TRAIN fares should rise by up to 30 per cent in just four years and almost 1700 rail jobs should be axed, says a review of CityRail services by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.
A year-long investigation by the pricing regulator has identified cuts of about $480 million a year that must be made to CityRail's bulging bureaucracy.
The regulator has found that the State Government should abolish all 1176 train guards on CityRail services, and eliminate station staff from 204 of 305 stations, replacing them with ticket machines.
This would slash 521 jobs and save $30 million a year.
The recommendations come amid hostile relations between the Government and the unions and as the Premier, Morris Iemma, and the Treasurer, Michael Costa, push ahead with a pro-privatisation agenda.
The pricing review, the first of its kind, recommends huge efficiency improvements to bring CityRail up to the standards of rail services in Melbourne, Brisbane and overseas.
It argues that fares must rise steeply to address a fall in takings that has reached crisis point because of a decision by the former premier, Bob Carr, to freeze fares for three years to compensate for late-running trains.
The proportion of revenue from fares has fallen so much that the regulator has recommended CityRail write down its assets from $11.3 billion to $1.4 billion, for the purpose of setting fares.
It recommends that fares rise by 20 to 30 per cent in real terms over the next four years.
In 2007, train fares rose about 4.1 per cent. A 30 per cent fare increase over four years would take the price of a weekly ticket from Parramatta to Central from $34 to $44.20. A single ticket from Woy Woy to the city would rise from $8.60 to $11.18.
The regulator has reasoned that large-scale fare increases cannot be justified without radical cuts to the CityRail bureaucracy. But the review also points to the need to reform the structure of fares, and long-distance commuters would pay substantially more for their tickets under its preferred model - a flag-fall and a distance-based fare.
The Government consistently baulked at such essential reform during its disastrous six-year foray into integrated ticketing with the failed Tcard project.
The pricing review finds the performance of maintenance and train crews compared woefully to other cities interstate and around the world. Train crews spent only 35 per cent of their day driving trains on scheduled services, while Sydney's rolling stock cost more to run but was vastly more unreliable than that of other networks.
About 300 managers should also be axed, the report finds, with back-office overheads and marketing making up a substantial portion of the fat that must be cut from the organisation.
The regulator suggests the Government adopt a new "rule of thumb" where passengers pay 30 cents in every dollar spent on improvements to CityRail - the Epping to Chatswood rail link is set to cost $2.3 billion, so passengers could expect to shoulder $690 million of fare increases.
The regulator will take submissions, with a final report and recommendations to the Government due in November.
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