Transport Minister Andrew Constance may not be sold on the Gong Shuttle funding deal, according to Wollongong MP Paul Scully.
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Transport for NSW is in talks with both the University of Wollongong and Wollongong City Council after they each offered $350,000 in funding to keep the shuttle free.
The offer came after Mr Constance’s plan to introduce fares on the Gong Shuttle, and cut the government’s subsidy to 75 per cent in line with other public transport services across the state.
While the funding offers were made in December 2017, talks only began in February – neither the council or university had expressed any concern over the delay in the start of negotiations.
READ MORE: Gong Shuttle cash not negotiable, UOW warns
So far, Transport for NSW has declined to state whether the funding offer has been accepted in principal.
A letter sent to Mr Scully and Keira MP Ryan Park has the Wollongong MP concerned the Transport Minister might be looking to “scuttle the shuttle deal”.
“To allow time for the NSW government to consider this funding offer, the decision to introduce Opal fares on this service has been postponed until after June 30, 2018,” Mr Constance wrote in his letter.
Mr Scully is concerned with the use of the word “postponed”, which implied that the introduction of fares was very much still on the table.
“It sounds like they’re not fully over the line with the funding offer that’s been delivered on behalf of our community by the University of Wollongong and Wollongong City Council,” Mr Scully said.
“You can only conclude that, there in the back of their mind is an opportunity to scuttle the shuttle deal if they want to do it.
“I hope that’s not the case, I hope this can be resolved quickly. As Gareth Ward and others have said, deals like this have been done before and it should be a pretty simple arrangement to finalise.”
It sounds like they’re not fully over the line with the funding offer.
- Paul Scully
Mr Scully suggested that part of the delay may be because the funding shortfall had been publicly presented as a figure of 25 per cent of the total $3 million a year running costs rather than a dollar figure.
There is the chance that the exact dollar figure for the shortfall may be more than the $750,000 joint funding offer.
A short statement from a spokeswoman for Mr Constance said Transport for NSW would assess the funding offer before June 30, 2018.
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
