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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3654 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Substitute:

notes the critical importance of having a good rail link between Canberra and Sydney for the people of the ACT and the surrounding region;

criticises the NSW Government for the cancellation of rail services in August and April of this year and for cancelling the morning service from Canberra to Sydney and the evening service from Sydney and Canberra;

notes, with grave concern, proposals put forward by the NSW Ministerial Inquiry into Sustainable Transport to replace some Countrylink Services with buses including the Sydney-Canberra route;

notes that the Government is preparing a submission to the Interim Report into the Ministerial Inquiry into Public Passenger Transport (The Parry Report), released by the NSW Minister for Transport on 8 September;

notes that the Chief Minister has already written to the NSW Premier seeking retention of the rail services between Sydney and Canberra;

notes that, for the past three and a half years, the Government has been engaged in negotiations to secure a service level agreement for the provision of rail services; and

calls on the Government to continue its efforts to secure an appropriate service that includes a morning service from Canberra to Sydney and a return evening service.

MR STEFANIAK (5.48): Mr Speaker, I will speak to the amendments to date and note that my colleague Mrs Dunne has another small amendment, which she will speak to. I, along with most members, have received a lot of correspondence. I was with Mrs Dunne at Kippax when she was talking to the people she mentioned. There is a lot of angst in our community about the train service. Sadly, over the last 15 years or so, a number of train services in this country-certainly in New South Wales, which surrounds us-have been cut. It is very sad that, first, the service to Bombala and then the service to Cooma were cut.

Rail can move a lot of freight. It can move a lot more freight, in a much more environmentally friendly way, than large trucks can. It is with concern that we see a lot of rail services cut on financial grounds, which are the grounds generally given. But a rail service to the national capital is essential for a number of reasons. Mrs Dunne, most eruditely, went through the history of the rail service to Canberra and the need for it.

Virtually every capital in the world has a rail service and railway lines going through it. I am not too sure about Lhasa in Tibet, although they probably do as well now. I cannot think of any country which does not have a rail service linking its capital with somewhere else, and it is mind-boggling that the New South Wales government should even contemplate ceasing such a service. As the Chief Minister says, it brings a lot of people to Canberra.

There are a lot of people who have great difficulty in travelling any other way. They may not have access to a car, or they are elderly. It is often much easier getting into a train than clambering up the steps into a bus. If they are disabled or have any sort of injury that restricts their mobility, they find it much simpler to walk onto a train. Indeed, train

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