Lismore now has 59 more bus services into and out of the city and Grafton an additional 41 services

 

Office of the NSW Member for Lismore, media release, 12 October 2020:

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin has welcomed a NSW Government announcement of an extra 59 weekly bus services in and out of the city of Lismore as a boost for local people who rely on public transport.

Ms Saffin said Acting Deputy Premier NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole, Transport for NSW, bus operators and the Lismore Public & Active Transport Working Group had kept her briefed on the additional bus services coming into effect from 25 October this year.

“I have been assuring local customers that these new bus services would be delivered as part of a promised Government program to improve transport options in 16 regional cities statewide, and I’m glad Lismore has not missed out,” Ms Saffin said.

“These new weekday and weekend services are available across longer operating hours and are aimed at improving connectivity with work and industrial areas of North and South Lismore, Lismore Base Hospital, Lismore TAFE, Southern Cross University and local shopping centres.

“I welcome my Parliamentary colleague in the Upper House Ben Franklin MLC’s announcement of more trips on the 688 ‘Late-Nighter’ service from Goonellabah to Lismore on Saturday evenings, and new trips to popular destinations on Sundays.”

Updated timetable information will be available from 12 October to plan your trip. Please visit https://transportnsw.info/.

Information about the new bus timetable across Lismore, school services and fares is available on the operator’s webpage https://www.buslinesgroup.com.au/northern-rivers-maps-timetables

For more information about the NSW Government’s 16 Regional Cities Services Improvement Program visit

www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projects/programs/16-regional-cities-program.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES

Route 682: Lismore to Goonellabah via Southern Cross University

Better connections with the services to North and South Lismore on weekdays

Additional trip on weekday evenings

Additional trip on Saturday midday

Additional trips on Saturday afternoons until 5.30pm

New trips on Sundays from 8.30am to 5pm

Route 683: Lismore to Lismore Heights via Southern Cross University

Additional trip on weekday early mornings with connection to North and South

Lismore

Additional trip on Saturday mornings

Additional trips on Saturday afternoons until 5pm

New trips on Sundays from 9am to 4pm

Route 684: Lismore to South Lismore via East Lismore

Extension of early morning trip to commence from Lismore Base Hospital

Additional trips to the industrial area in North and South Lismore on weekday

afternoons

Additional trips on Saturdays until 5pm

Route 685: Lismore to Goonellabah via Lismore Base Hospital & Lismore Heights

Better connections with the services to North and South Lismore on weekdays

Additional trip on weekday evenings

Additional trip on Saturday midday

Additional trips on Saturday afternoons until 4pm

Route 688 (Late-Nighter)

New trips on Saturdays early in the evening, travelling from Goonellabah to Lismore

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clarence Valley has also received an extra 41 bus services, however Lower Clarence residents shouldn't get too excited as the weekday two and a half hour wait between buses remains:

Newbus route changes

Route 373
• Extend weekday hours from 8:01am to 6:42am by introducing one additional trip on all weekday mornings starting at Spring St at Zuber Lane, South Grafton
• Extend weekday hours from 5:10pm to 6:10pm by introducing one additional trip on all weeknights
• Introduce a new weekday morning service at 10:46am to enhance morning service level
• Introduce a new Saturday service – 3 new trips at 9:40am, 12:40pm and 14:40pm

Route 374
• Extend weekday hours from 7:40pm to 9:20pm by introducing one additional trip on all weeknights
• All services after 5:30pm on a weekday will operate along Bimble Avenue, to provide consistency along the route throughout the day
• Extend Saturday hours from 5:13pm to 9:13pm by providing 3 additional trips at 6:13pm, 7:13pm and 9:13pm

Route 378
• Extend the weekday route 4:25pm inbound service (school holiday period only) to finish in Grafton CBD (Prince St at Fitzroy St)
• Extend the weekday route 7:18am outbound service (school holiday period only) to start in Grafton CBD (Grafton Fire Station, Prince St)

Route 380
• Extend weekday hours from Grafton to Yamba from 5:50pm by one hour to provide the last service at 6:50pm
• Extend weekday hours from Yamba to Grafton from 6:06pm by nearly two hours to provide the last service at 7:57pm
• Extend current Saturday 12:48pm service from Grafton to operate to Yamba, and 11:16am service from Yamba to operate to Grafton, reducing the gap between services from 5 hours to 3 hours
• Extend Saturday evening service from Grafton to Yamba by 2 hours by providing 1 additional service departing Grafton at 6:25pm
• Extend Saturday evening service from Yamba to Grafton by nearly 2 hours through an additional service departing Yamba at 7:32pm

Route 375A
• Introduce an additional trip on Saturday evenings at 6:52pm

NSW Labor MLA Janelle Saffin supports rail trail and keeping options open for a return to rail

 

Office of the NSW Member for Lismore, media release, 30 September 2020:

Saffin supports rail trail and keeping options open for a return to rail

LISMORE MP Janelle Saffin has always supported a rail trail for the Northern Rivers as well as a Regional Integrated Transport Plan which includes keeping our rail corridor in public ownership for future rail services – light rail or a Very Fast Train.

