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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-27 Daily Xml
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TRANSPORT SYSTEM

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:47): I reflect today on two important but undervalued aspects of our transport system and the relationship between them, namely, trains and bicycles. As a regular cyclist and regular public transport user, as you are yourself, Mr Acting President, I receive a lot of correspondence from bike riders and public transport users about the difficulties and problems they experience with the network.

When it comes to the link between bicycles and trains, there is an important and worthwhile partnership known as dual mode transport. With the shape of Adelaide being elongated some 90 kilometres north and south, and with railway lines running for the bulk of that length, we find that we have a useful spine from which people can reach a range of destinations, if only they could get from the stations to where they need to go in an easy way, and this is where bicycles come in.

There are two issues with bikes and trains. The first is the issue of bicycle storage, in particular at railway stations; and the second issue is the ability to carry bikes on trains. When it comes to bicycle storage I note that TransAdelaide provides lockers at some stations and there is a facility, albeit an inadequate one, at Adelaide Railway Station. I note with the bicycle facilities at suburban stations there is a charge, even though adjoining car parking, which costs more to provide, is made available for free. There is an inequity there, yet we have some facility—those lockers—which can be used by a small number of people, and that is good.

At the Adelaide Railway Station, on the other hand, we have the situation where the facility has declined over the years from a dedicated large room to a dedicated small room to a situation now where there is a small number of racks at the end of one of the platforms, and the signage in conjunction with that facility exhorts people not to leave their bicycles there overnight. That is a problem because it is precisely those people who work in the CBD and commute on the train who are likely to need to leave their bicycles there overnight.

As an example, in a previous job I worked close to South Terrace, yet the train arrived at North Terrace. The way to get between North Terrace and South Terrace—and this was before the tram, I should say—was by bicycle. In fact, if you work in the south-east corner of the city or some other part of the square mile, or even in North Adelaide, it would be ideal to catch the train to work and have a bicycle waiting at the Adelaide Railway Station which you can then take to your final destination, but you would need to leave your bicycle there overnight. That is what dual mode transport is all about.

The attitude of TransAdelaide has varied over the years from one of complete hostility to bicycles to a more accommodating approach. I would like to think that the accommodating approach is the one that will now prevail. As a member of the Bicycle Institute I receive its newsletters, and I know that the organisation has met with TransAdelaide. TransAdelaide says that it does understand the importance of dual mode transport and it understands how it can help advance the government's agenda for increasing cycling, walking and fostering active transport, and all of the impacts that that has on greenhouse reduction and reduction of car use.

However, the attitude is not universal amongst the staff of TransAdelaide. I have received a lot of correspondence from people complaining about officious staff throwing them off trains because of some real or perceived breach of the carrying capacity of different carriages. Just this Monday I received an email saying:

G'day, Mark. Yet another case of an inspector trying to insist on the number of bicycle limits on the 7 o'clock train leaving from Mitcham. The inspector wanted to insist that it was a four-car limit, but there was plenty of room for more bikes. There was a bicycle storage area and fold-down seats.

This was a letter from an adult. They were able to argue with the inspector and got their bikes on the train. I have seen teenagers turfed off of trains and I have seen them left abandoned at stations. TransAdelaide needs to do much more to promote dual mode transport.

Time expired.

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