The Minns Labor Government’s signature Tangara refurbishment plan is woefully behind schedule, leaving commuters facing a significant reliability gap into the late 2020s and 2030s.
Analysis undertaken by the Opposition shows:
- The refurbishment is up to three years behind schedule, three years into the program. Originally promised to be complete by 2027 now won’t occur until 2029 or 2030.
- Despite claims the first refurbished Tangara has been servicing commuters since 4 September; it can be revealed it has only worked for five total days and has been withdrawn from service since 17 September for undisclosed reasons.
- There are only four Tangara trains currently being worked on.
- By March 2027, nearly three years since the original commitment, the Government only plans to have a total of four out of the 55 trains refurbished.
The delays to the refurbishment program follow questions about the timeline to deliver the new Tangara fleet in the Hunter.
Despite promises by Transport Secretary John Murray the new fleet will be ready by the ‘early 2030s’ comparison to other train programs reveal that commitment is highly unlikely to be met.
In answering questions in Parliament, Transport Minister John Graham was unable to confirm if the manufacturing jobs promised by the Hunter plan would be operating by the 2031 election.
Should the building of the new Tangara fleet face delays, under the Government’s plan it will take the Minns Government nearly 17 years to deliver one new train fleet from coming to office.
Shadow Minister for Transport Natalie Ward said the Tangara program was embarrassingly off track and questioned if the Government’s transport policy was about social media posts or commuters.
“Three years in and their signature program is three years behind schedule. It will take seven years in office to leave commuters with a refurbished train older than most of the people riding it,” Ms Ward said.
“For commuters this means reliability gaps and worse services on an older train. Nostalgia doesn’t get commuters to work on time or get people to use public transport – reliable modern services do.”
“The focus needs to be on commuters who want to get on trains and get to their destination on time.”