A Small Inconvenience !

It sounds like a classic fiasco.  We are spending $1.3 billion to replace the present fleet of River Cat ferries and the new boats will not comfortably fit under two bridges on the journey to Parramatta. But it is not as serious as it sounds !

This deficiency was clearly understood at the time the new ferries were under consideration and it was a matter of buying boats from the plans readily available, or spending millions more to have new designs drawn up, costed and which would have taken years longer to create at a much higher price.

The problem is two bridges close to Parramatta city and it means those seated on the top deck will need to vacate and move to a lower deck when the ferries pass under the Camellia railway bridge and the Gas Works bridge - at high tide.  This inconvenience will simply occur twice each day and it is only a safety precaution.

It is interesting to compare the new ferries seating with the soon to be replaced  River Cats which each seat 250 people.    The new ferries have capacity for 200 and this includes 122 seated inside,  18 outdoor seats on the lower deck - and just `10 seats on the upper deck which might need to be vacated at times of high tide.

Ten of the new ferries are on order and  and four have already arrived and are undergoing testing.  There are no plans to raise those bridges and for most of the day they will  not be considered a hazard to the ten passengers who will be asked to move for a brief part of their journey.

It is not as if these new ferries are to be exclusively serving the run to Parramatta.  They are replacing the ageing  River Cats, Super Cats and four charter vessels which service all destinations within Sydney Harbour.  All other destinations will not be affected by height restrictions for the small number using that upper deck.

This is all about value for money.  Some will be critical because our new ferries are not being built in Australia, but that would cost a lot more and take a longer period of time.  There is greater value in buying things like railway carriages and ferries overseas and government purchasing agents are required to get value for taxpayers dollars.  These ferries were sought on world markets and Indonesia responded with the best price consistent with value and delivery time.

Those ten upper deck seats should be considered as a bonus.  Considering the known obstacle of those bridges at Parramatta it would have been reasonable to leave the upper deck bare of seating but the decision was taken to use it to increase the passenger load and be attractive to tourists who enjoy taking photographs of the passing scenery.

Sydney is about to get a classy new breed of ferries and shortly the new names for each vessel will be announced.  We will quickly get used to that upper deck vacation requirement and regulars using the ferries to Parramatta will get into the habit of knowing the tidal movements as a matter of course.

A small inconvenience in making use of our glorious waterways to combat the commuter snarl of the city road system.