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Millions Of Dollars Stripped From Transport (Read 393 times)
whiteknight
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Millions Of Dollars Stripped From Transport
Oct 6th, 2017 at 5:57am
 
Hundreds of millions of dollars stripped from spending on NSW transport operations

Sydney Morning Herald
October 5 2017

Hundreds of million of dollars in spending on day-to-day operations will be stripped from the budget of NSW's transport agencies this year and an immediate freeze put on hiring new staff, sparking fears services will suffer.   Sad

The transport agencies are under pressure to cut their budgets for existing operations amid record spending on multibillion-dollar projects such as a metro railway and light rail lines in Sydney's central business district and Parramatta.

In a briefing note to staff obtained by Fairfax Media, Transport for NSW secretary Tim Reardon said his deputy secretaries had been told that operating budgets for all of the agency's divisions had been cut by 15 per cent this financial year.   Sad

That amounts to a drop of hundreds of millions of dollars in operating expenses across the transport agency's divisions, based on the forecasts in the state budget in June. However, the cuts do not include longer term costs such as bus contracts.

"Over the last six years in TfNSW we have made savings to meet our requirements, however our [operating expenditure] costs have increased," Mr Reardon said in his note.

Mr Reardon said a freeze had been put on hiring casual staff and creating new positions in order to gain "additional immediate savings".

Paying for consultants out of budgets for operating expenses will also require approval from Transport for NSW's top brass.

Mr Reardon said a focus on increasing revenue streams was also needed because "fares and other revenue" did not cover the full cost of operating the transport system.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Jodi McKay said it was a massive cut by any standard and would inevitably impact safety, staffing and services across the public transport network.

Ms McKay said the need for the transport agencies to find new revenue streams could lead to fare increases to plug the gap.   Sad

But a spokesman for Transport for NSW said it would not be making any decisions that impacted on "customers' experience, safety or service reliability".

"Managing operational or day-to-day costs is a normal requirement for any budget, and prudent when fares and our other revenue sources, including advertising at stations and on trains, cover less than what it costs to operate the system," he said.

Sydney's train network is under increasing strain due to population growth and commuters seeking alternatives to congested roads.

Passenger demand has risen by almost 20 per cent on some lines over the past year, while across the rail network trips increased by more than 11 per cent, or 3.1 million, to 30.7 million in July, compared with the prior period.Hundreds of millions of dollars stripped from spending on NSW transport operations
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