories—the morning peak has progressively improved since changes were made to weekend timetables in July, which increased the availability of drivers. I am advised that more work is being done in the short term to ensure faster recovery times from incidents.
As I said, as we introduce the new timetable, which is targeted for September next year, we will have on-time running back to acceptable levels within a safety framework and culture that Opposition members are obviously completely disregarding. Opposition members clearly have no understanding of requirements relating to safety. Any Opposition leader who says that we should sacrifice safety to maintain on-time running, thus putting at risk the public—
The Hon. Michael Gallacher: Who said that?
The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: John Brogden said that.
The Hon. Michael Gallacher: When did he say it?
The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: He has said on many occasions that we should ignore the recommendations of the Waterfall inquiry and implement a regime that would maintain on-time running at the detriment of safety measures.
The Hon. Michael Egan: That is a disgrace.
The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: It is a disgrace. We will not do that. We have systematically addressed the problems in the rail system. The evidence is on the record to show that this Government is doing that. A new timetable is due in September next year. It will finally address the problem of on-time running, but it will do that within the context of a safe railway. The notion that we should sacrifice safety for on-time running is one that this Government rejects. We will not put at risk the lives of the passengers who travel on our system to maintain artificial and structurally inappropriate running times, using an out-of-date timetable that needs revision. I make no apologies for doing that. However, I certainly apologise to the public for the problems that they have recently experienced. That apology will be reflected in the changes that will be implemented next September.
Last modified 05/12/2007 16:31:52 : Update this page