For forty four years various governments of New South Wales have adhered to the policy of running double deck rail carriages on the Sydney transport system.
Why ? Because they carry twice the number of passengers than single deck carriages.
We are in the middle of a $ 9.5 billion contract to build and buy 626 new double deck carriages to relieve the chronic shortage of rolling stock that is crippling commuter use of trains.
Yesterday, Transport minister - and minister for the Illawarra - David Campbell announced a change of plan.
The state government has changed it's mind - and will now change to single deck carriages.
No reason has been given for this flight of insanity - but it will obviously cost many billions to replace the existing stock of 1600 double deck carriages, plus at least another $ 5 billion to upgrade the signalling system to accommodate the new trains.
All this at a time when the state is in a deep financial hole and has just cancelled the proposed " Metro " to service south western Sydney.
It has been stated by many that this government would be hard pressed to successfully raffle a duck !
It might be an act of kindness if it resigned, called an early election and retired it's ministers to a psychiatric institution - provided there is still one surviving the latest cost cutting purge !
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