18 April, 2024
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Greens pitch free public transport to NSW voters

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All forms of public transport should be free, transport services should be put back into public hands and pets should be allowed to catch a ride too, the NSW Greens say.

The party outlined its transport policies on Friday ahead of the NSW election in March, claiming the state’s public transport system needs a reboot.

“The trains are overcrowded, the buses are slow and the ferries are too expensive,” Greens transport spokeswoman Abigail Boyd said.

“Under the Greens’ plan, public transport would be fast, affordable, accessible and reliable.”

The proposal includes allowing pets on board on all buses, trains and ferries and fast-tracking accessibility upgrades.

The party is also proposing the winding back of privatisation deals and creating more unionised jobs by supporting electric bus manufacturing.

“It’s not enough to say no more privatisation, we need to be actively working to reverse this privatisation and making a clear commitment to not renew a single contract,” Ms Boyd said.

An inquiry last year by the NSW upper house transport committee, chaired by Ms Boyd, found privatising bus routes had been a disaster and recommended they be returned to public hands.

“The community anger and frustration at the degradation of services is palpable. It is clear to us that the NSW Government’s decision to privatise these bus services has been nothing short of a disaster,” Ms Boyd wrote in her foreword of the committee’s report released in September.

But the government rejected the recommendation, saying the operators were working beyond a “one-size-fits-all model of service delivery” and offered services like high-capacity routes in some places, and on-demand routes in others.

The post Greens pitch free public transport to NSW voters appeared first on The New Daily.

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