The re-election of the NSW Government should result in a pleasing level of investment in transport
The New South Wales state election saw the Liberal and National parties return to Government, with Mike Baird re-elected as NSW Premier on Saturday.
BusNSW executive director Darryl Mellish says he would like to congratulate the Liberal and National government.
“Transport services and infrastructure were important platforms for both major parties,” he says.
“The Baird government has been successful in initiating new transport infrastructure and we welcome this continuing.”
Mellish is confident the government will maintain its efforts to invest in bus transport in Sydney and throughout rural NSW.
“As per BusNSW election campaign it is hoped that this will involve greater use of Bus and Coach services, and not just focus on metal tracks for moving people – the signs are positive for this,” Mellish says.
The new NSW Minister of Transport should be announced later this week.
“Gladys Berijiklian has been a very good transport Minister and, if she does not stay in this portfolio, we look forward to whoever takes on the role supporting the importance of effective industry engagement with both the Minister and NSW management,” Mellish says.
It is hoped that the new regional NSW bus contracts will be an important focus for the new government, now the election has passed.
“Negotiation of these contracts were put on hold until after the election,” Mellish says.
“With the election campaign from the Baird Government confirming the commitment to partnership with industry we look forward to resolving new rural and regional bus service contracts to underpin high quality bus and coach services in country areas.
“The support from National Party members for minimum service levels in and around NSW country towns can now be delivered by new contracts, with the knowledge of support from all sides of politics.”
Bus NSW will be watching closely to see if organisational structures within the government will be altered, which some believe may result in more efficient processes.
“It will be interesting to see if there are any changes in the NSW Government Transport Cluster (various government departments/entities) currently overseen by two Ministers, as there have been mixed views on how effective the different policy and operating units have been under this current model,” Mellish says
“There is an opportunity to consider how the changes to the old RTA (now RMS) are working for NSW in delivering service outcomes in view of the commitment to franchise poles-wires to facilitate investment in greater infrastructure and services.”