Mayor Steve Christou said several years ago the State Government ceased running express trains on the Granville line, resulting in significantly increased travel times to the city with an average 35-minute commute now taking close to an hour with full trains bursting at the seams.
“This is completely unacceptable for residents in our community,” he said.
“For the past four years, the council and I have maintained a strong voice advocating on behalf of Cumberland City residents to the NSW Government to reinstate Granville’s express train line, however, despite council’s efforts, there has been no improvement for our residents who continue to struggle each and every day for their public transport needs.”
The Mayor said that as part of the More Trains, More Services program, the NSW Government changed the train routes available to commuters – ultimately cut the number of express train services stopping at Granville, Auburn and Lidcombe stations.
“In July and September of 2019, the council wrote to the Government to address the fewer services but in response, Transport and Roads ruled out any urgent changes,” he said.
“That response is unacceptable and our residents deserve better.”
The council will write to the NSW Premier, and Minister of Transport and Roads, again urging them to reinstate express train services in the Cumberland City Council area.”
Community advocate Roydon Ng said stations in Cumberland had suffered from the most cuts to trains in Sydney since 2013 and it’s time that our community was heard.
“Regents Park and Berala should have direct trains to the City via Inner West Line restored now (without having to wait until 2024) as Transport for NSW admitted that there is enough capacity currently on existing infrastructure for such service to be in operation,” he said.
