Public Transport

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. When will the upgrade be completed to those diesel trains and all units fully operational?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:07): I thank the opposition leader for his question. It is an extremely pertinent one and one that we are getting a handle on ourselves. As I understand it, there are actually three parts that need to be replaced: there is the turbo unit itself, there is the fitting kit and then there is the gasket. The sourcing of those gasket parts is not standard. The turbo is quite a standard unit. Some of those turbo units come with the fitting kit and some do not, so we are sourcing those, but the gasket part is one that needs to be fabricated.

We have obviously some in stock but not enough to replace the entire fleet, and so that is being worked through at the moment. The latest advice I have is that by the end of the week we will have all the parts necessary, and then from there we will see trains coming back into service on a progressive basis over the course of the next few weeks. However, I would expect at this stage to see by Monday more services come on in the morning and afternoon peaks on those remaining train lines: Belair, Outer Harbor and Gawler.

We've also got a situation at the moment where train patronage is down to about 20 per cent to 25 per cent of its normal levels. We have seen bus patronage recover, especially with the advent of school going back, to about 45 per cent to 50 per cent of normal usage, with trams somewhere in between. But we are also working with public health officials in South Australia and also talking to public transport colleagues around the nation because the issue of social distancing on public transport is one that has become an immediate issue for us at the moment dealing with essentially what is 60 per cent of our train fleet being offline, but it is one that we are going to have to grapple with as we move forward and as the patronage levels come back to normal.

Again, we are working with Dr Spurrier and her office on that, and as always we will take their advice, but this is an issue that public transport systems around the country are dealing with and one that we will be responding to, as we have done in relation to all aspects of dealing with this pandemic, and ensuring that people can go about their daily lives as safely as possible. As more information comes to hand, I am more than happy to update this house or update the public as that is appropriate.