Bob Hodge

The origin of NSW Railways lay in the private sector, but the consortium that kick-started the dream could not complete the reality. Delays in rolling stock delivery, and the sudden migration of labour to the gold fields, meant that the Sydney Railway Company lasted from its first meeting of interested businessmen in 1846 to the transfer of all its assets to the state in 1855. Some of the failed rail entrepreneurs were kept on as Commissioners for Railways, alongside new government appointees.

Mr. Henry Gilbert Smith, who commissioned and briefly ran the first steamship in Sydney, entered the NSW Upper House at the advent of responsible government. Mr. Smith served as a Railway Commissioner for the same period he served Parliament – from 1856 to 1858. This was despite a demonstrated lack of skill in the transport sector; and the fact that Upper House members were appointed for life, presumably as a corruption prevention measure.     

Putting humanities to work…

This project draws on knowledges from history, philosophy, politics, economics, law, and media and cultural studies. It applies chaos theory and complexity science to everyday problems that affect the general population and are played out in the media. The project is made up of mini-case studies -“flashpoints” identified by spikes in media coverage. These hot topics are embedded in the theoretical framework of complexity; and surrounded by broad long-term goals, like sustainable development, which is less likely to generate spikes in media attention.

…In a chaotic world…

In a complex system produced as much by geography and historical accident as forward planning, the only certainty is that some things, sometimes, will go awry. One focus is public transport. Using a three-body technique pioneered by Poincare, and inspired by the “butterfly effect” of a loose carbon strip worth $44, Professor Hodge looks at the pressures affecting individual and organisational players who can, or attempt to, influence public transport outcomes.

A small carbon strip worth $44 which was not attached properly threw Sydney’s transport network into chaos on Wednesday night, causing thousands of commuters to be trapped in trains for hours. One newspaper over two days ran three ‘chaos’ headlines on the story: There’s no excuse for rail chaos: former boss Night of chaos and garbled messages  Carbon strip caused train chaos Ticketing smartcards tend to get the complexity analysis: Tcard far too complex to work, say experts

…at the UWS Centre for Cultural Research

Corporatisation, corruption, sustainable development, government funding, political and organisational decision-making, urban sprawl walled by sea and sandstone, and a traditionally powerful blue-collar union sector: these are some of the “cultures” that have come under scrutiny.  Inspired by former RailCorp CEO Vince Graham’s comments on “maintenance culture”, Jenny Tabakoff observed that “culture” is no longer used to describe “listening to Bach or going to the theatre and art galleries”. Instead, she laments, it is “an all-purpose insult for people who have fallen behind the times and are reluctant to embrace new practices introduced by boardroom barbarians or government gorillas.”

This has become a rich descriptive source over at the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into corruption among RailCorp staff:  RailCorp’s ‘culture of cover-up’ under fireCulture way off trackCulture of forgery at RailCorp, inquiry told Although the quote marks have evaporated, the first and third “cultures” were both identified by the same counsel assisting the inquiry. Drawing on history, politics and economics 

The Sydney to Parramatta section of the Great Western Highway was the first ever main road constructed in the colony … toll booths were located near Sydney Farm (now University) and at the Duck River.

The Epping to Chatswood rail line takes in the most lucrative economic arc outside Sydney’s CBD - Macquarie Park. The cancellation of the Parramatta link means that residents north and west of Epping are locked out of public transport options, leaving the expensive, congested and cashbackless M2 motorway as the major route to the growing tech park. The cancelled 13 km line was due to cost $1.2 billion and add 15,000 passenger trips per day to the rail system. The 13 kms under construction are projected to cost $1.52 billion and add 12,000 trips.

So public transport access varies enormously across Sydney. The biggest [NSW State Plan] district is the north-west: home to 19% of the greater metropolitan population. Here, 51% of workers are 30 minutes, by public transport, from a major centre. In the north, east and inner west districts - home to less than 10% of the population each – up to 96% of workers are in the public transport ‘half-hour’ category.

In other news 

Perth has integrated smartcard ticketing. Free public transport before 7.00 am has been introduced in Melbourne. In Tokyo, department stores open at 10.00am to stagger peak hour workers and shoppers. Major centres in France bid to host an interchange for metro and very high speed rail. A mining company is spending $65 million to build over 50 kms of rail in remote Western Australia. While planning and management gurus chant “capacity constraints”, the only profitable arm of rail in Australian history - freight - was corporatised and then privatised by a NSW ALP government with the constitutional imprimatur of a national Coalition government. Even in the heart of Sydney, business - in partnership with Queensland Rail - is investing in the Yennora to Port Botany freight shuttle service. This rail line doesn’t appear on any map; but is easily traced on Google Earth.

Infrastructure projects, change, complexity and chaos 2007 – 2009. 

There is some optimism among urban planners and others that the new federal government brings hope for those who prioritise sustainable development. Others, of course, caution against haste and emotion. As Professor Bill Russell of Melbourne University has pointed out, transport infrastructure was decisively shaped by a federal policy that “ruled out” urban passenger projects from Auslink funding. The environmental implications of increasing car use were, then, essentially ignored.

Technology, ideas, funding and organisational change: these are fundamental to understanding public transport in Sydney for the long term. The state, the community, and the media each have a role in how well the public transport system is run - and perceived to be run - by those who use the system and elect the government.