Tuesday, February 26, 2013

North West Rail Link - WSPTU's Feedback!

WSPTU  as a representative of Transport community groups, within 14 Local Government Areas always are advocating for the good of public transport for all and  want to see improvement for commuters, transport officers and to the general public.

Here is our Letter to the current NSW Minister of Transport, Gladys Berejiklian, with solutions to problems, mostly size of the tunnels and that only single trains will fit in the tunnel only.

You can make your own decision as well!

Letter From WSPTU President, Susan Day - RE: NWRL


Monday, February 25, 2013

CITY Rail Survey by NRMA - MX Newspaper

This is an opportunity to provide feedback  to an organisation that  looks after motorist and roads. They have discovered that 2.5 million of their members travel by public transport. Even if you are not a member you can complete the survey.


Click here for survey details

Thursday, February 21, 2013

North West Rail Link - Ecotransit alternatives

Ecotransit has produced a new video critiquing the current NWRL proposal and have an alternative vision for the NWRL. See that here: Ecotransit and the NWRL

WSPTU has written to the Minister for Transport pointing out the problems of building the new NWRL with tunnels which are incompatible with the existing Cityrail rolling stock - even if they are planning to have single deck trains operated by a private operator.

The history of the Sydney network tells us that rail infrastructure timeframes are very long and that things change over these long timeframes. We know that parts of the network have been privitised and re-nationalised at different times and for different reasons. We also know that people may want to develop or change the network in the future and this may require that the NWRL is compatible with other parts of the network. Making the new parts of the network incompatible with the rest of it seems to be building a potential inefficiency or redundancy into the system in a reckless way.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

New Messaging System on Public Transport by 2 WSPTU Members

Yes, can you believe it? With modern technology compared to 20-30 years ago the words; mobile phone, e-mail, text message, Facebook messaging and even Skype were not even heard of. So what has changed?  As individuals have changed and grown with the new introduced technologies, we are all learning to be more accustomed with these new technologies, in due time.

It is pretty common today for the average Australian to have access  to 2 or more of the above new technologies mentioned above. Even the elderly are starting to  'get into  and participating with the new generation of technologies', coming in. For example my God-mother who will be 99 this year, does 'Facebook Messages and  uses Skype', quite easily by herself. She is not afraid of the future. In fact it keeps her going to communicate to families all over the world, without picking up a single phone! She loves it!

Now Hugh Worrall, WSPTU Steering Committee Member yesterday was on the platform 1, Parramatta train station, opposite myself and called out to me, on platform 2, Parramatta train station. There could have been a dozen 'John's' on my platform but there was only one he was interested in, talking to 'Me!' (Or screaming out to!)

Startled as I was, I responded and we continued on having a conversation for a bout 2 minutes and came to a conclusion to meet next week. No, we were not standing next to each other,  there would have been a distance of two railway tracks difference approximately 12-15 metres difference. Now is this modern communication?





Thank God Sydney City Rail Trains Are Not Like This In The Greater Western Sydney?

Although, tragedy happened in India on the weekend regarding a stampede, this is what can happen on an over-crowded train:


I just hope City Rail never allows this to happen in Sydney and the greater Western Sydney.

The article is  from MX Newspaper Sydney.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Q & A Raises Public Transport Awareness In Western Sydney - Important Federal Issue!

This evening,  as from 9.35pm ABC's Q & A hosted by Tony Jones with his panel of David Bradbury, Christopher Pyne, Amanda Vanstone, Anne Summers and Tim Levinson raised a few questions leading up to the  Federal Governments Election Poll on 14th September 2013.

Normally, federal politics may play a minor role, when  it comes to State Government issues or improvements to be made and I was quite shocked to hear that what we as Western Sydney Public transport users Inc. have been doing, is becoming so much important not just for you but for every commuter that uses any form of public transport. 

What makes me say that? Question raised on the Q and A program, reflecting sentiments of of our hard voluntary work, in each group we have and each individual that wants to see an improved public transport service and  proper infrastructure.
It really was Anne Summers that touched myself, when she explained that, 'Public Transport in Western Sydney is what is required to get people to jobs' or some thing similar. 

So again as I say on numerous occasions we are being heard, we are being listened too even though a lot of our improvements in public transport come from the official decisions on NSW State level not an Australian Federal Level.

Click Here to the Video from Q and A and also transcripts as well