Chamber welcomes creation of Transport Tsar

3 June 2010

NSW’s largest business organisation, NSW Business Chamber, has welcomed the creation of a single transport agency to coordinate all NSW public transport services and roads in NSW.

NSW Business Chamber called for the creation of a Transport Tsar to take control of NSW’s 15 transport agencies as part of its pre-election blueprint, “10 Big Ideas to Grow NSW”.

“The decision to centralise NSW’s 15 disparate transport agencies under one Director General with a single budget is a victory for commonsense,” said Stephen Cartwright, CEO of NSW Business Chamber.

“The community is tired of haphazard transport planning and the blame game that occurs between transport agencies when something goes wrong such as the recent F3 debacle.  A single transport agency should eliminate these problems and focus these agencies on one priority – the delivery of reliable and effective transport.

“Businesses are paying for congestion through lost productivity, increased fuel costs, and lost business opportunities.

“We need this new Transport Tsar to hit the ground running and get these transport agencies like the RTA, Railcorp, State Transit and Sydney Ferries working together to deliver better transport outcomes for business owners and commuters.

Mr Cartwright said that the single transport agency’s responsibility should be expanded to include the creation of a transport demand strategy for Sydney’s transport network.

“We want a Transport Tsar responsible for putting in place a transport demand strategy – a strategy that will use what we already have in transport infrastructure more effectively.”

Mr Cartwright said that the Transport Tsar could introduce a range of measures to spread the peak including:

• Trialling 10am starting school hours for high school students;
• Variable tolling – implementing peak, shoulder and off-peak pricing;
• Variable pricing of public transport - peak, shoulder and off-peak;
• Public sector employees encouraged to start work during non-peak periods;
• Private sector incentives to shift hours away from traditional working hours;
• Incentives to encourage car pooling;
• Greater use of GPS, web and app technology to assist in trip planning; and
• Encourage greater housing density close to employment areas.

“A ‘business as usual’ approach to transport is not good enough. It’s time to introduce a new approach to transport, with a Transport Tsar responsible for putting in place a demand strategy for our transport network.”