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

Lidcombe Station turnback - Changing trains a "minor inconvenience"

posted Wednesday 30 November 2005
An environmental impact assessment of a proposed new terminal platform at Lidcombe Station has claimed that the need for passengers to change trains and use overbridges between platforms is a "minor inconvenience".

Following is the text of APT's submission to the Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation-

In November 2005 the Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation (TIDC) released a Review of Environmental Factors (REF) for a proposal to construct a new terminal platform and associated track, costing $41 million, on the southern side of Lidcombe Railway Station. The proposal is part of a $1 billion Rail Clearways Plan, intended to increase the capacity and improve the reliability of the Sydney passenger train network.

TIDC released 4 documents, the REF (Volume 1), the Technical Papers (Volume 2), a Summary, and a 4-page colour brochure. Action for Public Transport has identified two important omissions from the documents.

The first is the lack of detail concerning the negative impact of the proposal on train passengers travelling through Lidcombe on the Main South line. Currently, suburban train frequencies on the "up" South are four per hour in the a.m. peak and two per hour in the off-peak. Presumably some of these trains will be diverted to the new turnback, to terminate. In addition to the delay and inconvenience of having to change trains, passengers destined for stations east of Lidcombe would be required to use a pedestrian overbridge to access platforms 1 or 3 to continue their journey. Those connecting to westbound services on platform 2 would also need to use the overbridge.

The REF dispenses with this issue in five lines, describing the inconvenience as minor (Summary, p19). There is no analysis of the number of trains or passengers affected nor any estimate of the additional travel times involved, or the aggregated value of that travel time.

The second omission is any assessment of delays to following "Up South" trains, caused by trains waiting to access the turnback platform via the flat junctions across the Down South track.

Under current operating conditions, delays to Up South services are quite common. They are held outside Lidcombe while services on the West Suburban tracks are given priority. Such delays can be expected to worsen when trains for the turnback platform cannot immediately cross the Down South track. Once again, there is no acknowledgement of this scenario, let alone any quantitative analysis of it.

We also wish to place on record our concern regarding the conflict-of-interest issues arising out of the TIDC being both the development proponent and determining authority (Summary, p2).

Conclusion.

APT finds it ironic that, in a one-billion dollar program ostensibly designed to improve conditions for rail travellers, the negative impacts on those supposed beneficiaries can be so readily and unquestioningly dismissed. It is particularly disturbing that the widely distributed colour brochure makes no mention of any negative impact on train passengers. We note that by contrast, the impacts on traffic, parking, and commerce in the streets in the vicinity of the station, and the options for ameliorating those impacts, are dealt with in great detail in the REF and the Technical Papers.

Recommendation.

The Rail Clearways Plan will result in significant changes to the timetabling and routing of trains on the Sydney rail network. APT recommends that a supplementary REF be prepared and distributed, explaining the likely impacts on travel times and interchanging requirements for train passengers for this and all the other projects in the Rail Clearways Plan.

Kevin Eadie Convener, 30 November 2005.



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