Final Report of the Ministerial Inquiry Into Sustainable Transport, December 2003, (Hereafter Referred to As the Final Parry Report)
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LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4 Closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service Ordered to be printed on 24 November 2004 Report 10 – November 2004 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah Rail Service New South Wales Parliamentary Library cataloguing-in-publication data: New South Wales. Parliament. Legislative Council. General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4 Inquiry into the closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service : [report] / General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4. [Sydney, N.S.W.] : The Committee, 2004. – 156 p. ; 30 cm. (Report ; no. 10) Chair: Jenny Gardiner. “Ordered to be printed on 24 November 2004”. ISBN 0-7347-6425-9 1. Railroads—New South Wales. I. Title. II. Gardiner, Jenny. III. Series: New South Wales. Parliament. Legislative Council. General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4. Report ; no. 10 DDC 385.099443 ii Report 10 – November 2004 GENERAL PURPOSE STANDING COMMITTEE NO. 4 How to contact the Committee Members of the General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4 can be contacted through the Committee Secretariat. Written correspondence and enquiries should be directed to: The Director General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4 Legislative Council Parliament House, Macquarie Street Sydney New South Wales 2000 Internet www.parliament.nsw.gov.au Email [email protected] Telephone 02 9230 3544 Facsimile 02 9230 3416 Report 10 – November 2004 iii LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah Rail Service Terms of reference That General Purpose Standing Committee No 4 inquire into and report on: (a) the decision by the State Government to replace the daily Casino to Murwillumbah XPT service with a coach service, including the accuracy of the Government’s claims it will save $5 million per year, (b) the economic and social impact on North Coast communities of the loss of the daily XPT service between Casino and Murwillumbah, in particular the impact of the loss of jobs within CountryLink and other State Government departments and agencies and the closure of local train stations and Travel Centres, (c) the future of the rail line between Casino and Murwillumbah, including, but not limited to, the present condition of the line, recent and future maintenance programs, options for and the financial impact of future development of the line and the possible extension of the line to the Queensland border, (d) any other matters arising from the Government’s decision to terminate the rail services. These terms of reference were self-referred by the Committee on 11 May 2004. iv Report 10 – November 2004 GENERAL PURPOSE STANDING COMMITTEE NO. 4 Committee membership The Hon Jenny Gardiner MLC The Nationals Chair Ms Sylvia Hale MLC The Greens Deputy Chair The Hon Jan Burnswoods MLC Australian Labor Party The Hon Catherine Cusack MLC1 Liberal Party The Hon Kayee Griffin MLC Australian Labor Party The Hon David Oldfield MLC2 One Nation The Hon Eric Roozendaal MLC3 Australian Labor Party 1 Substituting for the Hon David Clark MLC 2 The Hon Peter Breen MLC substituted for The Hon David Oldfield MLC for part of the inquiry 3 Replaced the Hon Tony Catanzariti MLC on 29 June 2004. Minutes of Proceedings No 64, p925 Report 10 – November 2004 v LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah Rail Service Table of contents Chair’s Foreword xiii Executive Summary xiv Summary of Recommendations xvi Glossary xvii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Terms of Reference 1 Submissions 1 Procedural issues 2 Public hearings 2 This report 2 Chapter 2 The closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service 5 RailCorp 5 The Casino to Murwillumbah rail line 5 Rail services on the Casino to Murwillumbah line 7 The Casino to Murwillumbah XPT service 8 The Government’s announcement of the line’s closure 8 Community opposition to the closure of the line 9 The future preservation of the rail corridor 11 Steel sleepers delivered for maintenance work 11 The cost of fencing at Mooball 12 The Eltham Bridge 12 Chapter 3 The context to the closure of the rail service 15 Rail lines previously closed in NSW 15 The Parry Report 15 The Government’s response to the Parry Report 17 The Casino to Murwillumbah Rail Corridor Working Party 17 The 2004 Mini Budget 19 The identification of the Casino to Murwillumbah rail service for closure 19 The growth in overall funding for rail services in NSW 20 vi Report 10 – November 2004 GENERAL PURPOSE STANDING COMMITTEE NO. 4 The ARTC Agreement 21 Proposals for Federal funding of the line 22 The PwC study 23 Chapter 4 The Government’s reasons for closing the rail service 25 The cost of running