Companies “not completely convinced” that trams are good for Newcastle.
DERAILED: Laurent Offroy, middle, the Newcastle project director for Keolis Downer. Picture from the Newcastle Herald.
The Bus and Tram Division have known since the beginning that more buses and more frequent services would be better for Newcastle, not an expensive light rail line.
Now a senior official from the company that wants to run a privatised transport network in Newcastle says a better bus system would work just as well and be “much cheaper” than the government’s proposed light rail network.
Laurent Offroy, Keolis Downer’s Newcastle project director, says the city is not big enough to justify a light rail network.
With even the private companies saying that light rail isn’t good for Newcastle, we can see that this is more about the Liberal Government’s commitment to privatisation over good policy solutions for public transport in New South Wales.