Transport

New South Wales on the move — Transport towards 2020

The Christian Democratic Party’s transport plan for NSW is to see this state become a state on the move and not just NSW stuck in traffic jams.

One of the important principles that God gives to us is:

 To care for widows, orphans, visitors and refugees.

The purpose of transport is to move both people

 and goods as efficiently as possible.

 There are several elements to a good transport policy and they all must work together and complement each other and this is not happening in New South Wales under the present administration.

 The modes of transport are Water, Air, Road and Rail, each of which have a very important role to play, and must be utilized in the most efficient and environmentally friendly manner.

 NSW has some great Waterways that can be used for transport and the Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River services should be improved and upgraded.

 It is unfortunate that the NSW government wishes to close the Parramatta service. This is an excellent service that can be expanded and with improved bus interchanges it will become a first rate and flexible service. It must be said that the vessels must be better serviced to have a reliable fleet, at this point they are very run down.

 All our great rivers and lakes need to be considered as viable passenger and or freight services and that must be done in a manner to improve the quality of the waterway.

I have a dream that if we look after our rivers we may be able to use them as a medium of transport again. There was a time when boats went up and down the Murray and Darling Rivers. We have allowed our damaging life style to destroy these assets, now it is time for their restoration so we have more transport options. We cannot afford to dam any more rivers but we can store water in other ways and we must.

Rail is an important and efficient way to transport both freight and passengers and we must restore it also to supply passenger services beyond the Newcastle Sydney and Wollongong areas into all of NSW.

 Today the rest of the state is reduced to a few XPT services that are under constant threat of downgrading or closure.

There was a time that many remote communities received their mail, supplies and visitors by rail and I believe that we must again bring back the rail links. These remote communities deserve a restored rail service, and therefore we will assess the laid track that can be used for combined passenger and light freight services.

  It is true that passenger services will not be viable in many areas but we can again bring the mixed services back so that light freight and passengers can again use our tracks. We need to work towards having passenger compartments at the front of the train with goods wagons taking up the rear; it could be possible that as the train pulls up at a station the rear goods wagon is detached so that the goods to that community can be delivered concurrently.

 There are a number of tracks that are used only to carry seasonal farm produce to collection centres and these could carry passenger and freight services as they have done in the past.

 The old mail train up the coast of NSW was an excellent service for mail and many people, however with the introduction of the up market Xp service the government soon withdrew all other passenger services, this was unwise and did disconnect much of NSW.

 This has caused an influx of people to the Sydney area and over crowding as a result. So now the Sydney basin is not functioning well as far as transport is concerned.  Congestion here means that Sydney transport moves slowly and is often stationary.

  The rail service retreated to be a Sydney service with Wollongong and Newcastle getting an inefficient service.

  I dream of a rail service that is not centered on Sydney but inclusive of the whole state. The day must come when a passenger can go to Orange from Newcastle without entering the Sydney basin at all. A Kiama passenger must be able to go to broken Hill with out first going to Sydney.

 It is worth noting that Perth is increasing its rail services as they develop new suburbs and this is a successful venture.

 As to freight there must be a greater use of rail to carry freight as the road network cannot cope with the increase of trucks it is getting year after year.

A new freight plan needs to be put in place.  I dream of a time when large freight hubs will be established where rail and road transport exchange goods for the delivery services to continue.

 The freight distribution hubs must be outside of the main cities, and the goods going to airports or harbours must come in by rail from these hubs.

  I propose a new freight line between Port Botany and the Eastern Creek area to remove the slow moving traffic that clogs the roads from the Port to Sydney.

There are an excessive number of big rigs moving through our cities on roads that far too small for them causing huge pollution problems throughout the Sydney basin. In these days of concern over green house gasses we must seek transport solutions that are good for the environment and they are achievable.

 The Government’s proposed solution of banning heavy trucks from certain roads during peak hours will not resolve the problem but rather will cause more hindrance as the trucks try to arrive, get loaded and leave the goods area of Port Botany in a shorter time frame.

Again, air services in NSW are concentrated on Sydney Airport and this is unwise. In the past a second airport was considered and this was in the Sydney basin, the experts consulted do not consider the rest of the state.

 It would be wise for an airport of international standard to be commissioned in Newcastle and Canberra as well as the freight transfer services, from Rail to Rig, being located west of the Great Divide. The privatization of airports does cause problems in this area but we must overcome these issues.

 It is imperative that alternative airports for inbound flights are available in close proximity to Sydney airport while at the same time being in different climatic zones.

