Belair Train Service

Mr DULUK (Davenport) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Transport. With one in every six trains running late on the Belair line, will the minister advise the house on how the government plans to increase the efficiency of the Belair train service?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister Assisting the Minister for Planning, Minister Assisting the Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:50): I am pleased to respond to the member for Davenport. The latest on-time running statistics for the week ending the 27 June show 93.3 per cent of trains were running on time on the Belair line, so I am not quite sure where the one in six statistic comes from except his imagination.

But I am glad that he has raised the issue in this parliament because we have been actively investing in our public transport, including the Belair line, and reopening a train station, which I understand is in the member for Unley's electorate, despite the lack of support or encouragement from him. That was all left up to the member for Ashford—and what great local representation for a much needed desired initiative that was on the Belair line.

We do continue to invest in our network and, despite having given an Appropriation Bill speech without apparently having read the budget, the member for Mitchell made reference yesterday to the need to invest in signalling infrastructure to make sure that we don't have the frequency of outages due to signalling interruptions. Those are the sorts of investments that we continue to make, despite having no impetus, no guidance or support or any policy, of course, from the opposition when it comes to public transport.

I am very pleased that one side of politics is happy to support the communities along the Belair line and continue to invest in upgrading the Belair line, as well as our other lines around metropolitan Adelaide, and we will continue to deliver improvements on on-time running.