The unstable geology and topography of the Illawarra escarpment have created issues for as long as the South Coast rail line has existed – such as this slip at Coalcliff – but successive governments have failed to find an alternative. Photo: TfNSW.
More than 12 months ago the NSW Government announced it would spend $10 million on an Illawarra Rail Resilience Plan.
The government declared it was “delivering on an election commitment and improving the South Coast Line for rail commuters”.
It all sounded great on the surface, until you read the fine print that said the $10 million was to begin the process of examining rail infrastructure along the South Coast Line and develop options for upgrading sections of the line between Sydney and Wollongong.
Twelve months later we’re still waiting to see what great ideas the plan will deliver. It appears it’s not just Illawarra commuters who are getting twitchy about the wait.
This week in the government’s budget estimates hearing on roads and regional transport, Minister Jenny Atchison and her Transport for NSW execs were grilled about the plan and how far it had progressed.
Chair Cate Faehrmann asked if the plan had been presented as yet.
“No, it hasn’t been presented, but we’re looking at all of the issues around the Illawarra in rail resilience,” Ms Aitchison replied.
Rail resilience? How about the resilience of Illawarra commuters who haven’t seen improvements on the line in decades? Ask any commuter and they’ll tell you there is no rail resilience nor has there ever been resilience, just lots of issues that seem to have been placed squarely in the too hard basket by a succession of NSW governments.
Ms Aitchison continued: “Across the whole network we’ve got serious issues with on-time running and we know that. We’ve been working on that. There are three components of that: There’s the track work, the timetabling and the rolling stock …”
Her answer didn’t satisfy Ms Faerhmann, who interrupted to ask just what does $10 million get?
“I feel like that could just be standard work for people within Transport for NSW to have a look at that, but this is a specific $10 million plan that was announced. Where does that $10 million go, and what is produced?” she said.
At this point Ms Aitchison passed the ball to Trudi Mares, Transport’s deputy secretary for Planning, Integration and Passenger. According to Transport, this division is “dedicated to representing the voice of our customers, passengers and communities across NSW and using evidence-based insights to create integrated, multimodal transport plans and customer-focused solutions”. Good to know, I’m sure Illawarra customers, passengers and communities are happy their voices are heard.
“We can bring back [to the committee] the actual spend to date, but we are looking at spending a minimal amount of that $10 million initially, looking at the planning opportunities, as the minister mentioned, for short-term reliability, infrastructure uplift and then long-term infrastructure,” Ms Mares said.
“The larger portion of the funding would be spent on investigations, site works, understanding what the geography is and doing detailed technical investigations to inform an investment plan.”
Sounds like there’s an awful lot of planning required to plan for the plan.
When questioned further, Ms Mares clarified that the preliminary work was done, but not the full investigation work.
Ms Faerhmann was keen to know if, before the $10 million announcement, had there been no work?
Ms Mares’ response was a tad confusing: “Not a significant amount. There had been previous work … but new planning had not been done until we received this funding.”
Twelve months ago when this plan was announced, I wrote about how NSW governments had continually failed Illawarra rail commuters: “It doesn’t matter who’s been in government, it doesn’t matter how many media campaigns are run, or how many expensive reports are prepared which all have the same conclusion (it’s broke and needs fixing) – we’re still waiting … and waiting … and waiting.”
I would love to think that this new plan will tell us something different – other than the line is still broke and still needs fixing – but I fear the only thing that will be different is the increased cost of the fix.
The one good thing about having a byelection in an Illawarra seat the government is desperate to win back is that politicians are forced to face up to controversial issues just like our rail line.
While campaigning earlier this week, Premier Chris Minns was questioned about local rail performance and the need to ensure South Coast communities receive their fair share of transport infrastructure investment.
“The people on the South Coast – I want to reiterate this because it might be a figure that many are unaware of – there are three quarters of a million people that live south of Cronulla to the Victorian border, they deserve their fair share of government spending and infrastructure and at the moment, we’re dealing with an unreliable public transport network because no one bothered to invest in it for 12 years,” Mr Minns told the media.
“We’re trying to turn that around, and we’re doing our very best, but in the long run, there’s got to be some fairness here and regional NSW deserves their fair share to three quarters of a million people between Cronulla and the Victorian border. We want to make sure they get their fair share as well.”
And we can only hope that Mr Minns remembers that fair share when he finally gets to hand down the Illawarra Rail Resilience Plan.
