Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

A spokesman for APT, Allan Miles, said that public transport users and potential users will be attracted by shortened travel times, not whether the vehicle has tyres or tracks.

He said that the report focusses strongly on overseas examples and the needs of Sydney as a "global city", but is rather blurry on local detail as to how it will all work.

"The road lobby will attack the proposal on many fronts," said Mr Miles, "and the light rail people need to prepare strong defences and counter-attacks." "It is not sufficient to say that trams work well in Copenhagen, or Nottingham or other cities which have no relevance to Sydney," he said.

Mr Miles stressed that APT has no objections to any of the goals, objectives and general proposals in the report, but urged the supporters to put more rigour into their case.

"For instance", Mr Miles said, "many CBD bus routes will be relegated to feeder services and bus/tram interchanges are proposed at various places. If the transfers are inconvenient and result in longer journey times because of walking and waiting, then the public reaction will be brutal." Mr Miles said that the light rail lobby needs to reassure people with some detail.

Mr Miles said that the proposed Tcard system will not cater for zones, as the current TravelPass system does. "Individual journeys will be charged separately," he said, "so commuters who have to change modes will be slugged twice." The LRT report acknowledges this but it is important to remind people that integrated ticketing does not mean integrated fares.

"Much of the slow bus travel in the CBD is caused by people paying cash fares and asking directions." Mr Miles said. He feared that this problem would remain after Tcard is introduced. "People who don't buy TravelTens now won't buy a Tcard," he said.

For more information about the report, see http://www.aptnsw.org.au/cgi-bin/item.cgi?20050306Sun062247.

Contact: Allan Miles 9516-1906, or Kevin Eadie 9819-6052