Sunday 11 December 2016

Transport for NSW owes the community an answer!

The evidence to support Restore Inner West Line/Liverpool via Regents Park trains cannot be ignored by Transport for NSW, Sydney Trains or Transport Minister Andrew Constance!

The community deserves a truthful response - an acknowledgement that commuters have been worse off and that the 2013 timetable change has failed to achieve its goals for the area.

Hence the need for the Inner West Line and Liverpool via Regents Park train to be restored!


Transport for NSW continues to insist that the 2013 cuts to trains on the Inner West Line (truncation at Homebush and removal of Liverpool via Regents Park) was to improve reliability on the Western Line, South Line and Bankstown Line.

However Sydney Trains' own Peak Punctuality statistics from 2013 onwards show that reliability has in fact fallen on the Bankstown Line and South Line, clearly contradicting most of Transport for NSW's claims. 

One of the major stations affected by the 2013 train service cuts is Lidcombe. Transport for NSW documents obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald show that "overcrowding has a 'substantial impact' on reliability particularly on the Western Line between Strathfield and Parramatta with Lidcombe at the epicentre of the overcrowded section.

Commuters that could have travelled on the former Inner West Line (Liverpool via Regents Park train) direct from the city to stations such as Regents Park, Sefton, Chester Hill etc. via Lidcombe (which was faster than travelling via Sydenham); now have to alight at Lidcombe and wait up to 30 minutes for a Bankstown train and most likely have to interchange again at Birrong.

Transport for NSW's 2013 Timetable Stakeholder Engagement Plan obtained using Freedom of Information by Restore Inner West Line show that the cuts to Inner West Line trains (truncation at Homebush and removal of Liverpool via Regents Park) would have a significant impact on the Auburn and Fairfield electorates and affect the majority of commuters from the area.

With the above evidence clearly pointing to an error of judgment on Transport for NSW's behalf for the 2013 timetable changes regarding the Inner West Line/Liverpool via Regents Park trains, will the Inner West Line be restored to its pre-2013 route along with the reinstatement of regular Liverpool via Regents Park services in the next Sydney Trains' timetable change?

And will Transport for NSW acknowledge that the communities of Homebush, Flemington, Lidcombe, Berala, Regents Park, Sefton, Chester Hill, Leightonfield, Villawood, Carramar, Cabramatta, Warwick Farm, Liverpool, Birrong, Yagoona and Bankstown have been adversely impacted by cuts to public transport since 2013?