Is there a way for the citizens of NSW to force an election with a vote of no confidence or something… I can’t believe we’ve got to wait until 2011.

Anyway, you clearly haven’t understood the government’s point. If it costs more if must be worth more and therefore a better service, so increasing prices is all they need to do to improve the service.

There is so much wastage on Cityrail. Take the person who stands on the platform with the flag to give the all clear for the train to leave. He stands about a foot away from the guard who can also see all the way up and down the platform, and there are systems on the train to stop it from moving when the doors are open… Then of course there’s his mate who sits around having a cup of tea waiting to do the same job on the other platform (the flag man on platform 1 hasn’t done the requisite OH&S course to work on platform 2). And they’ll both be on shifts which mean their required break comes up in the middle of the morning peak, so you’ll have to employ four people to cover for them. And why have 1 person hanging around the ticket barriers at Central to help people when you can have 4 plus 6 transit officers. Cynical?

It’s the same in the railways the world over though. In London they built the Docklands Light Rail in the early 90′s which had a really clever signalling and warning system which meant that there was no need to have a driver. The trains were all controlled centrally. The unions hated this of course and within a few years, the trains all had “drivers” who now stand there pressing “door open” “door close” and “start” as there’s no other driving for them to do as it’s still controlled centrally. Madness.

I’m all for privatisation – but it only really works where there is competition. On the railways it is difficult to achieve as there cannot be competition on a particular rail route, but there can be competition against other modes of transport. The government has to have the balls to let the railways fail and let the market sort it out if they are badly managed. However there are so many other agendas involved that they won’t let them fail so within a few years they’ll be handing out as much in subsidy (no, sorry, investment) to the new private company as they were before.

We’re about to get rid of a few politicians here, want em? cheap!

As for privitisation, I wouldn’t mind so much if it were done like the Melbourne model, where the private corporations pay the government if they don’t perform. Unlike our myriad of PPPs where the government pays them. Now that’s f**kin’ stupid.