Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Transport headed for..... ?'
By: Angus Downie
How well prepared and equipped are organisers to provide fully accessible transport for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games in September and October?
And how transparent and widely known are their plans?
In short, no-one will really know until: June 27 when an Access Guide will be launched; and
June 28 when the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) will host an Information Forum for representatives of peak disability organisations.
Quite apart from being too late for overseas and interstate spectators, the Forum will serve no useful purpose for those who have sought to disseminate this information for years.
The "main Games" will run from 15 September to 1 October with the Paralympics set to run from 18-29 October.
As part of the multi-billion dollar investment in capital works, infrastructure and Games staging costs, the Paralympics will cost $156 million alone to run. After venue costs, transport will be the single biggest expenditure item.
The influential Paralyzed Veterans of America best summed up overseas views: "First you had the travel rorts, then we heard about the ticketing fiascos, so what about accessible transport?"
After the Atlanta Games, transport will be one area put under the microscope by the accredited 5,400 journalists, photographers and many other non-accredited newspeople looking for colour stories.
Sydney Games officials say on a website that they "are committed to the provision of appropriate transport services for people with disabilities and mobility restrictions during the Paralympic Games".
But what about the "main Games" and what "appropriate" services will apply?
We know that ticket holders for specific days and venues will get free CityRail and dedicated bus transport. The problem that organisers face is differentiating between fit and active Paralympians and non-athletes with mobility impairments, a sizeable proportion of the population.
Background
Since 1991 the NSW Government, the Olympic Bid Committee, the Olympic Co-Ordination Authority (OCA), the Olympic Organising Committee (SOCOG), and the Olympic Roads and Transport Authority (ORTA) have been questioned about accessible transport.
A key factor in Sydney winning "the Games" on 24 September, 1993 was its agreement to also host the Paralympics.
However, this writer is less concerned about transport arrangements for the young and fit Paralympians (some of whom walk) than the thousands of ticket-paying older people and those spectators with severe mobility impairments.
Many of these people will hit Sydney from interstate and overseas – particularly the USA – where accessible transport is now the expected norm.
It is an issue that also concerned the Sydney City Council's Access Committee (1993), social impact consultants, Keys Young (1994), National Disability Advisory Council and the NSW Government's Accessible Transport Forum and Disability Council, both of which have been sidelined and kept in the dark.
The first recorded questions about Olympic accessible transport plans can be traced back to December 1992 and included this extract reply from the then CEO of the Bid Committee, Rod McGeoch: "As you identify correctly, it will be imperative".
In July 1993 consultant, P.R. Management, presented a detailed report, Towards Accessibility, to the NSW Government. It said in part: "Strategy and planning will need to take account of the demands that the World DPI Congress in December 1994 will place on Sydney's public transport system....similarly, the 2000 Olympics will place even greater demands on the system if the Sydney bid is successful."
For the 1,000 DPI delegates and organisers from 100 countries, accessible transport proved a massive logistical and financial disaster. Lessons had to be learned quickly due to the adverse overseas publicity.
Repeated evidence to the 1994 Federal Government report, Target 2015 – A Vision for the Future: Access to Transport for all Australians noted: "the issue of public transport access has been constantly raised in the context of the Sydney Olympic bid since 1991. "Both the State Government and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Bid Committee had failed to recognise the implications that a successful bid would have on the urgency of a fully accessible public transport system and its associated infrastructure."
As author of that report, in 1992 I began asking the hard questions: "What plans were proposed to ensure a fully accessible, integrated and efficient public transport system in your Olympic bid?" – and, since 1993,: "in your successful bid." There were no answers !
After the DPI mess and Atlanta (1996) transport shambles, I received personal approaches from organisations and people with mobility impairments and organisations at transport and mobility conferences in Florida (1996), Perth (1998) and through the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA (1999).
These were in addition to streams of calls from both overseas and interstate (including Sydney!) by people concerned at the lack of information and official silence. They did not want PR hype, just the facts.
The Political and Olympic Response
On 9 January, 1998, I wrote to NSW Transport minister, Carl Scully, asking 10 very specific questions. The same questions were sent to Olympics minister, Michael Knight.
Three weeks later (28 January), the Ministers jointly announced the first strategic (framework) transport plan that was said to include accessible transport
No answer was ever received from Minister Knight in 1998 although eight (8) months later, on 18 September, after repeated requests a "windy" bureaucratic reply with little substance was received from Minister Scully.
Five weeks later I met with senior staff of the Transport Minister’s and Premier, Bob Carr's offices to express disgust at the reply and concern at the lack of awareness of what was coming.
