Travel By Train, Mr Costa, And You'll Find A Solution

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday November 11, 2004

I read with interest your article ("Fix the trains or we're stuffed: Carr's backbenchers lay it on the line", Herald, November 10). I would've thought politicians had a social and moral responsibility to fix the trains, not wait until their jobs were threatened?

Niall O'Sullivan,

Alstonville, November 10.

Michael Costa suggests that if anyone has advice on how to improve train services he is willing to listen.

Well, Mr Costa, my first advice is to ignore those overpaid executives in your department whose successive blunders since the Olympics have resulted in the rail system being reduced to a joke. It would be a good idea to eliminate those managers completely and allocate their salaries to more productive purposes.

It would also be a good idea to work with your rail employees rather than be openly hostile to them. Now you have your ministerial position you seem to see the need to turn on them, and blame them for both ministerial and managerial incompetence.

It may be a good idea to get some advice from commuters, who, unlike you and your management, use the service.

Finally, when it comes to timetables, anyone who purports to improve a service by reducing it (as happened in the last timetable change) should never be allowed to make timetable decisions again.

Bernie Cox,

West Ryde, November 10.

Michael Costa blames the shortage of trains for part of the poor rail service he provides. But he cancelled the last contract to build the Millennium train so how do we get sufficient numbers to replenish the fleet? Back to red rattlers? Steam trains? Clockwork wind-ups?

The Millennium train is now working, and if anybody tries to take it away from us after what we had to go through to get it there will be a riot.

Richard Lynch,

Waterloo, November 10

You report ("Minister caught out", Herald, November 10) that an Indian state transport minister has been fined for travelling on a train without a ticket. I infer (1) that that state's trains travel; and (2) that that state's transport minister uses them. We should be so lucky.

David Ash,

Bondi Beach, November 10.

Brian Swan (Letters, November 9) thinks that we would be reassured by seeing Mr Costa and other MPs travelling on the same trains as the rest of us.

Several years ago, our local MP, Ron Mulock, was regularly seen travelling by rail to the city. He did this while he was a minister and a shadow minister. Often other commuters would greet him, but he was always allowed to travel in peace and, like the rest of us, catch up on his reading.

It is a pity that more MPs don't appreciate this simple way of connecting with the electorate.

Jean Marlow,

Penrith, November 9.

Train strike - who cares? At least, for once, we will know what the trains are doing.

Matthew Royds,

Cremorne, November 10.

How to find the money to fix the trains? Easy. Stop using taxpayers' money to subsidise the motor vehicle industry.

Kim Sanders,

Dulwich Hill, November 10.

It is admirable of the rail unions to postpone any strike action until after the conclusion of the HSC exams this Friday. While not disagreeing with the validity of their case and the parlous state of the CityRail system, I implore the unions to equally consider the plight of students about to start their university examinations.

This is a highly stressful and important time for them, and I implore the rail unions to consider postponing their proposed rolling strikes until after examinations conclude around early December.

Roger Higgins,

Bexley, November 10.

I can't believe the class-action lawyers could waste their time picking up a paltry couple of million dollars in fees from the recipients of speedy pacemakers ("Victims get slim pickings as lawyers take $2m", Herald, November 10) when such a fertile field is available to them on behalf of the millions of CityRail commuters.

Bill Carpenter,

Bowral, November 10.