Commuters on two overcrowded train services from Sydney to Wollongong will no longer be sitting on the toilet or on the stairs.
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That’s the message from Labor MPs Paul Scully and Ryan Park who were pleased two afternoon train services would have extra carriages from Monday.
The trains departing Central station at 3.34pm and 3.54pm now have doubled from four to eight cars.
“This is a good start to improvements that have taken far to long to come about,” the Wollongong MP Paul Scully said.
“I had people sending me photographs of them taking their own garden chairs, sitting in between the carriages, sitting on the floor of the carriages or on the stairs.
“One lady even stopped me in the mall to tell me she has to sit in the toilet for a period of time just to get a seat.
“As a community, we have had a win. It is something to be celebrated and recognised for what it is. There is more to do.”
Mr Scully said, if elected into government, Labor would install Wifi on South Coast trains, address overcrowding on other services, add more carriages to trains between 5am and 6am and on weekend services as well as improve the frequency of services.
The extra carriages mean all South Coast services from Sydney between 3pm and 6pm will now be eight carriages.
The eight Oscar carriages will come from the 5.46pm South Coast service, which from Monday will be made up of Tangara carriages.
Mr Scully said the two afternoon services were the most complained about and he had advocated to improve the services since being elected and on “a regular basis ever since”.
“This is not something that has been solved in the past couple of weeks or months,” he said. “It was a proposal I put forward in July last year,” he said.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and Kiama MP Gareth Ward has also celebrated the arrival of more carriages on the South Coast Line but is calling on Labor to reveal its rail plan.
A Labor government will spend $2.4 billion on the rail line between Wollongong and Sydney instead of funding the F6 extension.
“They [Labor] are just a bunch of Red Rattlers with no substance and no plan,” Mr Ward said.
“Last year, Labor’s Illawarra spokesman Ryan Park announced he would smash Illawarra commuters by ensuring his Labor Government would cancel the F6 extension which would improve travel times from thousands of commuters. They said they would deliver a rail plan.
“Another day, another press conference. More talk but no plan.
“Will they match our billions of dollars of delivery and commitment? Or will they continue to front press conferences, talk a big game but offer absolutely nothing.”
When asked, Mr Park did not reveal Labor’s plan but rather said they were not going to rush it.
“We will be very clear in the improvement to the South Coast and Illawarra rail lines,” he said. “We want to make sure what we deliver is thorough, detailed and delivers the most benefits possible.
“It will be delivered in the near future.”
Mr Scully hit back at Mr Ward and said “it was frustrating to present a solution to the government, who willfully ignored it for a period of time until it suits them”.
“We had the standard modus operandi of the Member for Kiama Gareth Ward,” he said. “He recognises a problem because Ryan Park, Shellharbour MP Anna Watson or myself have raised it and campaigned on it for a long time.
“Then he starts up a petition when he has got a nod and a wink from a minister and low and behold, the solution comes.
“Everyone knows the great pantomime that he goes through. But at the end of the day, commuters suffer. We are trying to address problems for them.”
