Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian has announced the ‘biggest shakeup to the State’s railways in a generation to fix the trains and provide customers with the service standard they deserve’.
The Fixing the Trains initiative includes the breakup of RailCorp and the creation of two new specialist organisations to service the ‘different needs of Sydney and intercity/regional train customers’.
Sydney Trains will serve customers who need ‘quick, frequent and reliable trains in the greater Sydney suburban area’.
NSW Trains will serve intercity, regional and country customers who travel longer distances and need comfortable and reliable services, with on-board facilities.
The Minister also said the ‘top heavy, back office bureaucracy’ will be ‘slashed’.
“I am determined to give the people of NSW the world-class rail system they deserve,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Unless we take drastic action, things will continue to get worse – as Transport Minister I am not prepared to stand by and allow that to occur.
“RailCorp is currently financially unsustainable. It costs $10 million a day to run, with costs rising three times as fast as the number of passenger journeys.
“The NSW Government will continue to invest in improving the rail system – but we need to ensure taxpayers and customers get better value for money.”
These new organisations will be established progressively over the next 12-18 months. Once they are fully established RailCorp will cease to operate train services.
From 1 July immediate changes will be made to ‘improve the focus on customer service’, the Minister said.
A new Customer Service Division will be created to ensure the customer facing elements of RailCorp are focused on delivering ‘outstanding customer service’.
Up to 750 voluntary redundancies will be offered to RailCorp middle management, mostly in Head Office, to ‘simplify processes and reduce bureaucracy’ but the Minister insisted no frontline staff will be affected.
