Sydney ferry services face disruption during this weekend's Vivid festival after maritime unions voted to take industrial action that Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian has branded ''disgraceful''.

Ferry workers will refuse to sell or collect tickets on Saturday and Sunday between 6pm and 10pm on all Sydney services. For Manly ferries the action will take place between 6pm and 3am.

Fewer services will operate at the weekend due to overtime bans, while workers will refuse to help with charter services organised to deal with Vivid crowds. They will also refuse to operate the lights on Vivid ferry services between 7pm and 7.30pm.

The action follows a breakdown in pay negotiations between the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and the private operator, Harbour City Ferries.

The union has rejected a 9 per cent pay increase over four years and a proposal it says would see deckhands have their weekly pay cut by $500.

In a statement on Friday night, Ms Berejiklian said she was ''dismayed that the unions would choose to sabotage the Vivid festival and disrupt the journeys of so many people, including families. "I apologise in advance to customers who experience delays or disruption due to this disgraceful action.''

But MUA assistant branch secretary Paul Garrett said the union had talks with Harbour City Ferries 21 times over the past six months, including four this week.

''The union has remained committed to getting a fair outcome for ferry workers but we can't cop workers taking a $500-a-week pay cut, particularly after Tony Abbott's budget just three weeks ago,'' he said. Mr Garrett said the union was ''not on strike'' and that services would still run.

Harbour City Ferries chief executive Steffan Faurby said the company would endeavour to minimise the disruption to passengers.

Transport infrastructure planning rarely gets much more ad hoc and misleading than the Baird government's announcement this week. Or much more disdainful of the community’s intelligence.

Past “commitments” and “master plans” by the O’Farrell government have suddenly become conditional on our willingness to accept a blatant bribe. And the ostensible benefits of the proposed projects, glorious in their almost total absence of detail, hinge on the mindless repetition of old and demonstrably false assertions.

Superficially, the transport projects to be funded by the assumed $20 billion electricity privatisation magic pudding are attractive enough, at least in electoral terms: a second harbour rail crossing with three new CBD stations and a later conversion of the line to Bankstown, more “congestion attacking” toll roads in Sydney and a $1 billion “fund” for unspecified road and bridge upgradings in the bush.

It’s impossible to comment on the last of these elements, as there’s literally nothing of substance to like or dislike. But when details are provided, the first thing to check will be any double counting with existing commitments.

The timing of the harbour rail crossing project is actually a quiet backslide, not a step forward as claimed. Until Tuesday, this project was to have “followed” the completion of the North West Rail Link in 2019, and the Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian had been dropping sly hints it might start even earlier. But Premier Mike Baird now says, if his bribe is not accepted, the project “would otherwise be decades away”. And even if the bribe is accepted, there’s silence about the project’s timing.

What is being “promised” has changed, as well. There’s now no station in the northern CBD employment heartland, no inner west stations, no branch line from Sydenham to Hurstville and no extension from Bankstown to Cabramatta. The government’s 2012 Long-Term Transport Master Plan centrepiece has been gutted, probably because it would have necessitated major works to cater for displaced freight services.

Commuters will have to wait until 2017 or 2018 for two extra morning services the Baird government is promising between Parramatta and Central.

The Premier, Mike Baird, and the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, announced the extra express services on Monday alongside a pledge to spend $100 million on upgrading ferry services along the Parramatta River.

The money for ferries will buy an extra four vessels, a new wharf at Rhodes, and upgrades to eight different ferry wharves.

The modesty of the rail promise - the services are unlikely to be available for a new planned timetable in 2016 - underlines the difficulty of trying to run extra trains on Sydney's current rail network.

Ms Berejiklian said about $70 million would be spent on new signalling systems, power supply, and some extra track at Parramatta to enable the two extra morning trains.

"I anticipate it will be around 2017/2018 when these services will come on board but obviously if we can deliver them sooner we will," Ms Berejiklian said.

"We are doing everything we can to squeeze what we can out of the current network, but the real game changer for public transport will be that second harbour rail crossing."

