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Metropolitan railway woes in Sydney

On 14 February 2004 the weekend edition of the Sydney Morning Herald ran a full-page article headed "How CityRail became labour's multi-billion fiasco", listing the main controversies to have dogged CityRail since 1996 when the labour government was elected. The implication seems to be that the railways were running fine until an incompetent labour administration took over. But with a longer perspective, the wonder is that Sydney's railways have served as long as they have without big problems. 85% of the infrastructure for the CityRail network was laid down in the 19th century, as our table shows, and very little investment was made until the end of the 20th century.

A lot of effort is now being devoted to keeping the railways running. But is Sydney just trying to sustain the unsustainable? We pose some questions for Sydney.

"Labour's multi-billion fiasco"
from Sydney Morning Herald 14/02/2004

1996 Railway companies split. State Treasury receives $27m in extra dividends. Maintenance deteriorates.
1996-2004 Ghost trains. Trains often skip stations to stay on time.
1997 New timetable withdrawn, insufficient trains.
Dec 1999 Glenbrook train crash. 7 dead.
2001 Airport Rail Link in receivership, citing CityRail service breaches. Unresolved.
Feb 2002 Christie Report finds network facing gridlock.
Apr 2002 New new timetable abandoned, insufficient drivers.
Jun 2002 New trains announced to relieve chronic train shortage. Arrive five years late.
Aug 2002 Bargo - passenger and freight train collide.
2001-03 Transport Plan 2010 quietly scrapped after it was found to be based on non-existent studies.
Feb 2003 Waterfall train crash. 7 dead.
Apr 2003 Millennium trains withdrawn, after being rushed into service
Apr 2003 Menagle fiasco. Unsafe bridge covered up.
2003 Punctuality statistices fabricated, finds Auditor-General.
2003 High speed link to Central Coast scrapped.
Jan 2004 Railway companies combined.
Jan 2004 On-time running reaches new lows. 4.3% on time some evenings on the south line.
Feb 2004 Safety recommendations still outstanding four years after Glenbrook.
Feb 2004 Costs: $400 weekly driver allowance added to one of world's highest cost rail networks.
Feb 2004 Smelly train closes city underground.
Feb 2004 Driver health checks. System paralysed after damning Waterfall report.
Feb 2004 Shortage: one of the world's highest-staffed urban railways runs short of drivers.
undated Extra fare rises foreshadowed, due mid 2004.
undated Parramatta Rail Link half-scrapped after cost blow-out. Orginally $1.4bn in total, now $1.6 bn for half.
undated High speed Illawarra deviation shelved.

Construction of the CityRail network in Sydney (kilometres of track)

Period electrified suburban electrified inter-city regional lines total
1850-1875 172.4 29.1 319.8 521.2
1876-1900 122.0 151.4 70.6 344.0
1900-1925 24.5 0.0 50.9 75.3
1926-1950 41.5 0.0 0.0 41.5
1951-1975 3.4 0.0 0.0 3.4
1975-2000 28.5 0.0 0.0 28.5
all 392.2 180.4 441.3 1013.8
Notes
"Electrified InterCity" lines are those from Sydney to Newcastle,Lithgow, Wollongong
Network additions 1975-2000 were: Eastern Suburbs Line (1979), East Hills line extension (1987), Merrylands "Y" (1996), Olympic Park Spur (1998), Airport Rail Link (2000)

but what do we want the railways to do?

Questions Sydney should perhaps be asking itself are:

  • Can the city function without a metropolitan rail system?
  • Can the city continue to underprice its rail system?
  • Can the city continue to keep its railways starved of funds?
  • Is it sure than the 19th century pattern of infrastructure and services is still what it wants in the 21st century?

The daily struggle to keep the railways operating should not obscure the fact that their main task is to handle a commuting pattern where a tidal wave of employees travel all at the same time from west to east to work and then back again. The Warren Centre's "City of Cities" concept was one attempt to look for an alternative, and one in which the railways could evolve and play a significantly different role in the metropolitan transport system. But while all the attention is focussed on band-aids (some of which are extremely expensive) to keep the present system running, that won't happen.

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