Public Transport Commission

# PTC (Public Transport Commission)

1. When the 1972 election rolled around, there was a tough contest between Labor leader John Lope, Liberal leader Elliot Edenson, and current National leader William Wogston. EAGR (Eastern Australia Government Railways) was facing some challenges operating the railways, such as low ridership limits and delayed maintenance. After winning the election, the liberals decided that the Eastern Australian network could not support its own public transportation system and began negotiating with NSW to create a unified rail system. On October 20, 1972, the EAGR and NSWGR formed the Public Transport Commission (PTC), under the leadership of Philip Shirley. The only significant upgrades were work on the City circle and the planning of the Eastern Suburbs rail link when the PTC started its comprehensive transport revival plan in Eastern Australia in 1973. The PTC ultimately determined that taking control of all of the transportation in both NSW and EA was too much and agreed with the EA government (still a Liberal government) to privatise the trams, buses, and ferries. All tram sectors would be privatised into temporary subsidiaries of the PTC before real private operators would take over the tram franchises. All tram sectors were sold off, with the exception of the city trams, which weren't, as the trams were divided into four distinct regions: the Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, Inner Beaches, and the City. The privatisation plan quickly damaged PTC's standing among Eastern Australians, who demanded that the government cancel the agreement. The government chose not to do so, but a short-term compromise kept the ferries under government control, though it was already too late for the buses. Construction on the Eastern Suburbs link began in 1974, and as part of that project, a transportation plan was created to determine whether tram service to Angel bay would remain profitable. This plan later covered the entire tram system and was seriously considered for closure, which infuriated the newly privatised private operators. After Elliot Edenson gave the near-go-ahead, a party member objected, saying that getting rid of the trams after awarding them privatised contracts would be fatal for the party. Instead, it was decided that trams would operate more like trains than buses, and in order to keep the party in power, they kept the trams but kept them in very poor condition and provided little funding to the system. giving operators little funding, especially in the Angel Bay sectors where the PTC and government wanted to go because they did not want competition from the upcoming train line through Angel Bay. In response, the PTC established a division of Public Ferries commission to run the ferries in the city of Port Stanwell. They increased services to Angel bay to compete with the tram line, but the ferries operating the service were extremely run down and in dire need of replacement. This caused major strikes from all the tram companies, which damaged the reputation of both the liberals and the PTC. By 1975, tram ridership had more than tripled as a result of the city circle's temporary closure for major Liverpool Street renovations. However, due to the tram operators' ongoing strike, there were significant gaps in tram service, and those that did arrive were already very crowded when they arrived in the city. In response to this disaster, the government withdrew its proposal to privatise the city's tram system and increased the number of city loop trams in an effort to relieve congestion on the jam-packed trams operated by the other operators. The PTC and the government were still very unpopular overall, despite the government's funding campaign for the tram networks, which was started in response to the government's realisation that its current situation was suicidal. The PTC delayed maintenance on the railways, which didn't help that there was a significant reduction in services across the state, and it didn't help that the PTC even sent some eastern Australian locomotives to NSW to benefit NSW more than EA. The government, realising the suicidal position they were in, started a funding campaign for the tram networks, and this was beginning to improve the popularity. However, overall the PTC and the government were still very unpopular. Additionally, the railway network had low ridership overall, and the only new trains entering service were U sets (DDIUs) and a small number of S sets, which didn't bode well for the transportation industry. By 1976, the PTC had a new Commissioner named Alan Reiher. Upon observing the state of the railways in Eastern Australia, he started a comprehensive rail revival programme that increased services, ordered new V and S sets, and started a modernisation programme for the operating red sets. The PTC also ordered new ferries that were very similar to the Freshwater class in Sydney. At the same time that the PTC was beginning to turn itself around, a major derailment occurred on the Fremont line when inadequate Signalling was determined caused of the crash. Meanwhile Labor leader Jack Kennelly was elected state premier of Eastern Australia after the 1976 election. One of his first acts was to start Eastern Australia's withdrawal from the PTC agreement, but it was the year 1977 that would definitively end the PTC. By 1977 The PTC operations were already in shambles but on the 18th of January the Granville disaster happened.. The cause of the crash was later determined to be lack of track maintenance and in a leaked document showed the PTC had been delaying essential maintenance on the Railways. This didn’t fare the PTC any better when its subsidiary that was operating the Ferries was fully taken over by the government. However in late 1977 the Eastern suburbs line was finally opened to Beachport and it would’ve kept going but because of the private tram operators, It was refusing the extension to Angel bay, The PTC being held at gunpoint by a tram operator wasn’t looking good. PTC ultimately decided it wasn’t worth looking after Eastern Australia's network with the commissioner calling Eastern Australia “Eastern Australia is just New South Wales little brother, it's time they look after themselves for once” In 1978, Eastern Australia broke away from the PTC agreement and established the Eastern Australia Transport Authority to complete the tasks PTC never completed for Eastern Australia. EATA will provide Eastern Australia for an additional 19 years until 1997, when it was divided into various operators.