I think a major factor contributing to the high number of petition
signatures is Treasury/Transport's ongoing and longstanding antipathy
towards public bus transport in the Eastern Suburbs.  Going back even to
the outrageous "Better Buses East" fiasco and the accompanying lies
which saw an 18% across the board cut in local bus services even though
the spin generators were saying how much better bus services would be. 
There has been a great deal of agitation, supported by local politicians
from both sides of politics and even with this level of support
additional services have only been augmented when services are
hopelessly overcrowded.  I once, after visiting my local Member of
Parliament, had to wait outside her Double Bay office for an hour and 45
minutes (5:30 pm to 7:15 pm) to get on a bus as all the previous buses
sailed past full and not picking up.

No one in the Region 9 area believes that the privitisation of the
operation of local bus services will in any way improve the services. 
In preparation for the 'new' order we have already seen the
disappearance of the direct 389 bus service (the one that replaced the
Bondi via Bellevue tram) linking North Bondi/Bellevue Hill/Woollahra to
St Vincent's Hospital, the diversion of the 379 (Bronte tram) service
from the Oxford Street/Railway corridor to North Bondi (7Ways) which has
had a major adverse impact on Bronte/Waverley commuters, the break up of
the 400 Bondi Junction/Airport/Rockdale route and a plethora of changes
to cross country bus services NOT related to the CSELR interchanges.

The people of the East fought to keep their trams as they knew that the
'improved' service was an illusion, as it proved to be. They have seen
the lies and retrograde 'improved' bus services in the Inner West and
hence the extent of petitioners.  They are not against light rail they
are against incompetence in public transport provision and the
transparent spin they are being exposed to.

Greg

On 14/10/2021 7:06 pm, TP wrote:
> I see that the local political campaign against diverting buses to

> interchange with the light rail has taken on new energy with the

> arrival of Rob Stokes as a new Transport Minister to be persuaded. The

> total number of signatures on petitions has now risen over 80,000.

> This is over half the total population of Randwick and probably much

> of the commuting population! So tell me now that people will prefer a

> tram over a bus any time.

>

> I think it's more complex than just the mode. The tram seems to now

> satisfy most users within its own catchment. The discontent comes with

> the curtailing of through buses, exacerbated by the slowness of the

> tram service, which means a much longer journey when interchange time

> is taken into account. It doesn't have to be thus, as many European

> (non French) tram operations demonstrate. With new occupants in key

> Ministerial portfolios, it will be interesting to see where this

> heads. The restructure was supposed to have been finalised before the

> end of this year.

>

> Tony P

>