Subsequently, I was directed by the Premier’s office to use his name to access senior staff at OCA and ORTA. Despite numerous requests, calls and emails were never returned.
Even requests for written publicity material in 1997 took months to produce results. Many Fact Sheets and "good news" media releases have been pumped out but anyone with time to search the relevant web sites will be amazed at the paucity and superficiality of information about accessible transport and mobility services.
Through a well-connected intermediary, a senior ORTA official was contacted on my behalf last August for advice. The message said in part: "He is not interested in the PR jargon, just a few basic facts that are easily communicable" to international bodies. Again, there was no response.
Finally, I rang a senior member of Minister Knight's staff on 8 February this year (on the advice of Premier Carr's senior staff), explained the position and faxed a series of key questions. His
response: "We may answer them – then again we may not!" They never did.
OCA's Advisory Committees
In 1996 OCA formed a 16-member Access and other Advisory Committees. Having completed its access role with venues (now being audited), the Access Committee decided last March to switch its focus to operational matters including accessible transport. At that meeting Olympic officials tried to change disability terminology to "people with unique needs!"
Yet, from all accounts, the committee had done an excellent job and all 23 Olympic venues in Sydney will be fully and easily accessible. Ten of these are centred at Homebush Bay's Sydney
Olympic Park.
A pre-existing Transport Advisory Committee is understood to have not met since mid-1999.
The Access Advisory Committee was ideally situated to oversight the accessible transport issues because of the background expertise and personal knowledge its members had. However at their meeting on 6 April, committee members were stunned when told that OCA's Director-General, David Richmond and Senior Director, Co-ordination, Jane Woodruff, had suspended this and other advisory committees, including the important Social Impacts Committee. It was presented as a fait accompli.
This suspension appears to be a "patronising red herring" as the Access Committee will reconvene for a one-day workshop to review an Action Plan being prepared by consultants as a legacy for the future of Olympic Park well after the Games.
In the meantime, it appears that overall responsibility for all Games and Paralympics accessible transport has been assumed by Jane Woodruff and ORTA's Margaret Prendergast.
The Transport and Mobility Facts
A number of key issues relating to Sydney itself need to be appreciated by visitors.
Hotel accommodation (where accessible) does not come cheaply, while public toilets, seating, free parking and accessible theatres and budget restaurants are few and far between.
Inner city transport will be severely restricted while a high frequency free STA bus loop service around the city will end on 3 October, thus excluding visitors intending to attend the
Paralympics. Discrimination?
And, while accessible taxis will operate at full capacity, members of Sydney's taxi industry and a spokesman at the March national taxi conference are appearing on international web sites warning of fraud from fake credit cards and GST confusion during the Games. The industry is also worried.
For many people with mobility problems, the fear and crush of crowds is a major issue which has not yet been addressed, with the result that many potential spectators have opted not to attend. Others may be inconvenienced by the distances involved in getting around the extensive Homebush site.
For the duration of the Games, a $450 million temporary Games overlay of "parkland", pedestrian and vehicle over and underpasses, a paved overflow park and additional seating at the Aquatic Centre and other venues are being built. There will also be 2,000 portable toilets, tents and other temporary facilities. These overlays are currently being audited for access.
Transport preference will go to rail, focussing on the new $95 million 3 kms rail link and Olympic Park station that are set to handle 50,000 passengers every 90 minutes (that is, 30 trains an hour). In total, 31 million people are expected to use CityRail during the Games.
Olympic Park is one of approximately 20 wheelchair accessible stations in the Sydney metropolitan area planned for October. In the CBD, stations such as Central, Town Hall and Wynyard will all be relatively accessible although single lifts to each platform may – on overseas experience – prove insufficient to handle the volume of passengers expected to use them, thus creating bottlenecks.
Still on rail, the Monorail also has a role although poor signage to its access points and the fear of being stranded in mid-air have produced some concerns.
A fleet of some 3,800 buses and coaches including 300 from other states (and 5,000 drivers) under the consortium title of Bus 2000 (some accessible) was formed on 12 June 1998. It will operate from all points inside and across Sydney on 13 major regional trunk routes to designated drop-off points. However, both the Homebush rail station and the bus drop off points will still be a considerable distance for mobility impaired people from some Homebush venues.
1,700 buses will operate into Homebush during the main Games and 400 for the Paralympics. Many of these will be accessible but will be pulled out of their normal route work in Queensland, Victoria, the ACT and possibly South Australia, leaving a transport vacuum in their own states.
