BELAIR RAIL LINE

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:43): There was jubilation in the Mitcham Hills a fortnight ago because the long-suffering passengers on the Belair line were finally to get their train back. Since January, the train service has been replaced by substitute buses. These buses have been good for some people but they have been terrible for many, and certainly the bus can take more than twice as long as the train to make the same journey.

Sunday, 14 July was to be the day when the trains came back, although the real action clearly was to be the following Monday morning, when commuters headed into town for work. The Friday before (12 July), as I was sitting in my parliamentary office at about 5.30—a very lonely place at that time of night, I can tell you, on the second floor—I was surprised to hear on ABC 891 radio the Rail Commissioner Emma Thomas and the deputy chief executive of the public transport services announce that the promised reopening of the line would be delayed indefinitely as a result of signalling issues. Media monitoring reports show that the first radio news bulletin to disclose this news was at 6pm, but of course that was too late for the TV bulletins and it was too late for the print deadlines of the newspaper.

Over the weekend, some attempt was made to tell people that the train was not going to recommence as promised, but it is fair to say that it missed most people. In fact, the big electronic sign on Main Road up near Belair continued to show inaccurate information over the whole of the weekend. Even worse was that the government's own personalised notification system for public transport users was not working apparently.

Some time ago, I logged onto My Metro with my email address and mobile phone number with a view to getting alerts and updates if there were changes to the public transport services that I use—but there was silence from the government. Instead, what we had was a lonely and very cold team of departmental staff camped at each of the stations whose melancholy duty it was to redirect passengers back onto the substitute buses.

No-one has suggested that safety should be compromised. The government has said that the signalling problem that led to the delay in the reopening of the Belair line was something that could not be got around and they had to cancel the reopening. No-one has criticised them for that decision. What people have criticised them for, me included, is the appalling process of communication, or lack of communication with long-suffering passengers.

Having done without the train for six months, Belair passengers were understandably frustrated and angry at the false start, especially those who did turn up on Monday morning expecting to catch their train. The government still has not fully explained what went wrong or why it took until the Friday night to announce the cancellation of the resumption of services. However, the saga is still not over; the trains are now back and running but to date just about every service has run late—up to 30 minutes late. The three trains I caught this week have all been late by up to 15 minutes.

Yesterday morning, again we had government officials giving explanations as to why trains were not running on time. We heard about mechanical faults, and my favourite excuse was that apparently we have had misty and wet weather. That is an absolute shock to those who live in the Adelaide Hills in winter—that we might have misty or wet weather. It seems to me that we have had trains for probably 200 years or more and they have run in far bleaker conditions than those in South Australia.

This morning, from 6.45 I spent nearly two hours at Glenalta station surveying passengers about their experiences and their views on the new timetable. This timetable sees a reduction in peak services to the last three stations on the line, Belair, Pinera and Glenalta. Before I had even left my stint at the station, again the trains had been cancelled—apparently another signalling fault—and passengers were herded back onto the buses. The most common reaction I have had from passengers is the unfairness of it all. After six months, they have experienced all the pain and now they are getting fewer trains.

I would have thought that a government that cared about the travelling public would have gone out of its way to consult commuters, to find out what it is they want, what services they would use and what services are of no benefit to them. That is the challenge. My plea to the government is to stop treating the travelling public as mushrooms. These people are reducing congestion, they are doing the planet a favour and we should look after them.