Establish a Hunter Transport Authority
Hunter Greens
18 January 2007
Establish a Hunter Transport Authority: Greens fight to ensure that the Hunter doesn’t miss the Bus
Greens candidates from across the Hunter have called for the establishment of a locally-controlled Hunter Regional Integrated Transport Authority to develop an Integrated Transport Plan for the Hunter.
Councillor Michael Osborne, Greens candidate for Newcastle said: “Too often decisions about the transport in our region are made in Sydney, whether it is about changing bus timetables or the future of our rail line. We still don’t have integrated timetabling between buses, trains and ferries and we still don’t have proper integrated ticketing.”
Jane Smith, Greens candidate for Charlestown said: “It’s time that the profits from local public transport were not siphoned off by the Sydney-centred State Government to prop up Sydney’s crumbling transport system, and instead were used in innovative ways to improve our own.”
Councillor Keith Parsons, Greens candidate for Wallsend said: “Transport in the Hunter is backward and arguably the worst in Australia. It is bedevilled by low service standards, multiple operators, lack of planning, coordination and integration, poor infrastructure and a lack of recognition of local government. The Hunter has the highest bus fares in Australia.”
Charmian Eckersley, Greens candidate for Port Stephens said: “There should be an Integrated Transport Plan developed by local expertise and encompassing the whole of the Hunter. With a population of 500,000, the Hunter is a genuinely self contained regional area. The Plan needs to include public transport to the airport from Newcastle and Port Stephens.”
Councillor James Ryan, Greens candidate for Cessnock said: “It is scandalous that the Lower Hunter Regional Strategy recently released by Sydney Labor did not include a transport plan. Most areas designated for new residential opportunities in the Strategy are not near areas identified for employment. This guarantees that the distance travelled by cars and the number of people travelling by car will increase. There is no provision made for public transport.”
Jan Davis, Greens candidate for Maitland said: “The State Government seems incapable of making sensible decisions for the future. If the budgets of the Roads and Traffic Authority, State Rail and the Buses and Ferries were combined into a single authority then we could truly get integrated decision-making.”
The Greens candidates from across the region met at a regional meeting in Newcastle at the weekend and were addressed by Hunter transport planner, Len Regan.