Ms Saffin said she had never shied away from this dual position and it was a shame that some commentary on the Transport Administration Amendment (Closures of Railway Lines in Northern Rivers) Bill 2020 was causing division across the community.

“My focus in Parliament last week was on ensuring that the Bill maintained the rail corridor in public hands, able to be brought back to train use without obstacles,” Ms Saffin said.

“I negotiated two amendments with NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole (who introduced the Bill) that strengthened this so I find it perplexing that some people feel the need to attack me and plan to protest outside my office.

“These amendments passed in the Legislative Assembly. The view I had heard many express was that the one-page Bill contained nothing unexpected.

“The Bill is now with the Legislative Council which in October will review and debate it in detail.”

Ms Saffin said that when she was Federal Member for Page, rail trail advocates came to her, and even though it was a State issue, she told them that sounded fine but the rail corridor must remain in public ownership no matter what.

The then Page MP ran a community petition which achieved this goal and while Ms Saffin could not promise to bring back the train, she helped secure funding for a Regional Integrated Transport Plan which included rail transport as an option for the Northern Rivers and the Mid North Coast.

Ms Saffin said she went to the 2019 State election on the public record as supporting the rail trail so this was ‘no big secret’ and she had clearly restated her long-standing commitment to ensuring the rail corridor was protected.

While a few Greens Party members are predicting Ms Saffin will lose the next State election in 2023 because of her support for the Rail Trail Bill, Ms Saffin said this sounded more like political posturing.

“New South Wales has a preferential voting system. Yes, The Greens and Labor exchange preferences but I am not a Green; I shape and make Labor policy based on Labor values of fairness and equity,” Ms Saffin said.

“I meet with and listen to all sides and try my hardest to do what is best for our region.”

There were two Labor Opposition amendments put to the NSW Legislative Assembly with regard to the Transport Administration Amendment (Closures of Railway Lines in Northern Rivers) Bill 2020. Both were agreed to.

Amendment c2020-137A made clearer the bill's intent that the land within the rail corridor between Crabbes Creek and Condong and between Casino and Bentley remain in public ownership and, Amendment c2020-131B outlined the uses to which the land could be put.

The bill passed the NSW Legislative Council on 23 September 2020 with these amendments intact.

Lack of public facilities such as transport in rural and regional Oz

Last year the local community of ***** (name removed) buried young ****** (name removed).


***** hanged himself out of despair. Centrelink hounded him.

In order to pacify Centrelink ***** drove everywhere to find work, often in an unregistered vehicle as he had not the means to pay for registration.

Individuals like ***** end up driving, often without a licence, and more often in unregistered vehicles. The seeds of criminality begin this way, from despair.

Truth is, this is not an isolated incident.

Over to you Mr Rudd et al.

Source: Read this

Rees Government wants to sell-off NSW rail transport options?

Anyone living in rural and regional New South Wales on a limited budget knows how important the last vestiges of public transport are when it comes to accessing health care and maintaining family contact, let alone being able to shop with wider choice of goods or competitive prices.

The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW has been pointing out the advantages of regional rail for years.

So it is with some dismay that I realised that the Rees Government is seeking to pave the way to sell-off an estimated 3,000 klms of existing and closed rail corridors - corridors which should remain in the future public transport planning mix if only on the grounds of social equity and climate change mitigation.

This legislative move has been described by others as a fire sale for developers and this would not be an inaccurate description.

There is one NSW North Coast Federal MP, Labor's Janelle Saffin, who is doing something about one closed rail corridor in the Page electorate according to The Far North Coaster on 3 October 2009.

If you don't want a For Sale billboard on the Casino to Murwillumbah line you can sign a petition asking that this line be quarantined and kept in public ownership until the completion of the Integrated Regional Transport Plan for the Northern Rivers and south-east Queensland:

The petition can be signed at Ms Saffin's electorate office – 63 Molesworth Street, Lismore – during normal business hours or when her mobile office visits the Lismore Car Boot Market this Sunday.

She has also arranged for Minister Campbell's office to accept separate emailed letters of protest.

These can be sent to david@campbell.minister.nsw.gov.au and should be copied to Ms Saffin's policy adviser peter.ellem@aph.gov.au

Casino set for railway revolution

Moving freight by rail rather than road ... how sensible!


CASINO is on the cusp of a railway renaissance, with a development application to build a $10 million rail terminal about to be lodged with the Richmond Valley Council.

