Article: 'Politics played' with trains, trams

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

'Politics played' with trains, trams

'Politics played' with trains, trams
Melissa Fyfe
October 3, 2010

THE state government played politics with the running and contracting of the privatised public transport system to the detriment of commuters, according to senior executives of the former operators.

The Yarra Trams and Connex executives, who ran Melbourne's privatised trams and trains for a decade, have also criticised the government for failing to plan for the large rise in passenger numbers after 2005. One of the government's major transport plans, said a Connex executive, was ''a grab bag of projects''.

In interviews with Melbourne University transport academic John Stone, the former operators said the government wanted public transport problems at arms-length and used the companies as a ''shield'' as voters became increasingly frustrated following the 2006 election.

Former Connex executive chairman Jonathan Metcalfe told Dr Stone most of Connex's effort had gone into ''maintaining and developing its partnership with the government and the department, at the expense of developing a relationship with customers''.

Connex and Yarra Trams lost the multibillion-dollar tram and train tenders last year. In the interviews, Mr Metcalfe and former Yarra Trams boss Dennis Cliche reveal publicly for the first time their private belief that they lost the lucrative tenders at least partly due to politics.

They believe the choice to dump the two companies was based not on the quality of bids but the government's desire to present to voters a ''clean slate''. The government denies this, saying the tender was a competitive process run by the Transport Department, not ministers.

Mr Cliche told The Sunday Age that while he suspected the government was after a clean slate, no one would ever publicly confirm that. ''But it's a beneficial outcome for the government to say it is a clean slate, a bunch of new operators and a new beginning,'' he said.

In his interview, Mr Cliche points to the successful tram tenderer Keolis. The French transport company was focused on the train contract but was encouraged by the government to also bid for the trams, as Yarra Trams was, at one point, the only bidder. Keolis turned out to be the surprise winner of the tram contract and Hong Kong's MTR Corporation and its partners took over the trains.

Mr Cliche told Dr Stone it was hard to get investment for trams because the Transport Department's attitude was ''get the trains out of trouble and keep the trams off the front page''. Former public transport minister Lynne Kosky was, he said, ''very unsuccessful in getting us money''.

The two men also raised planning as an issue. Both believe there needs to be a co-ordinating body that oversees the network of buses, trams and trains. Mr Metcalfe said ''the reality is that no one was planning for growth'' in the system.

The former Connex boss revealed that the company had little input into the development of the government's major transport plans, including 2006's Meeting Our Transport Challenges, which he describes as ''a grab bag of projects''.

Stephen Moynihan, a spokesman for Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula, denied the government used the operators as a shield.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the government had turned its back on the fundamentals of the system and network.