Peter Perkins, Sydney
We now know the real reason that the NSW Labor government has made no concerted effort to lift the standards of service for RailCorp or State Transit Authority (STA) buses and ferries.
The cosy deal negotiated with the consortium owners of the Harbour Tunnel roadway includes an agreement that the consortium be compensated for the next 30 years if public transport competes with, or draws customers from, the Harbour Tunnel. As the compensation includes a component for revenue shortfalls due to public resistance to the toll, this will run into tens (if not hundreds) of millions of taxpayers' dollars, most of which will be diverted from government expenditure on hospitals, schools and public transport.
RailCorp and the STA workers are constantly being restructured, railroaded, reformed and retrenched to make up the shortfall in public expenditure. Yet retiring NSW politicians are being handsomely rewarded with lucrative positions in the private sector. Former NSW premier Bob Carr's appointment to Macquarie Bank, one of the bigger investors in the Harbour Tunnel, the airport rail link and many other projects, is no accident. He will earn many times more than his parliamentary salary — gratitude from the big end of town.
On the other side of the ledger, larger and larger amounts of public money are being poured into the bottomless pit of the private developers who perpetuate the myth that user-pays is good for us all.
The $800 million the NSW state government pumped into the construction of the airport rail line now looks like a very raw deal. While the hoo-ha about the Harbour Tunnel was hitting the headlines, the NSW government was agreeing to put another $106 million into the airport line consortium's coffers, for revenue shortfalls.
The owners blame the lack of public support for the airport line on the lack of luggage storage space on the trains. This is despite the exorbitant cost of a ticket to the airport, and that rail timetables divert 99% of all trains travelling on the East Hills line (at least one train in each direction every 15 minutes, sometimes more) at considerable cost in time and money.
This latest settlement with the airport line consortium is akin to private sector blackmail. According to the October 14 Sydney Morning Herald, "Under the $106 million plan the receiver remains the owner of the railway, but will agree to drop future claims and legal action against the government", and, "The Airport Line Company will receive 85 per cent of all train fare revenue from passengers travelling to and from the four stations on the line, and the $106 million should be paid by 2012".
The fact that large sums of public money are being used to bail out the private sector has delayed, and in some cases cancelled or postponed, the delivery of more modern Millennium trains, which are more suitable for the airport line.
Meanwhile the farce goes on for the rest of us in RailCorp. During October, a large number of Intercity (V Sets) 1970s vintage silver carriages, which operate longer journeys to Newcastle, Lithgow and Kiama, were withdrawn from service for a fortnight due to safety concerns. After a patch-up job they have been returned to service, complementing an expanding inventory of unreliable infrastructure.
These trains were due to be replaced several years ago by new Millennium trains, however the order and construction of more rolling stock was prematurely cancelled by then transport minister Mick Costa. Partnerships between the government and private sector will now replace tendering for a new fleet of about 500 modern train carriages, expected to be delivered by 2010.
In the meantime, the travelling public and rail workers will bear the brunt of what now seems to be a deliberate attempt to run down public transport.
The public transport unions, while questioning the "private public partnership" approach to replacing rail infrastructure, have remained silent over the latest fiascos. By contrast the big end of town, with our money already in their bank accounts, couldn't care less.
[Peter Perkins is a rail worker.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 9, 2005.
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