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No uplifting news for Redfern

Redfern Railway Station still lacks a plan to make it disability friendly, despite the State Government’s pledge to spend $50 billion improving Sydney’s transport system. While every other major Sydney station from North Sydney to Sydenham is expected to be an Easy Access station by 2016, Redfern is still in the planning stages reports Flint Duxfield in the South Sydney Herald of April 2010.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister, David Campbell, told the SSH that while the plans to redevelop Redfern Station are yet to be finalised, the upgrade would be finished “well before 2016”. He also said the upgrade to Redfern Station was no longer contingent on the sale of the North Eveleigh rail yards, a proviso made by Kristina Keneally during her time as Planning Minister.

The spokesperson said it still wasn’t clear whether lifts would be installed as part of the development. “It will depend which plan is decided on. We’ve got a few options for Redfern, and we’re considering which plan we’re going to go for,” he said.

Deputy President of the Australian Services Union, John Maher, said it was a disgrace that Redfern still lacked disability access while other less used stations have been upgraded. “There is an unattended station called Metford in the Hunter Valley that has only one commuter line which had an elevator installed recently and yet they’re still stalling over putting them in at one of the busiest stations in Sydney,” he said. 

Disability groups also criticised the Government for not acting quickly enough to meet the needs of people with disabilities. “As a person who uses a wheelchair myself, it’s really discriminatory to have stations that are inaccessible,” said President of the Physical Disabilities Council of NSW, Ann-Mason Furmage.

“I’m an aged pensioner and theoretically I should be able to travel for $2.50. When I want to go down town … I have to pay more than $30 for a taxi because I can’t access the train station,” she said. 

Opposition Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, said the Government is moving too slowly on implementing the Easy Access program. “In the last financial year they completed one easy access site in the whole state. It’s not just people with disabilities that suffer. It impacts less mobile commuters, the elderly, seniors, parents with prams and people with temporary injuries as well.”

Australian Human Rights Commissioner, Graeme Innes, said lifts are not always necessary to ensure disability access. But he said he would be surprised if Redfern didn’t end up with them. “I would have thought it would be difficult to achieve complete access to a station such as Redfern without lifts,” he said.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act, 55 per cent of CityRail stations must be accessible stations by December 2012. Mr Innes said so far the Government was on track in terms of meeting this target.

Other Sydney stations such as Museum and Edgecliff won’t become easy access stations until 2016 at the earliest.

Source: South Sydney Herald April 2010 www.southsydneyherald.com.au