Ticket prices on the up

SHADOW Minister for Transport Barry OFarrell said Kiama commuters were being slugged with more unwarranted ticket price hikes despite travel times being considerably slower than that of 11 years ago when he came to town last Friday.

In Kiama to meet with local Liberal candidate Trevor Fredericks, Mr OFarrell said last Sundays ticket price rise came at a time when commuters traveling from Kiama to Sydney are spending an extra 11 minutes sitting on the train compared with travel times in 1995.

Increasing train fares at a time of record petrol prices while at the same time making train trips longer makes no sense, he said. Over the last 11 years the government has constantly said that if commuters put up with the price rises then the standards will improve. This has obviously not happened.

These problems are systematic of the lack of government investment in state services. The rail system has to start being run for the benefit of consumers.

Mr O Farrell said Sundays price hike will slug Kiama rail commuters with off peak fare increases of 17 percent as a ticket to Sydney jumps by $2.60.

Since 1995 off peak ticket prices have increased by 68 percent while trains have gotten slower, he said. Even with the electrification of the line down here things have got slower. It is plain to see the slower trains are not as a result of Waterfall.

There is no justification for any fare increase when train services have not improved. With the price rise Kiama commuters are forced to pay more for a train service that gets them home to their families later.

Kiama MP Matt Brown said he could certainly understand local commuters growing frustration with the rail system but said the delay in train times were hard to avoid as the system undergoes a massive upgrade.

Barry OFarrell is quick to point out the problems with the rail system but I can tell Mr O Farrell that we are well aware of the problems and the government is looking to address them in a number of ways, he said.

The government is spending $1.5 million on the building of new carriages and another $1.5 billion on the untangling of the spaghetti rail lines. That will mean that if a train is delayed in Cabramatta it will not effect people traveling on the South Coast line.

Mr OFarrell said expected transport to play a big part in the upcoming state election.

There is unlimited issues with transport down here, he said. The Tangara trains that are being used quite a bit down here at the moment are substandard. The government said the introduction of the Oscars (outer suburban trains) would fix all these problems but they are $40 million over budget and the trains are a year behind.

Mr Brown said the government had been trialling the OSCAR trains along the South Coast line saying construction was already under way on a further 122 of the new trains.