the rail service prior to its closure 25 The projected cost of running the rail service 26 The validity of RailCorp’s costings 28 The proposed use of cheaper culverts to replace bridges 29 Failure to achieve the expected savings 30 Chapter 5 Funding for the rail service prior to its closure 33 The decline in the number of passengers using the rail service 33 Criticisms of the daily XPT timetable 34 Cost recovery through fares on the rail service 36 Other sources of revenue – freight and commuter services on the line 38 Community Service Obligation subsidies to CountryLink 39 The Government’s social responsibility to provide loss making public services 40 The high proportion of concession fares used on the rail service 40 Summary 41 Chapter 6 Concerns that line maintenance has been under-funded 43 Maintenance expenditure on the line 43 The perceived failure to replace timber underbridges 44 The diversion of maintenance funding to the main northern line 45 The underpayment of funding bids on the Casino to Murwillumbah line 46 The funding bid in 2004-2005 47 Funding for gangs working on the line 47 Summary 48 Chapter 7 The replacement coach service 51 The advantages of the new coach service cited by RailCorp 51 Passenger numbers since the closure of the line 52 Report 10 – November 2004 vii LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah Rail Service The safety of the additional coach services 55 Bus shelters 56 Standards for coach drivers 56 The impact of the additional coaches on the region’s roads 57 The impact of the new coach services on private coach operators 58 Kirklands Buslines 59 The coach service tendering process 60 Chapter 8 The social and economic impact of the closure 61 Railway staff affected by the closure of the rail line 61 The number of staff affected by the closure of the line 61 Future options for staff 62 Travel centre staff 64 The impact of the closure on the transport disadvantaged 65 The frail, aged and those with disabilities and special needs 65 Low income earners 68 Young people 69 Access to community transport services 69 The safety of local residents using the region’s roads 71 The economic impact on towns and businesses 73 The towns of Murwillumbah and Lismore 73 Small businesses 74 The impact on the environment and heritage 74 Air pollution 74 Heritage sites 75 The sales of rail lands in Byron Bay 76 Flooding in Lismore 76 Chapter 9 Transport planning in the northern rivers region 79 Population growth and tourism in the region 79 Population growth in the region 79 Tourism in the region 82 Calls for better transport planning for the region 83 The role of DIPNR in regional planning 85 DIPNR’s multimodal plan for the northern rivers region 85 The role of the Premier’s Department in regional planning 86 A twelve-month community consultation period on rail service closures 88 viii Report 10 – November 2004 GENERAL PURPOSE STANDING COMMITTEE NO. 4 Chapter 10 The future of the line 89 Calls for a daily commuter service 89 Calls for a re-introduction of freight services 91 The findings of the PwC study 93 Travel demand in the northern rivers region 93 Current transport patterns in the northern rivers region 93 Future maintenance costs of the line 94 Alternative passenger rail options 95 Commuter options 95 Possible managers and operators 97 Train operating costs 97 Staffing 98 Fare revenue 99 The response of RIC/RailCorp to the PwC Study 100 Track infrastructure and maintenance costs 100 Rolling stock and operating costs 100 Safety 101 Patronage and revenue forecasts 101 The recommendations of the Rail Corridor Working Party 101 The Committee’s recommendations 102 Introduction of a lower cost commuter service 102 Possible Commonwealth Government funding of the line 103 Funding available from the ARTC Agreement 104 Chapter 11 A second rail link into Queensland? 107 Calls for an extension of the Casino to Murwillumbah rail line 107 The proposed extension of the Queensland rail line to Coolangatta 108 The recent expansion of rail services in south-east Queensland 110 Previous studies on extending the line into south-east Queensland 110 Summary 111 Appendix 1 Submissions 113 Appendix 2 Witnesses 123 Appendix 3 Map of the CountryLink rail and coach network 125 Appendix 4 CountryLink North Coast timetable 127 Appendix 5 Rail lines in NSW closed since 1968 131 Report 10 – November 2004 ix LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Closure of the Casino to Murwillumbah Rail Service Appendix 6 The Sustainable Regions Program 133 Appendix 7 Feasibility Study for Passenger/Commuter Services on the Murwillumbah to Casino Branch Line: The Services 135 Appendix 8 Minutes of proceedings 137 Appendix 9 Dissenting statement by Government Members 175 x Report 10 – November 2004 GENERAL PURPOSE STANDING COMMITTEE NO. 4 Tables Table 3.1 Funding for the maintenance of the NSW country rail infrastructure ($,000) 20 Table 3.2 Additional Budget spending for passenger rail