Ferry Fight Owl Research Media Conference

10.30amThursday 3 April 2008

Port Bar, ParramattaWharf

Thanks everybody for coming … and for your interest in our fight to develop a proper, full commuter ferry service between Parramatta and Sydney.

And thanks for coming to watch me re-discover my sea legs. We all may have to take to row boats, given that we might not have any ferry service at all …. if the Government decides to follow the recommendation of the Walker Report.

And that decision, one way or the other, will be made soon by the Transport Minister John Watkins.

Amazingly that decision is being made without anybody having full data on the actual patronage levels on the Parramatta Ferry.  

The Walker Report last year made its recommendations without reference to this kind of data. And when the Walker Report does use figures, like on ferry travel times and on comparable land journeys, these figures are often incorrect and misleading.

So Parramatta City Council was pleased to deliver to the Minister this week the report – and the figures – we release today from OWL Research. It is a comprehensive, objective and independent survey. It shows the current demand for the current service. It’s also a survey of how that demand would grow if Sydney Ferries delivered a full commuter service which was regular and customer focused.

The Walker Report dismisses the Parramatta service as only a tourism service.

How can it be anything else? It just doesn’t run at times when commuters go back and forth to work!

OWL Research interviewed almost a 1000 people up and down Parramatta River.

It found that 9 in ten people support Council’s campaign to maintain our ferry service.

It also found that 72% said they could consider using the Parramatta ferry service if it ran from 6am to 7.30pm.

16% of people said they would even consider moving employment to Parramatta if that ferry service was increased.

But the Walker Report recommends that the ferry service run just between Circular Quay and Rydalmere. The whole ferry service infrastructure along Parramatta River would be maintained … but cut off at its head, eliminating this last link into what is Sydney’s second city.

Now this is madness.  The research we release today reveals that after Sydney City, Parramatta Wharf just here … is the most frequently patronised wharf along the whole River.

Meanwhile we are waiting for whatever patronage figures Sydney Ferries can provide. Perhaps it doesn’t have them. But Council has made three Freedom of Information requests.  One is on the patronage of the Parramatta service.  Another is the cost /person/trip for the service …and I hope that response will compare the Parramatta costs with other Sydney ferry services and, indeed, with the cost of maintaining other comparable transport infrastructures.

We hope to get answers to both these requests either this week or next. So watch this space.

An answer has just come in from our third FOI request, about the reliability of the existing service… that’s the record of the amount of delays and cancellations to the Parramatta service. The answer is …. not a great record of reliability.

In the last four years, 2004 – March 2008, 1640 ferry trips to Parramatta were either cancelled or delayed. And that only notes the delays leaving Sydney City: there is no record of delays in actually arriving at Parramatta Wharf.  

But even without this, it seems City Rail runs like clockwork compared to Sydney Ferries. No wonder passengers, even leisure travellers during the day, think twice before using the service.

OWL Research reveals three things people want if patronage is to grow still further.

They want an evening service. 70% of people interviewed said they would use the ferry more if there was an extended evening service. They want an increase in the peak hour frequency of the service. And at the wharves they want some real time information. Not surprisingly, they want to know whether the ferry they’re waiting for is actually coming!

These are relatively minor adjustments which with a bit of customer focus could take an important and iconic service and transform it into a dynamic busy commuter service.  We are blessed already with the infrastructure of a ferry service, the river, the wharves, the boats and the investment made 15 fifteen years ago.

But like all transport infrastructure, it is time to upgrade the RiverCat service.

It’s time to employ new ferry technology to reduce environmental impacts.

It’s time to expand this asset into a vital commuter link, to make it part of a fully integrated transport system appropriate for Western Sydney in the 21^st Century.

The need to invest in all transport infrastructure, whatever its form, seems a long and painful lesson for this Government. The Walker Report would have the Government just shut this service down.  

Where is the transport planning for the future growth in population and industry, as ear-marked for Parramatta by the Government’s own Metropolitan Strategy?

And where’s the acknowledgement of other Government policies on transport, planning and environment?

The Department of Planning sees the need for the ferry as part of our transport solutions.  It knows the projections: with 30,000 more jobs and 20,000 more residents slated for Parramatta within 20 years. And so many more people will be living and commuting along the Parramatta River corridor.

One final irony before I finish! My Council in September will deliver a free shuttle bus service around our city, linking the Transport Interchange and other key destinations around the city.

The new buses will of course stop at Parramatta Wharf. We were unable to get any funding support from the Government for the buses. By September we will know whether the ferries are going too, whether the buses will be stopping at an empty wharf!

I ask you, what sort of integrated transport system is that?

Have a good look at this research. It identifies considerable demand for the ferry.

It reveals a huge new potential market.

And it shows how fundamental this service is to the tourism, retail and entertainment economy of Parramatta.

This city is the wining and dining hub of Western Sydney and the ferry is a part of that unique experience and access. The ferry is also a vital part of our heritage tourism experience – just as singular as was river transport to those first settlers who did the historic voyage from olde Sydney Town. Council in fact calculates that the ferry alone delivers in tourism $8.2 million a year into our local economy.

Most of all, this research shows that Council’s determined campaign to have this ferry service developed – and not axed – has overwhelming support.