The government knew finding a seat on Sydney-bound trains was important for Illawarra commuters – but they removed hundreds of them anyway.
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This comes after news the government went against commuters’ wishes when it came to reversible seating.
According to a sensitive government document acquired by a freedom of information application, Transport for NSW surveyed intercity commuters in 2015 about their seating preferences.
This was before the government announced the winning tenderer for a $2.3 billion contract to build 512 train carriages.
The successful bidder was the RailConnect consortium that included South Korean company Hyundai Rotem – the carriages would also be built in South Korea.
In August last year, the Mercury revealed the new carriages will each have around 28 fewer seats than the Oscars that now run on the South Coast line.
That translates into a shortage of 224 seats across a eight-carriage train.
The seats would also be arranged in a “2+2” configuration (two seats either side of a central aisle), rather than the 2+3 version that now exists in Oscar carriages
A Transport for NSW spokesman said the reduction in seats was due to “improvements made to increase our customers’ comfort”.
However, a government briefing document from Transport for NSW makes it clear that “customers” found getting a seat to be quite important for their comfort.
“Overall customers would prefer to sit rather than stand and showed a preference for a seating configuration that offered the most seats,” the document stated.
Commuters admitted a dislike of the dreaded middle seat in the 2+3 set-up, which was “emphatically demonstrated” in observational research, where the middle seats filled less quickly than the others.
But the document also noted that commuters preferred sitting in a centre seats to standing.
Commuters admitted the 2+3 set-up was better because “there are more seats available and they have a better chance of getting a seat”.
However, the government chose a configuration that actually made it less likely they will get a seat.
A Transport for NSW spokesman said the decision for 2+2 seating was based on “comfort”.
He added Wollongong customers won’t be standing all the way to Sydney.
“Based on current services and projected demand, on average more than 95 per cent of Intercity customers will have a seat available on the new intercity fleet,” the spokesman said.
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.
