Wollongong MP, Paul Scully has written to the Minister for Transport with an immediate three step plan to help ease overcrowding on the South Coast Line.
The letter calls for the Minister to address overcrowding by:
- Always announcing the pick-up only condition at Central prior to departure and at each pick-up only stations;
- Providing additional station staff at pick-up stations to remind passengers of the pick-up only condition of using the 3.24pm and 3.54pm services from Central; and
- Committing to relocate carriages from the existing Central Coast and Newcastle services immediately upon the introduction of the new intercity fleet.
Mr Scully tells the Minister that he is concerned by the level of overcrowding on these services, the very long distances passengers are forced to stand, and the risk posed to passengers in case of an accident on the South Coast Line.
He said many passengers are reporting to him that other passengers at pick-up only stations are not aware of the conditions of these services because they are often not announced and stations appear on boards without any indication that they are pick-up stops only.
Other passengers have reported passengers exiting from pick-up only stations at Redfern, Wolli Creek, Hurstville and Sutherland.
Mr Scully told the Minister he wasn’t interested in receiving the same standard bureaucratic response about the new intercity fleet delivery, which was “insulting and dismissive of the need to address the situation now.”
The Government only recently announced that the new intercity fleet would only be delivered on the South Coast Line from 2021 and only after the fleet was deployed to the Newcastle, Central Coast and Blue Mountain Lines first.
Mr Scully’s letter to Minister Andrew Constance is attached.
Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:
“Some overcrowding on South Coast Line services can be addressed almost immediately by the Minister implementing the three steps I have outlined to in my letter.
“The Minister can enforce the conditions imposed for pick-up only station services and announce the redeployment of carriages to the South Coast Line from the Newcastle and Central Coast Lines after the new intercity fleet is commissioned in 2019.
“I’m sick of getting the same old standard letters from the Minister, which are just the same old weasel words.
“My suggestions if they are implemented properly by the Minister can make small but immediate improvements to passenger services on the South Coast Line while other more longer-term initiatives are developed and implemented.”