To pre-empt any backlash, the OCA and ORTA met with HREOC last month to discuss seeking an exemption against complaints under the DDA for those accessible private bus operators
who pull buses off existing NSW and interstate scheduled routes to service Games patrons. This application is still pending at the date of writing.
In addition, constant shuttle bus services will operate to Olympic Park and other venues from 26 "park and ride" locations, surrounding stations, bus, coach and even taxi drop-off points. In other words, be prepared to interchange transport modes and to "walk" relatively long distances.
The State Transit Authority (STA) which operates the government's Sydney Bus fleet of 1,550 buses will have 453 ultra low-floor vehicles by October. Of these, 352 will have wheelchair access. But it will be required to maintain its normal route schedules although it is expected to fill the contract for 25 internal Olympic Village buses and possibly provide 60 accessible buses and 100 drivers for Paralympians. Officially, it is not involved in mass Olympic Games public transport.
Yet, at the end of the day, ORTA's Act approved in October 1998 gave it over-riding power to
control all NSW transport and related matters except Police Commissioner, Peter Ryan. An early draft of the bill even proposed giving ORTA control over him !
Significantly, the OCA has run 12 Olympic "transport trials" starting with the 1998 Sydney Easter Show and the International Gold Medal Basketball competition later that year. While declared successes, details of transport operations have been scant.
The best, largest and most important "trial" to date occurred last October when Sydney hosted the 1999 Southern Cross Multi Disability Championships for 1,600 competitors from 37 countries. Neither OCA, ORTA nor SPOC officially recognised their existence or the many problems encountered. This has left many cynics in its wake as the Paralympics with 4,000 athletes plus 3,000 officials from 125 countries will be much bigger than even the championships.
Championship transport organisers, including private operators who came to the rescue, described Sydney's accessible transport arrangements as a "disaster waiting to happen" and predicted dire transport warnings for Olympic and Paralympic Games organisers.
Surprisingly, the Circular Quay Rivercat service to the $6.3 million Homebush Bay wharf on the Parramatta River (opened in 1997),while fully wheelchair accessible and connected by a shuttle bus service to Olympic Park, has been ruled out for all but VIPs and possibly athletes.
And so many questions still remain for resolution at the Forum on 28 June. But, in fairness, one thing is clear. The sheer scale, strategic and logistical extent of the Games operation has still to sink in with most Australians, including Sydney-siders.
It is a shame that more time and communication was not spent earlier providing the factual details of transport accessibility for both Sydney-siders, other Australians and those many potential overseas spectators who have now cancelled initial plans to attend due to lack of information.
Finally, in brief, the Sydney 2000 "empire" and its Minister, Michael Knight seem to have taken de facto control of the NSW Government. But with what purpose in mind?
With its multi-million dollar Olympic capital investments, NSW has quietly built a "war chest" of transport assets as a prelude to an expected massive sell-off or corporatisation of public transport after the Games. This has been confirmed by highly-placed sources in both the public and private sectors and follows similar moves in West Australia (1998), Victoria (1999) and Adelaide where the latest privatisation occurred on 23 April. Sydney-siders should be concerned considering the problems being experienced in Adelaide – see Maurice Corcoran’s report in Advocacy in Action, page 29.
Premier Bob Carr announced in January that transport infrastructure would form a key part of a $13.5 billion spending program, Beyond 2000 to create 110,000 jobs and facilities between the expected post-Olympic Games downturn and the next NSW election in 2003.
POST SCRIPT. EXCLUSIVE!
In a late development, NSW Olympics authorities have finally admitted that unless "up to 1,100 buses, including low-floor accessible" Victorian buses are made available from September 18 to October 2, the Games will face major transport problems.
For Victoria, this would mean declaring Monday, October 2 a school-free day as its school holidays are due to end on Friday, September 29. It would also mean people with mobility problems would lose "their" accessible public transport.
In a detailed two-page letter on May 24 pleading for support, NSW Transport and Acting Olympics Minister, Carl Scully, wrote to the Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, explaining the recent background negotiations between bureaucrats, industry, ORTA and the Bus 2000 consortium. Mr Scully’s letter said in part:
"Given the time constraints in resolving these issues, I am seeking your personal involvement in order that the matters may be expedited. I fully appreciate the implications to your Government in extending the school holidays at this late stage.
However, if we are not able to obtain the Victorian bus fleet for the full Olympic program and specialist type buses for the Paralympics, our task in meeting transport commitments would be exceedingly difficult."
[Editor's Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the
journalist and not necessarily the views of Quad Wrangle or AQA.]