The terminal, which will be built on land next to the Casino Saleyards by the end of 2010, promises to reduce road freight by 150 trucks per day.

The Northern Star reports:

The terminal will connect to the main rail line and from there freight will travel to destinations and ports around Australia.

With the capacity to load two 750m long trains or a single 1550m train, it is expected one short train will depart for Brisbane daily and one long train will head southward to Sydney or Melbourne every two to three days.

Phillip Imrie, the Sydney-based engineer behind the proposal, said the terminal represented the future of freight in Australia.

An industrial estate will form part of the terminal. From there, businesses will be able to load goods directly onto waiting trains.

The Casino branch of the stockfeed company Riverina currently brings in more than 100,000 tonnes of grain and protein from Northern NSW and South-East Queensland every year by road.

“A facility such as this would give us access to southern grain markets which are currently cost prohibitive by road,” branch manager Col Shelton said.

Stage one of the terminal will employ 10 to 20 people on a full-time basis, although more will be working during the construction phase.

Mr Imrie said the terminal was likely to attract new businesses to Casino and this would bring more jobs.

Richmond Valley Council general manager Brian Wilkinson said the council was very keen to see the proposal go ahead and supported the overall concept.

Source: The Northern Star

Saffin calls Hartsuyker on his scaremongering but diplomatically ignores Williamson's dog whistles.

The Labor Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, quite rightly called the Nationals Member for Cowper on his scaremongering about the fate of regional airline services on the NSW North Coast.
In particular, services operating out of the Grafton airport and access to Sydney Airport.

She should have also taken a swipe at Nationals protégée, Clarence Valley Mayor and 2GF breakfast disc jockey, Richie Williamson, who dutifully echoed Hartsuyker in The Daily Examiner on 19 March:

This week Clarence Mayor Richie Williamson raised concerns that a recommendation from Sydney Airports Corporation Ltd to a Federal Government green paper on the future of Sydney Airport could force regional airlines to use Bankstown Airport.

His dog whistles in the local media are becoming a little too obvious - The Daily Examiner frontpage headline last Tuesday Mayor fights for Rex to stay was based on a superfluous piece of nonsense from the mayor as the Rex Airlines decision to continue services (around 60,000 seats per year since 2007) was made weeks ago and was well-known to the valley if not formally announced.

Here on the North Coast we expect to read that old chestnut about loss of air services whenever a local politician wants a few column inches.

Unfortunately for Mayor Williamson we are also very aware that levels of patronage for Grafton Airport (on which continuing services depend) have as much to do with lack of public transport to and from this airport as they have with timetables or ticket costs.
That public servants and business representatives arriving in the Clarence Valley are often astonished to find themselves stranded after landing, at an airport with no permanent taxi or hire car presence and no buses (taxis can of course be arranged through the flight hostess if you happen to be aware of these difficulties).
Clarence Valley Council has studiously avoided facing this ongoing problem as did the cluster of smaller councils it replaced.

It has not escaped local attention either that Sydney Airport Corporation Limited would love the chance of a limited congestion fix by re-routing regional airlines away from its airspace and so had taken the opportunity to express its view in a submission on the Aviation Green Paper.

However the fact remains that both the previous federal government and the Rudd Government through the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government gave commitments to ensure regional airline have access to Sydney Airport.

The currrent minster told the House in March 2008:

And the third objective of the current act is to guarantee access for operators of New South Wales regional services by establishing a ring fence around the slots held by regional operators to Sydney airport at the onset of the demand management regime.

The Sydney Airport Demand Management Amendment Act 2008 came into effect in January 2009.

It is interesting to note that for all Mayor Williamson's expressed concern, Clarence Valley Council appears to be one of those local government areas having an airport which did not bother to make an individual submission on the green paper.
Thereby ignoring an opportunity to lobby the minister and his department on behalf of residents' interests, unlike Ballina Shire Council which did take advantage of this opportunity.

Snail-paced travel reform in NSW

At long last pensioners living in the Clarence Valley and other parts of rural and regional NSW are about to receive some sort of equity with their counterparts who reside in Sydney and its hinterland.

The Daily Examiner (3/1/2008) reports:

North Coast Busways customers will be able to buy $2.50 Regional Excursion Daily (RED) tickets from tomorrow.

RED tickets will provide pensioners with unlimited travel within the local route bus network. They will be sold by bus drivers.

People with a valid Australian Government Pensioner Concession Card, NSW Seniors card or a War Widowers card are eligible for the tickets.

Contact South Grafton Busways depot on 6642 2954 for more details.


Why, one must ask, has it taken the NSW Government so long to extend to the pensioners of rural and regional NSW bus travel concessions that have been available for what seems like donkey's years in the Sydney metropolitan area and more recently in the area that stretches from the Hunter, via the Blue Mountains, to the Illawarra?