Australia
increasing “use of the City Circle to provide additional capacity for suburban services in the CBD within 10 years.” As an alternative to a second Sydney Harbour crossing, the report favours extending the NWRL rapid transit line over Sydney Harbour Bridge to the CBD and then on to Strathfield. This would require resignalling and reconfiguration of existing lines, but it would allow faster and more frequent services to the CBD and high-capacity metro-style services on the most congested parts of the network. First Things Firstacknowledges that ultimately infrastructure funding can only come from taxation and user charges. Highlighting the fact that the level of public transport subsidy in NSW is very high by international standards with only 20% farebox recovery on the CityRail network, it recommends reducing subsidies to the levels determined as efficient by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPart), which could be achieved through a combination of operational efficiencies and modest fare rises. However, this might not be that easy.
IPart recommends increasing CityRail fares by an average of 4.4% a year for the next three years from January 2013. “The maximum average fares under our draft 2013 determination reflect our estimate of the efficient costs [of operating CityRail] minus the external
about its capacity, which is likely to peak in 2027, are prompting calls for the overflow to be handled by Canberra Airport some 200km to the south with a high-speed rail (HSR) connection. A report released by Canberra Airport suggests that an HSR line between Canberra Airport and the Sydney CBD could be built for as little as $A 11bn and be carrying up to 12 million passengers by 2036 with a journey time of 57 minutes. “Anyone who alleges that there is no case for HSR is simply not looking at the evidence,” says Canberra Airport’s managing director, Mr Stephen Byron. “The case is really very simple. Sydney needs a second airport because Kingsford-Smith Airport (KSA) will be at capacity by 2027. Passenger demand for HSR between Canberra and Sydney will be boosted significantly from KSA overflow and support the viability of the HSR as a solution to Sydney’s
S 36
YDNEY Airport may have a greater influence on Sydney’s rail network in the future as concerns
Sydney’s double-deck fleet coule be joined by its first single-deck trains if current plans to extend services beyond the North West Rail Link materialise. Photos: Mark Carter
benefits, and would mean that fares begin increasing from January next year to transition back to a level that ensures passengers and taxpayers each fund a fair share of the efficient costs,” says IPart chairman, Dr Peter Boxall. Depite IPart’s recommendations, transport minister Ms Gladys Berejiklian says fares will not rise above the Consumer Price Index - currently 2% - unless there are demonstrable improvements to services for customers. “While the NSW government is working hard to provide more trains for
High speed to the rescue?
aviation capacity needs.” Sydney business groups have cautioned against the possibility of urban rail projects inhibiting the development of a high-speed rail network on Australia’s east coast. Mr Stephen Cartwright of the NSW Business Chamber says that integrating HSR into Sydney’s existing rail network is the most cost-effective option to reduce the significant construction costs of a high-speed network linking Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra, and ultimately Melbourne and Brisbane. “We believe an integrated approach could cut the cost of HSR by between $A 10bn and $A 15bn. However, the NSW government’s plans for rapid transit operation of the North-West Rail Link and a second Sydney Harbour rail crossing could very well lock out the most cost-effective way of delivering an HSR network through Sydney’s CBD.”
Whether high-speed rail will ever be a feature of Sydney’s rail future
though, remains open to conjecture and the authors of First Things First are unimpressed.
They do not see high-speed rail as a priority for state investment over the next 20 years, saying incremental improvements to the existing national highway network and inter-city rail lines, reflecting its “first things first” approach, should take priority. The report does not consider the Canberra option in isolation, but looks at the whole Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane HSR proposal which it considers too expensive, with a price tag ranging from $A 68bn to $A 108bn, and believes the case has not been made as to why a rail option would provide such transformative benefits that it would compete with aviation, even with a heavy subsidy. A quick look at the European experience would tell the report’s authors than a high- speed service offering a three-hour journey time kills off air competition and does not require an operating subsidy.
IRJ November 2012
customers and increase the service standard they receive, we have decided that the fare increase proposed by IPart is not warranted at this time,” she says. The transport minister’s decision to
overrule IPart is a clear indication that political considerations take precedence over the economics of funding Sydney’s rail network, which does not bode well for the future. Rail transport needs consistent long-term planning and funding to thrive, but New South Wales still has a long way to go to recognise this. IRJ
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