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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-24 Daily Xml
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NOARLUNGA RAILWAY LINE

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:49): My question, again, is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. What was the date and what action is being taken to recover the costs associated with keeping the line closed?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:49): Keeping the line closed—I assume the deputy leader is talking about the loss of revenue from sales of tickets. I think it is fair to say, as I said in my ministerial statement, the resumption of diesel services was to try to alleviate some of the long suffering the people of the south are going through while we go through this unprecedented infrastructure spend.

It was not an issue of revenue: it was an issue of convenience and trying to do as much as we could to alleviate congestion on our roads in the south. The people of the south, it is fair to say, in the context of your question, are going through an unprecedented level of inconvenience. They have the duplication of a highway going on; they are having the rebuilding of bridges going on—

The Hon. J.D. Hill: And we're happy about it, let me tell you. We are happy about it.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am sure you are very happy about it, but they are going through lots of inconvenience. They are having a record number of motorists being diverted onto other roads that are not usually being used. They are seeing a record number of buses on their roads because the rail services are not operating, so our intention on the diesel line was to try to alleviate inconvenience. It was not about returning revenue. The revenue is good but ultimately we have always decided on resuming services with electric trains early in the new year.

The diesel services were about convenience for the long-suffering commuters who are using substitute buses. I would like to see diesel services resume as fast as we possibly can. Unfortunately—and I have apologised publicly—we are unable to do so. We desperately want people back on diesel services. We do not want them on the buses when they can catch a perfectly good train service but, unfortunately, we have been let down and people are being inconvenienced and we are doing everything we can to try to alleviate the position as quickly as possible.

What we are doing is offering free bus services for all substitute services from Noarlunga to the city as of 1 October. I know it is cold comfort to many who have had to bear with the inconvenience of catching substitute buses and I want to thank them. Indeed, I am meeting with a delegation of commuters this week to discuss what else we can do to make it a little bit easier. My message to them though is: hang in there, we are nearly done, and I will get an answer back to the house soon.

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