 These airports need to be connected by a very fast train service, so that if weather conditions close one airport, the passengers can get to their original destination with a minimum fuss or delay.  Currently the diversion is to Brisbane or Melbourne and this means another flight when conditions improve at huge costs to the operators.

 A freight rail service needs to connect all airports linking them to the transport hub to relieve congestion that has developed in the past.

Roads in NSW are nothing short of a disaster. The forward thinking of the Fraser Government introduced the Bi-centennial road funding program to have all the coastal highways from Cairns to Darwin via Sydney Melbourne and Perth to be divided and at least dual carriageway. But the Hawke government disgracefully used the money raised for this vital program on other things and so we now have an incomplete coastal road system.

 We need all of the Pacific Highway up graded to a divided or at least dual carriageway, with bypasses to the towns and cities the road currently goes through.  

 The current government has done much about roads in Sydney but it will be of small long term value. They are even talking about adding extra lanes to the M2 which is only a few years old. The problem is that all these roads are made around the hub of Sydney and because of the current management the traffic collects on the few main roads and to disperse it properly is impossible.

 This is what Sydney drivers know so well. We need a government that values all of NSW and not just the Sydney basin; I believe we can bring this matter to the parliament of NSW.

 The traffic from the north coast going to the south of the state must at the present time, use Sydney roads and this is causing serious problems.

 We must change our thinking as NSW is not only Sydney, but the rest of the state as well, where people still need to go.

 The traffic from the central north use the worn-out Pacific highway (f3) as there is no other way for the traffic to go. The upgrading of the extra lane on the F3 will not do a lot of good, as there needs to be at least 5-6 lanes each way to take the volume of traffic between Sydney and the central coast.

New high speed roads must be built. I suggest we seek to find an alternative route to the F3 for the Gosford traffic, as well as an alternative for the New England traffic so as to reduce the traffic on the F3. Equally the south and the west exits from the Sydney need a re think, for every day we have slow moving traffic on what should be high speed roads due to the congestion. This demonstrates that the roads are not coping with the volume of traffic needing to go places. Slow moving traffic burn more fuel and produce more pollution so we must get our traffic moving, if our public transport was better directed and managed, going to where it was needed then we could reduce the dependence on the private car being used as often as it is now there by reducing congestion and pollution.

 The development of roads in NSW must not centre on Sydney as this will not improve any aspect of our present transport situation.

While the government has been playing catch up in Sydney with the road network the rest of the state has been missing out.

 For example in Newcastle an inner city bypass that was planned in the 1930’s is still not complete and the stalling by the government of such an important road link for Newcastle is multiplied across the state in many regional areas.

 Public transport in NSW, a vital part of the future, cannot be centered only on Sydney.

 The congestions on the roads also affects bus services, while bus lanes can help over the short term they will not achieve much over the long term. The public transport system as we have it does not give a commuter friendly service and while people have returned to the public transport recently, the public transport system still needs huge improvements.

 An efficient rail system requires a good bus system to feed each and every railway station and the bus / rail interchange must be well managed. Each railway station must have adequate secure parking and good road services to assist in the arrival and departure of the commuters. There has got to be sufficient seats on the train to deal with the demand and the ticketing must be as integrated as possible between all modes of transport.

 Express services are important yet the in between stations need a regular service as well. The longer distance services need to be a lot faster than they are at this time.  In the lower Hunter a fully integrated transport service proposal was put to the government but not acted on and yet this is how transport services do work to remove the need for people to drive their cars to work, entertainment centers and shopping trips. This could be seen as an example for the whole of NSW if it were put it place.

The Priorities that face us today are:

1. Upgrade all of the Pacific Highway road system to a dual carriageway.
2. Increase the train and bus services to well and truly meet the demand to remove the overcrowding that is currently experienced.
3. To upgrade freight rail services to get freight delivered by rail to distribution centers throughout NSW so the long haul road service will over time replaced by efficient rail freight services.
4. Review services offered and the needs of the public with the view to having the services more closely related to the needs of the public.
5. Commence planning a rail only link for freight to our airports and harbours.
6. Encourage transport companies to begin to move out of the centre of cities as high speed distribution highways are planned and constructed.
7. Establish Newcastle as a second international airport with a very fast train link to Mascot and to request that the ACT upgrade Canberra airport and to contribute to the very fast train link from Canberra to Mascot airport.
8. Commence planning a freight only airport west of the Great divide.
9. Complete the Highway F3conections to the New England Highway west of Branxton and to the Pacific Highway north of Raymond Terrace. 
10. Complete Highway 123 in Newcastle.
11. Construct a new highway link from the F3 north of Hornsby to the Eastern Creek area and then from there to Hume Highway south of Cambelltown.