Save Our
Sydney Suburbs (NSW) Inc.
News
Release July 2004
"We will all use public transport"
Hi SOS Members
The latest cutbacks to City Rail services demonstrate the shameless duplicity
of the State Government. On the one hand the Planning Department DIPNR is telling
us that its draconian high density policies will improve the traffic congestion
problem by getting more people to use public transport instead of their cars.
Areas around railway stations are especially targeted for forced high density.
On the other hand the government has again severely cut the train services (we
recall that at one time they ran a full service 24 hours a day). So while the
density of Sydney increases, public transport decreases. The public don't matter
as long as developer donations continue to flow.
SOS member James Sinnamon has written a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald,
an abbreviated version of which was published in today's edition. The original
letter read as follows:
Dear Editor
The Carr Government's response to the public outcry over the wholly avoidable
axing of weekend rail services is the familiar ploy of feigning deafness.
As your editorial of 22 July rightly argues, the Government must commit itself to the full restoration of rail services to at least what they were prior to this weekend, once the shortage of train drivers has been rectified.
If it does not, then
we are entitled to conclude that the service reduction was not a 'hard decision'
it had been forced to take, as a recent newsletter from my state member would
have me believe, rather, it is what the Government wants to do.
James Sinnamon
Tony Recsei
President
Save Our Suburbs (SOS)