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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-18 Daily Xml
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GAWLER TRAIN SERVICE

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:33): I rise today to speak about the Gawler train line. For a great portion of my life, I have been a passenger on trains on that line going way back to red hens and the ones before then (I forget their name). Certainly I have been travelling up and down that rail line for a large number of years. Today I urge the government to permanently fix the ongoing faults occurring on the Gawler train line, after it was again neglected in the budget which was handed down recently. Late and exceedingly overcrowded train services on the Gawler line have continued, despite the new and allegedly more efficient train timetable.

On 27 April, the new high frequency timetable was introduced in an effort to aid overcrowded carriages and improve efficiency for passengers. Despite assurances by the Minister for Transport (Hon. Patrick Conlon) this is not happening. In most cases, the overcrowding is just as bad as it was before the new timetables were introduced. In fact in many cases I think the overcrowding has got worse.

The so-called improved timetable offers the high frequency stations such as Gawler, Elizabeth and Salisbury extra services during peak times in the morning and afternoon, but the government has failed to provide additional carriages for trains during these peak times. If the government wants people to move to the outer suburbs and inner country it needs to ensure there are adequate transport services, but at the moment it is certainly not good enough.

There is an emphasis on peak times, but as late as yesterday I travelled on the 6.35 train from Gawler Central, which became extraordinarily overcrowded by the time it got to Adelaide. On several occasions I have seen one carriage on that train—and I suspect all of them are the same—with between 30 and 40 people standing at one time. That was the 6.35 train, which would hardly be a peak hour train. The Gawler line has again become a second preference for this government. The line was put into the second tier of resleepering and has now been put into the second tier for electrification, and that will not be completed for another decade. It is important that we provide good transport services for people from the northern suburbs and inner country areas who commute to Adelaide, but those people have been ignored once again.

I have a particular interest in extending the rail out to the Barossa Valley, as does the member for Schubert and a number of other people who think it is quite viable, but minister Conlon has rejected it out of hand. I noted with some encouragement the other day that the Leader of the Government in this place expressed some interest in that, and I will explore it further in future as it is something we need. While the new timetables have increased the number of services significantly at a number of the stations I mentioned, the Gawler Central and Gawler Oval stations have been left out, particularly Gawler Central, where a lot of people from the Barossa and inner country areas come to catch the train. They have not had any increases, and that could be done without a great deal of difficulty. Certainly we made changes previously with new timetables, but Gawler Central has been neglected.

Finally I have written to minister Conlon and invited him to ride the train from Gawler to work with me one morning to witness first hand how hard it is to even see out of the windows, never mind arrive on time. There is a lady with a seeing eye dog who goes on the train and she does not let the dog lick the floor of the train because it is so dirty.

Time expired.

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