Sunday, October 12, 2014

Redfern lift one step closer to completion, but what about more?

We here at Transport for All NSW are happy that the single lift that the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, announced back in January, is one step closer to being built and completed for use by the General public, with Geotechnical surveys currently being undertaken.

However the fact remains that Redfern will only have one lift for the publics use and it begs the question, why can't more lifts be built at Redfern?

There are also other questions and facts which remained unanswered from the Transport Minister and we have sent through some questions pertaining to:

1) what happens to people who need to use this one single lift at Redfern when it either breaks down or is vandalised?

2) why can more lifts be built for the Bankstown line trains and the Illawarra line train platforms?

3) why can't the Minister explain why only 1 single lift will be built at such an extremely important and busy station with the inner city CBD and why can't 2 other lifts be installed on those platforms mentioned above?

It also begs the question why Sydney Trains staff, namely guards who make announcements, state for people requiring the Bankstown line and Illawarra line and need to use a lift, currently state to to change at Redfern instead of Central, which is the next fully accessible station.

It would seem to is here that the Minister hasn't really though this through and is only now rushing to the necessary paperwork before construction starts before the next election?

It would also seem that little thought and understanding have so far led to a process that gives a little thought to the long term vision and issues, instead focussing on the extremely short term vision for political survival!