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-state-election-2015/mike-baird-promises-new-trains-and-ferries-for-parramatta-but-you-might-have-to-wait-20150309-13yus1.html

Buying new "ferries" is usually part and parcel of running ferries... Nothing extraordinary in this, unless one is Robert Askin (Liberal — CONservative) who seemed to let buses, ferries and trains run down hill into the mud of brown paperbags. When I arrived in Sydney which was under Askin's grip (possibly corrupt but this is another story) the city was lost in a sorry before-WWII vortex... The red rattlers were still running and steam engines drove the ferries such as the South Steyne — a mighty ship of a ferry but quite inefficient... Eventually, Askin (Liberal — CONservative) was replaced by Wran (Labor) who cleaned up the place and, helped with the likes of Jack Mundey, saved a lot of historical Sydney from — you guessed who — DEVELOPERS...

Presently the Liberal (CONservative) government of Mike Baird is planning to destroy a lot more of "historical Sydney"... They are also trying their darnest to "de-Wran" the city by demolishing perfectly good PUBLIC buildings (built by the Warn Government) and selling them to — you've guessed it — DEVELOPERS... This included the world famous Power House Museum....

These guys will stop at nothing... Stop them before it's too late. Place the Liberal (CONservative) party last on your ballot papers.

See toon at top...

The New South Wales Coalition Government has attacked Labor's record on railway infrastructure.

According to Premier Mike Baird, during Labor's time in office from 1995 to 2011, a dozen new railway lines were announced, but none delivered.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-23/did-labor-fail-to-deliver-a-single-train-line3f/6276858

Of course, Baird is LYING about Labor and the railways. There were some lines delivered to the public and many NEW TRAINS, including the Tangara and Milllenium trains.

And the ABC fact checker is a bit mean by saying Baird was "overstated". BAIRD IS WRONG.  Simple... and the Fact Checker at the ABC forgets a few things.

For example Labor delivered a freight line as well. 

Should Labor made the same claims about the CONservatives, the ABC Fact-Checker would have fallen on Labor like a ton of bricks... Because it's the LIbs (CONservatives) the bloke at the Fact-Checker is using a feather... Biased? who knows... certainly in my book...

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See toon at top...

The cost of Sydney's much hyped City and Southwest Metro will blow out by as much as $3 billion, the NSW Government has conceded. 

• The City and Southwest Metro could cost $15.5 billion, but the final bill will not be known until its 2024 opening
• Opposition Leader Jodi McKay says the blowout is due to "mismanagement"
• It could also affect the Berejiklian Government's forecast $700m budget surplus

Transport Minister Andrew Constance has blamed market forces for the blowout, and said the in-demand infrastructure sector had led to increased costs from major contractors. 

The City and Southwest Metro will link Chatswood with the CBD and Bankstown, and was originally slated to cost between $11.5 billion and $12.5 billion.

The metro is now expected to cost about $15.5 billion but Mr Constance has admitted the final cost will not be known until it opens in 2024. 

Opposition Leader Jodi McKay questioned whether market forces are to blame for the cost increase.

"This is due to mismanagement," she said.

"The Government knew about this blowout when it went to the election and it didn't tell the community.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-21/nsw-government-confirms-three-bil...

Read from top.

Meanwhile:

Victoria's transport union says train drivers from the state's regional rail service had been refusing for the past week to traverse a section of track where a Sydney-to-Melbourne train derailed last night, killing two people.

• The Rail, Tram and Bus Union said the track had been awaiting maintenance
• Authorities will investigate whether a recent fire at a signalling facility is linked to the derailment
• Trains between Melbourne and the state's north experienced regular delays in the past week

The XPT train, which was carrying 153 passengers, was travelling from Sydney to Melbourne when it derailed at Wallan shortly before 8:00pm.

The train's driver, a 54-year-old ACT man, and train pilot, a 49-year-old Castlemaine woman who worked for Skilled Rail Services, were killed.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) said it was "deeply saddened by the tragic accident that has taken the life of two rail workers and unnecessarily injured many more".

"The Sydney to Melbourne XPT train derailment near Wallan Station last night occurred over a section of track over which was awaiting maintenance," RTBU state secretary Luba Grigorovitch said in a statement.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-21/wallan-train-derailment-union-say...