Last month, I reported how Sydney’s crippling immigration-fuelled population growth had pushed the rail network to breaking point, with one early morning incident causing mayhem well into the evening across the metropolitan train system.
Responding to this incident, Sydney Trains boss, Howard Collins, admitted that soaring passenger demand meant the train system is stretched beyond limits:
Mr Collins said he would not hide from the fact that the increase in train services meant it took longer for the network to recover from major incidents.
… he said the extra services put on as part of the new timetable were “desperately needed” to cater for skyrocketing demand…
But the veteran of London’s railway system said reverting to the old timetable, and fewer trains, would leave people standing outside the main stations by early next year because the rail network would be unable to meet the demand.
“If you do nothing and just stick to the old timetable, you will not be providing enough trains for customers,” he said…
Yesterday, Sydney’s passenger rail system suffered another meltdown, with commuters left suffering major overcrowding and “indefinite delays”. From The ABC:
…at Central Station, eight out of 10 train lines were not running to a timetable anymore, with no expected departure times available.
Travellers were also turned away from certain platforms at Central and Wynyard due to significant overcrowding.
Sydney Trains angered many by telling them to avoid trains and instead catch buses due to extended delays throughout Tuesday evening.
“WE JUST WANT TO GO HOME. LOCAL BUS ROUTE ISN’T POSSIBLE,” said one commuter on Twitter.
This is the second day of mayhem, with significant delays for many commuters returning to work on Monday…
Many commuters were desperate to get on board the limited trains running during peak hour, forcing themselves into crammed carriages…
“What we’re finding now is that because we’ve got more trains out there, when we do get a problem on the railway, it has a bigger knock-on effect,” [Sydney Trains boss, Howard] Collins said…
Rail, Tram and Bus Union representative Alex Classens said the new timetable was introduced without being properly resourced…
And the meltdown is expected to continue today, via The Australian:
Transport NSW tweeted on Wednesday morning: “MAJOR DELAYS ACROSS THE NETWORK due to staff availability & earlier incidents. Trains running at reduced frequency. Buses supplement some services. Listen to station announcements for the latest”…
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union says the new train timetable, introduced at the end of November, is responsible for the delays.
“Management is scrambling to come up with daily excuses for the mess, but the reality is it’s all to do with a poorly put together timetable,” NSW Secretary Alex Claassens said in a statement on Tuesday.
Blind Freddy can see that a key driver behind the buckling of Sydney’s passenger rail system is the federal government’s mass immigration program, which is flooding the city with tens-of-thousands of extra residents each and every year, adding massively to commuter demand:
It is this mass immigration policy that has driven Sydney’s population up by 774,000 over the past decade (or 1,500 people a week), crush-loading the city’s infrastructure (e.g. trains, roads, hospitals, schools, etc).
And the situation is set to deteriorate further over the next two decades, with the State Government projecting Sydney’s population will expand even more rapidly – growing by 87,000 people a year (1,670 people a week) – adding an addition 1.74 million people (equivalent to a Perth), 1.53 million of which will come from net overseas migration:
Given Sydney’s rail system is already stretched to breaking point, how will it possibly cope with another 1.74 million people in just 20 years?
Clearly, the best way to alleviate Sydney’s infrastructure (and housing) woes is for the State Government to tap its federal counterpart on the shoulder and demand that it jettison its ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration policy.
Because under current mass immigration settings, incumbent residents of Sydney are facing huge cuts to their living standards along with hideously expensive infrastructure bills as they try in vain to keep up.
