Campaigning to protect Ryde’s public buses

Today we gathered with Leader of the Opposition, Luke Foley, and the Mayor of Ryde, Jerome Laxale to call upon Victor Dominello MP to protect Ryde’s public buses.

Jerome Laxale announced at the event that he will be running against Victor Dominello MP for Ryde in the next election, and plans on putting the protection of Ryde’s public buses at the forefront of his election campaign. He knows the community desperately rely on their public services and can’t afford to have them sold off to private operators.

A recent poll of local residents found that 76 per cent of Ryde are concerned about the prospect of their bus services being privatised. You can read the poll results here.

We know the NSW Minister for Transport, Andrew Constance, has publicly boasted that his vision is to sell off our entire public transport network in NSW. He’s already started his privatisation scheme in the Inner West and now it’s feared that Ryde could be next.

Commuters in Ryde know that privatising bus services will mean higher fares, the removal of bus routes, cut backs on maintenance and services as private companies seek to profit from public pockets.

Leader of the NSW Opposition, Luke Foley told drivers and community members:

To the bus drivers across the STA, thanks for the public service you provide. I’m here to stand up for you, stand up for your jobs and the public service you provide.

We’re fighting the privatisation of the buses in the inner-west, just across the river. Your employer wrote to you last year, congratulating you, and congratulating the STA workforce on the job you’ve done, and guaranteed a continuation of the public bus contract.

Then months later the Minister comes in and tears up that commitment. To anyone here who has a job here in the Ryde depot, and anyone who relies on these public bus services, you cannot be confident that your bus service will remain. If they’re doing it across the river, they’ll be shaping up to do it to you. So we have to fight this.

This is a democracy. But currently the Government is making decisions as if we live under a dictatorship. We need to keep fighting to protect our public services before it’s too late.

You can check out the video of today’s event on our RTBU Facebook page.