Bloated rail network needs job cuts: report

From SMH 6 June:

SYDNEY'S train stations should be largely unstaffed, train guards abolished and staff productivity radically boosted to bring CityRail into line with international best practice, says a report being released today.

A review of the troubled rail service has identified almost half a billion dollars in cuts that can be made to CityRail that would not affect customer service.

Train crews, maintenance yards and stations are all grossly overstaffed, says a new report by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.

The tribunal has recommended the abolition of train guards and the slashing of more than 520 personnel who staff stations that cater to fewer than 2000 passengers a day.

But while worker productivity has been put under the microscope so too has management's performance.

RailCorp is top-heavy, the tribunal found, with 90 head office managers to every 1000 employees - 80 more than organisations of a similar size in Britain.

A cost review by LEK Consulting identified about 300 head office jobs that could be abolished as part of the staff cuts.

"A like-for-like comparison against comparable Australian and international operators has indicated that CityRail operating at benchmark would result in operating costs approximately 23 per cent (about $610 million) lower than projected in 2011-12," the review says.

But the tribunal decided such a radical cut was impossible in the near term. Instead it recommended an 18.4 per cent saving, or $480 million per year by 2011.

The Government's decision to retain all train guards and staff at poorly frequented stations will cost RailCorp about $160 million a year in four years, LEK found.

"[But] about $450 million [in potential savings] cannot be explained by these policy choices and are primarily to be found in overall station staffing, rolling stock maintenance as well as overheads."

The radical efficiency savings would require, however, some capital investment. More than $800 million would be needed over four years to install credit card and eftpos ticket machines at unmanned stations, closed-circuit television cameras to monitor passengers alighting at platforms and a $375 million refurbishment program for the ageing fleet of Tangara trains.

But there were other bloated parts that LEK exposed. The report claims that 42 per cent of costs in the running of train crews can be slashed."CityRail drivers spend only 35 per cent of their on-shift time driving scheduled services," it says.