THE infamously slow and unreliable two-and-a-half hour train ride from Newcastle to Sydney has been getting worse since 2011, and transport authorities don’t know how to fix it.
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That’s according to a new report by Auditor-General Margaret Crawford on passenger rail punctuality in NSW that found the Newcastle and Central Coast inter-city train line is failing to meet targets set by the state government.
According the report the punctuality of intercity trains has continued to lag well behind Sydney’s suburban trains since 2011, peaking at an almost 11 per cent difference in the middle of 2015 and hovering at about a 5 per cent difference in July 2016.
And, unlike other Sydney services that improve during inter-peak periods throughout the day, intercity trains like the Newcastle to Sydney line actually get worse.
For example, services from Hamilton to Central averaged 90.9 per cent AM peak punctuality on weekdays in the period between July 2015 and March 2016, below the 92 per cent peak punctuality benchmark.
But the service actually got worse as the day wore on – falling to 87.5 per cent in the inter-peak period, and down to 85.1 in the PM peak.
And, in news sure to infuriate the Hunter commuters that rely on the notoriously fickle service, Ms Crawford’s report found that rail agencies “were not able to provide evidence-based explanations” for why the service is so slow, but that it probably has to do with a lack of investment.
“A key factor in the relatively poor performance of NSW Trains’ intercity service may be the old age of its trains and of the tracks and signals outside the metropolitan area,” the report found.
“Transport for NSW acknowledged that recent investment in the NSW Trains intercity fleet and track and signal infrastructure had been relatively lower than investment in suburban trains and the suburban network.
“Transport for NSW also advised that the recently announced Intercity Fleet will address some of this relative under-investment.”
The issues with punctuality are impacting on customers, too. The latest customer delay figures from April 2016 for the morning peak to Central show the Newcastle and Central Coast line was the worst performer on the network, at a four minutes and 22 seconds delay average.
At least part of the problem, according to NSW Trains, is a lack of control over the network. Between July 2015 to March 2016 the agency said 72 per cent of train lateness was down to “other agencies and infrastructure and fleet failures”.
Ms Crawford’s report found that despite a contract for services being in place between Sydney Trains and NSW Trains since 2013, fleet reliability performance indicators are still not in place, and there are “no agreement or indicators to cover the priority to be given to NSW Trains by the Sydney Trains’ Rail Management Centre when there is a delay or minor service interruption”.
Ms Crawford’s report also found that based on forecast patronage increases, rail agencies will find it hard to maintain punctuality after 2019 “unless the capacity of the network to carry trains and people is increased significantly”.
“If recent higher than forecast patronage growth continues, the network may struggle to maintain punctuality before 2019,” Ms Crawford said in a statement.
The report found that while Transport for NSW “has undertaken considerable work on developing strategies to increase capacity and maintain punctuality after 2019” it “remains some way from putting a costed plan to the government”.
“There is a significant risk that investments will not be made soon enough to handle future patronage levels. Ideally, planning and investment decisions should have been made already,” the report found.
System affected by ‘extreme weather’
In a statement, a spokesman for NSW TrainLink said that the last few months had seen punctuality on services to Newcastle “affected by extreme weather”, including hot conditions that caused “speed restrictions to be placed on trains and the impact of storms on the rail network”.
The spokesman said intercity trains are also “more exposed to impacts of breakdown of freight trains during the off peak during the day which can disrupt the afternoon peak”.
“There are a range of impacts on punctuality, some of which are beyond our control,” the spokesman said.
He said the overnight period provided an opportunity to “reset” the system which “typically enables better punctuality in the morning peak”.
“The afternoon peak is more likely to be impacted by flow on effects of delays on the rail network during the day,” he said.
The spokesman said a contract was in place for Sydney Trains to maintain the NSW TrainLink fleet and that “fleet reliability performance and priority indicators have been agreed to”.
But Greens transport spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi accused the government of prioritising the privatisation of services – like the public transport network in Newcastle – at the expense of infrastructure spending.
“The Auditor General’s report says that there is no costed infrastructure plan to meet the existing rail networks needs and it is likely that overcrowding and late trains will increase by 2019,” she said.
“The Government is obsessed by its privatisation agenda and has completely dropped the ball on the Sydney Trains network which hundreds of thousands of people rely on each day.
“They have deliberately neglected the current rail system meaning that by 2019, or even earlier, we will see significant overcrowding and more late running trains.”
