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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-22 Daily Xml
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Question Time

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:52): Is the Minister for Transport's vision for public transport in Adelaide 'standing room only'? This morning, TransAdelaide manager, Bill Watson, told ABC Radio that he prefers to stand rather than sit when on public transport. Mr Watson revealed to a commuter yesterday that TransAdelaide was trialling a refit of trains where seats would be taken out to fit more people in. My office has also been contacted with complaints about the lack of seating on the new trams.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (14:52): Given that we know that the opposition gets its questions from the media, it is not all that hard to anticipate what will be asked. In anticipation of yet another silly question from the opposition, we put together—in fact, as I understand it, it was not even a person from TransAdelaide, it was a completely independent person—a comparison of around the world seating versus standing capacity.

I think I have 24 here from Germany, Sweden, Finland, the United States—the 3100 class, 3000 class and the 2100 class are the first three in capacity for seating versus standing. So, we actually have as good as it gets anywhere in the world. If the opposition were honest about the answer from Bill Watson, what he would have said is that they trialled it on one car.

One of the problems that we do have is making our carriages disability compliant. My understanding is that one of the principal reasons that they have sought to trial this is to remove some seating to make way for wheelchairs. It is a trial of one car. It is, again, utterly irresponsible and dishonest to suggest that we have a plan to make everyone stand up, but one gets used to that sort of thing.

Of these comparisons around the world, we have the best percentage of sitting against standing. The truth is that more people are standing on public transport because more people are catching public transport than they ever did under the previous government. There has been something like a 10 per cent increase in patronage. This is breaking news for comrade McFetridge: it's a success!

If Duncan McFetridge wants to catch public transport in modern cities around the world, he will find a lot of people standing. I have more breaking news for comrade McFetridge: this state is going places, experiencing the greatest economic growth it has ever seen, and we are becoming one of the most modern cities in the world. We are no longer a quiet, sleepy place. We are growing and succeeding, and I do not have a problem with that. I tell members who does have a problem with that—those on the other side who cannot bear success. No; you are utterly wrong again: we still have the best percentage of seating against standing. You are completely wrong.

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