Tuesday, 10 September 2019

 Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (18:11): My matter for the adjournment is for Minister Horne, the Minister for Public Transport in the other place, and it concerns the process around the development of a new suburban rail timetable. People will be aware that Minister Horne is developing a suburban rail timetable, and this ought to, in my view, be subject to broad community consultation. This ought to not be a secretive process; it ought to be a process that involves community input.

We know that the performance of the rail system has deteriorated in recent years. It is now much worse in terms of punctuality and reliability than it was in 2014. We also know that at a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing in the recent estimates cycle Minister Horne sought to be vague and make out that she knew nothing about the new timetable and the arrangements around it.

She was asked some very, very specific questions about the timetable changes. My information, which I believe is very, very reliable on these matters, indicates that one of the reasons the timetabling changes have been shelved until next year is that they will lead to a further deterioration in the service to the community. In fact most journeys are 1 or 2 minutes longer. So short journeys, perhaps to South Yarra or somewhere like that, are going up from just a few minutes by 1 or 2 minutes. Long journeys are also going up by a couple of minutes. If you think of that, that adds up to quite a lot. It might be up to 4 minutes a day, up to 20 minutes a week—a direct impact on the lifestyle and choices of many people who rely on our train system. So I think it is imperative that Minister Horne releases the draft timetable and seeks broad consultation on it. It is not good enough to try and sweep it away. It is not good enough to put it away for 12 months and to say, ‘Oh, no, the community and commuters should not see it’.

We have seen that huge surge in the number of passengers—almost 15 million over the last five years—annually on our metro train system, and we have seen the huge squash, the squeeze, that is there. We have seen on the edge of the city particularly the stations facing real challenges to cope, and our major metro stations. It is quite vital I think that the government understands what is occurring here. People are being squashed on the trains. The performance of the system has declined. We have seen $2 billion spent on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, and yet performance has plummeted on those lines. Performance is worse than it has ever been, so I say the minister needs to release her secret draft timetable and the community must have input into it. Please release it, Minister.