A tale of two cities !

The proposal to privatise the State Transit Authorities fleet of 2250 buses highlights the disparity that exists between bus services in inner and outer Sydney.  The difference is so great that it is hard to imagine that these are not two totally different cities, sitting side by side, but inhabited by different races between the sea and the Blue Mountains.

It all started a long time ago when the state government decided that in addition to rail transport, it would run a bus service connecting those suburbs not connected to rail with the city.    The original intention was to eventually extend this service to other parts of New South Wales and so the government bus service was born in Sydney and Newcastle.

When the second world war ended the government was faced with a dilemma.   A housing boom caused by returning service people and our population explosion from war damaged Europe was creating new suburbs far faster than telephone services, shopping centres and schools could be built to service them - and it was decided that extending the bus services was simply beyond state resources.

These new suburbs were serviced by private bus companies.  The state run service was restricted to the old, pre-war Sydney that stopped at the inner west and included the city centre, the eastern suburbs and the northern beaches.   There was simply no comparison with the difference  the services provided.

The state service ran buses day and night and throughout the entire weekend.  It ran at a loss, but keeping to schedule was more important than money.   Sometimes buses ran empty at unpopular times, and sometimes they were unable to cope at peak times, but schedules were relentlessly maintained in the name of " providing a service ".

In the west it was a different matter.   Private buses either made a profit - or went broke !   Bus companies tailored services to demand, hence there were no buses running late at night - on weekends or at times when patronage was uneconomic.   Dwellers in western Sydney could only drool at the bus service their city cousins were experiencing - and all this was paid for from the public purse.

Now the entire planet is facing tough times and a reality check means that fat has to be trimmed from public spending - and it seems that the loss  making Sydney Transit Authority bus fleet is facing the chop.   If it passes into private hands it will face the same conditions that apply in Sydney's west.  Services will be trimmed to economic levels - and there will probably be some price increases.

Welcome to the twenty-first century !    We are now in a time of economic rationalism and in the years ahead many things that we have long taken for granted will go under the economic microscope.   The catch word for this generation is likely to be -  "  Use it - or lose it ! "