NSW:NSW govt promises improved transport

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2011
NSW:NSW govt promises improved transport

By Eoin Blackwell

SYDNEY, April 19 AAP - The NSW coalition government says public transport and road
users can expect improved services as it breaks apart the "dysfunctional" structure of
the state's transport agencies under a new body.

The government on Tuesday announced it would set up a single integrated transport authority
to coordinate services and ensure transport projects are built on time and on budget.

The decision, which fulfils an election pledge by Premier Barry O'Farrell to untangle
the state's transport issues, will see policy and planning experts from all transport
agencies working as one rather than in individual "silos".

Major policy and procurement decisions will be taken away from agencies such as RailCorp,
Sydney Buses and the much criticised Roads and Traffic Authority, leaving them to focus
on service delivery.

NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian could not rule out job losses across the
agencies in the wake of the new authority.

Roads Minister Duncan Gray promised the RTA, which has been blamed for bad management
of major traffic issues on the F3 last year and the M2 a few weeks ago, won't look the
same after the changes take place following a 12-week development process.

"You will not see the RTA the same after this process," Mr Gay told reporters in Sydney.

"You will not see roads the same, you will not see transport the same.

"This is a major integration of what we're doing."

Ms Berejiklian said the new body marks the start of reform of the state's transport sector.

"This means fewer people in the back office and more on the front line as our state
grows and our transport services grow with it," she said.

"It's about getting rid of a dysfunctional structure with duplication and poor communication
and replacing it with a streamlined agency which plans and delivers for all transport
modes."

The new authority will coordinate the state's transport services with the aim of ensuring
projects are built on time and on budget, Ms Berejiklian told reporters.

The new authority will have six new divisions - Customer Experience, Planning and Programs,
Transport Services, Transport Projects, Freight and Regional Development and Policy and
Regulation.

The authority will be overseen by Ms Berejiklian and Mr Gay and led by a deputy director
general, who is yet to be named.

The government will also seek within Australia or abroad six people to run the new divisions.

Sydney Business Chamber executive director Patricia Forsythe said Sydney's transport
network suffered under 15 dispirit transport agencies all looking out for their own patch.

"An integrated transport authority will break up the old transport empires and force
them to work together to solve the challenges of Sydney's transport network for the first
time," she said in a statement.

The national Tourism & Transport Forum said it was a positive development that would
streamline services.

"It will ensure an end to the blame game, with different agencies blaming each other
for failures in the network," chief executive John Lee said in a statement.

The NSW Greens also welcomed news of the authority, saying its success would be a miracle
for the state.

"If it can ensure projects are built on time and on budget as the government suggests,
it'll be a special kind of miracle for NSW," Greens MP and transport spokeswoman Cate
Faehrmann said in a statement.

The Labor opposition did not return calls for comment.

AAP eb/klm/nb

KEYWORD: TRANSPORT NSW WRAP

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