The push has started in earnest for action to “Cut The Commute”.
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The Illawarra Mercury launched the Cut The Commute campaign last week in the wake of a wave of community feedback about the need for improvements on the South Coast line.
While the NSW Government appears focussed on road solutions, the community has said it is high time a rail solution was added to the mix.
Keira MP Ryan Park and the Greens have both called for enquiries into the South Coast rail line.
There appears to be no real agenda or solution anywhere to fix the issue of overcrowding on our rail carriages or to vastly improve travel times which have hardly improved since the era of the steam locomotive.
Not only that – as revealed by the Illawarra Mercury this week _ the new intercity fleet rolling out in 2019 will mean fewer seats for the South Coast line.
In fact, the new fleet is likely to mean hundreds of less seats per trip.
Shadow Minister for the Illawarra Mr Park has called on the NSW Government to take action.
Coincidentally at the same time, the Greens called for an inquiry into the very same subject.
The push to “Cut the Commute” is gaining traction.
Mr Park lambasted the NSW Government for what he believes is inaction.
“Again this government has failed to address the ongoing issues commuters face daily,” Mr Park said.
In fairness, this inaction has been on a grand scale overseeing many governments and many decades.
One of our online commenters put it more bluntly.
“What disgusts me about this Liberal govt in NSW they crow about their budget surplus but refuse to spend our taxpayers money on projects that are long overdue and much needed,” the reader said.
“Yet the northern beaches tunnel at Spit Bridge, which was announced last month that will serve a population of no more than 300,000 similar to Wollongong population, gets the green light with an estimated budget of $3 billion dollars to build.
“So why do the northern beaches deserve a $3 billion dollar spend yet the Illawarra and South Coast do not?”
It seems like the reader has a pretty fair question which is worth an answer.