Rail maintenance workshops that once carried out extensive repairs and major overhaul programs have been shut down and the work handed over to private industry. This includes the examiners who were employed to continuously check trains. The number of shunters has also been cut. Train drivers are now forced to carry out their own safety checks and in many cases do their own shunting. Simply put, the resources provided for vital work, such as track maintenance, is determined by budget constraints, not by safety requirements.
Further cuts are in the pipeline.
A spokesman for the Australian Services Union has predicted the loss of another 2,000 jobs. Yet the ASU and the Public Transport Union have not launched a campaign to defend jobs. The situation in NSW is by no means unique. Similar measures are being implemented nationally and internationally. Everywhere governments are cutting jobs, outsourcing work and privatising rail services.