Chris Minns and NSW Labor have broken the curse of the fourth. Unlike Askin in 1973, Wran in 1984 and Iemma in 2007, the Coalition has been taken away from a fourth term (despite the curse of the fourth term being almost a guaranteed landslide loss and being pushed into opposition for a decade). The new team have plenty of new transport proposals but the Minns team have gone on a lukewarm approach, not proposing any big Perth Metronet or AdeLINK Light Rail lines.
The main proposals (as published by the Parliamentary Budget Office)
Review of F3 Parramatta Ferry Timetable in morning and evening peaks (C1290) and Elliot St Wharf upgrade and new ferry services to F10 and Drummoyne (C1651)
The costing request is looking at using the current fleet, which means those hated River sets will need to stay or be moved to other lines. The last timetable proposal of the F3 by Transdev in 2018 was to move all services (peak, off-peak and daily) to Barangaroo to free up the already over-capacity Circular Quay but that got shut down almost immediately. With this issue, most of the new proposed services could be Barangaroo terminus services. There could also be the possibility of more through services to Sydney Olympic Park and Rydalmere.
In terms of Elliot St, the proposed ferry service will be similar as per the previous Birkenhead peak ferry service that was cancelled in 2013 but won’t operate until 2024 and like the previous service will be limited to peak only. The F10 extension will see two new ferry wharves on the existing service and could be very popular soon.
Bus taskforce as per the Transport Committee Report to review buses (C1277) and Return of Coogee Buses not limited to 373 extension return of 378 and 400 and new services to Clovelly and North Bondi to Marobura (C1285)
Still on the subject of the recent bad bus proposals, this one is pretty simple. The last time a major bus review was taken was in 2004 and it saw the consolidation of bus contracts. It also saw major bus network reviews for both STA and private operators between 2006 and 2011. Expect to see some major bus route changes and possible rollback on changes that were introduced between 2020 and 2022 hopefully in the next couple of months. The possible outcome is some routes being merged together or extended to improve bus reliability.
It will be interesting to see how the rollback of Eastern Suburb buses impact the current rapid routes 350X and 390X as well as duplication with the L2 and L3 corridors, although it looks like the original push for a light rail – bus transfer network in the Eastern Suburbs due to the current issues with bus reliability not getting a lot of support.
Rapid Buses to Western Sydney Airport (C1441)
A follow up to the 2019 proposal, the network to be fully operated by zero emission buses was a major policy announcement due to disagreements to how other suburbs in Western Sydney will connect to not just the WSA but major suburbs in Western Sydney besides extending the Metro.
The new Western Sydney Rapid Bus network can go two ways – either with rapid buses with actual bus rapid transit infrastructure similar to T-Way or rapid buses with some bus priority similar to the old Metrobus network. Due to the changes in the bus contracts, it looks like most routes proposed may end up with one operator or shared among others. Noting the Liverpool – Parramatta T-Way that was operated by State Transit until 2013 despite operating in other bus contracts areas.
Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 (C1594)
The push for funding for Stage 2 saw the swing seat of Parramatta shift left and Minns wants to get this constructed as a signature project under his term. There is still many questions on the overall benefits of Stage 2 such as housing impacts in Ermington and Rydalmere, patronage usage and competition with the future Sydney Metro West as well as the difficulties with cost and programme overruns.
Review of Train timetable (C1282) and Review of TAHE (C1507)
It’s looking pretty certain TAHE will be dissolved soon and returned to the transport department. Whether this means its part of TfNSW or the return of the state owned corporation RailCorp is unknown.
The train timetable has gone through three major changes, the “Fixing the Trains” changes in 2013 which saw the operation of the new CityRail Clearway projects (Homebush and Lidcombe) and the major changes in 2017 which saw the removal of most limited stop services on the T1 and T8 in favour of an extended T2 service and the 2018-9 changes were mostly limited to the T9 Northern Line with modified stopping patterns.
The media releases and cost request mention the return of stopping patterns similar to the pre-2013 timetable with more limited stop services and less express stop services during the peak. It will also be interesting to see how the new timetable will address the public calls for the return of a full time Liverpool via Regents Park service and the current patronage drops in Intercity routes.
Local Fleet Upgrades
Finally the incoming government has decided to replace the Tangara fleet, first commissioned in 1988 with a local emplacement. Whether this will be modelled on the old fleet design or a new design all-together is unknown at this stage but social media advertising assumes it will be. There is also proposals for new locally made ferry fleet with no time frame proposed.
Left in 2019 and the Unknowns
A few proposals by the then Daley team didn’t go forward to 2023:
- The Sydney Light Rail inquiry (B433) that would have funded a commission into programme and cost overruns during its construction
- Cancellation of the Sydney Metro Sydenham to Bankstown line conversion (A013)
- Additional funding to investigate a reopening of the Maldon-Dombarton freight line (B458)
- Free transport for children holding a Junior Opal card (A142)
- Automatic fare refunds for avoidable train delays over 30 mins (A005)
There is also a few unknowns:
Future Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail Extensions
Little was mentioned on any bus rapid transit and light rail extensions. The only ones made to date include extension of the Newcastle Light Rail to John Hunter Hospital with a 20 year time frame as per the latest TfNSW Transport Plan and local council proposals for new light rail extensions to Coogee, Maroubra and Green Square. The new transport plan will give light of what is to come from the Minns team but won’t be published for another 1-2 years.
Future of Metro
The Minns ministry has committed to 2 of the 4 metro business cases with Parramatta to WSA and Bankstown to Glenfield getting the shelve due to funding. However, like how the North West Rail Link went from suburban rail to rapid transit as pushed by Gladys, there could be the scenario of proposed rail extensions going the other way back to suburban rail or other methods such as BRT and light rail. There is also the case of the cost of the two proposed lines; St Marys to Tallawong and WSA to Campbelltown and how these will be funded which back in the Iemma and Rees days caused major party infighting with the unions over asset sales.
Future of the Bus Contracts
Most bus contracts in Sydney will not be under review until 2026, whether the current government decides to cancel or shorten current contracts is unknown and there is little mention on where the Minns ministry will bring back State Transit or the Sydney Ferries Corporation despite the anti-privatisation push.
Future of Transport for NSW
In its current form, TfNSW has grown to take over both Roads and Maritime Services and recently park management such as Infrastructure NSW and Luna Park. The Minns ministry may decide to sunset the “Transport for” name that was used most knowingly by Transport for London and other copycats like Transport for West Midlands and Transport for Victoria (briefly for less than a year) and return to a simple Department of Transport or merge with other portfolios such as Planning and/or Infrastructure.
There is also the question of what happens with the current rail organisation with TAHE soon to be dissolved and returned back to the department. The Minns ministry may look at merging Sydney Trains and NSW Trains back into each other returning to a RailCorp style management with two independent business units. Thinking CityRail and CountryLink will return is a gut shot.
Future of Opal
And finally the Opal contracts will expire in 2024. The new proposal, Opal+ is still a dystopian mess but the Minns Ministry may look at changing fare policy on the proposals by IPART and look at cost of living improvements such as bring back periodic fares or an entire fare structure change and looking at zonal or all-mode fares.
@kypros1992 
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