SECURITY at Moss Vale railway station will be beefed up, but customer service will suffer following RailCorp’s recent station review.
A security guard will continue to patrol the station on Friday and Saturday nights from 9pm-5am until July 25 and extra CCTV cameras will be installed next year.
The four new cameras, covering platform one, the pedestrian overpass, car park and garden area, are welcomed by station staff but RailCorp may have trouble powering the cameras due to the station’s out-of-date electricity system.
The guard was scheduled to stop tomorrow night but the position has been extended for a further three weekends.
After July 25 the News understands RailCorp, following requests from Wingecarribee Council, will re-instate the guard should trouble flare up again.
The guard was put on following two violent incidents around the station on the Easter long weekend which resulted in staff threatening to walk off the job.
But while commuters may feel a little safer on the weekends, and the cameras might deter some antisocial behaviour, there won’t be any staff at the station to sell tickets for the first train of the day (3.35am) during the week and the ticket office will only remain open until 10.30pm on weekends.
Previously the station had a duty manager and customer service attendant until midnight on the weekends, but the duty manager will now be on their own from 8.30pm-5am.
The 12 positions at Moss Vale have been cut to 10 with a fulltime sales person being axed.
The $400,000 luggage room will remain open despite the cuts, but the duty manager will have to juggle running it with selling tickets and other duties around the station.
A part time position for a four-hour shift on the weekends has been put on for the luggage room.
Moss Vale’s station manager will no longer work weekends, costing him $20,000 a year, and the reviews, which have been spruiked by RailCorp as improving services, is all about cost cutting, a source close to the station told the News.
The station manager position at Mittagong will go but with RailCorp reviews cutting positions across the state it is unclear where he will be moved to.
Morale at Moss Vale is at an all time low following the review and customers will not get close to half the level of customer service they used to, with staff having to clean trains instead of helping commuters, the source said.
RailCorp’s customer charter will not work under the cost cutting measures and sources complained it was unfair to compare country stations like Moss vale with city stations.
Moss Vale train station acts as a defacto tourist bureau for visitors to the Highlands and, with fewer staff, commuters will find it hard to get information on the area.
“The other day we made a cup of tea for an old lady who was siting out in the cold. We won’t be able to do stuff like that anymore,” a source said.
The Rail, Bus and Tram Union is being accused of not doing enough to fight the reviews, with one source claiming they were staying in the same motel as RailCorp management conducting the reviews.
NSW RBTU branch leader Phill Kessey said the union was doing everything it could for its members.
He said not agreeing to the reviews and declaring them “in dispute” achieved little for the union.
Mr Kessey said the union achieved only minor changes to the reviews from the 35 “disputes” during the South Coast reviews earlier this year.
“It’s unfortunate there is a perception we are not doing enough,” he said.
“We had a rally at Central Station with 300 members as well as rallies at Gosford and Wollongong over the last few weeks.”
“The Government won’t listen to the people and it’s just not the railways.”
“The people of the Southern Highlands have been getting ripped off for years. It’s an absolute outrage.”
Mr Kessey said RBTU members in the Highlands had been great in starting petitions and lobbying their local MPs on the issue.
“We are urging commuters to write emails and send letters to their MPs that if they don’t do something to protect services it will cost them at the ballot box,” he said.
Taking industrial action to fight the reviews was not on the table, according to Mr Kessey.
He said commuters would be the ones most affected by strikes, saying the union’s plan was to fight the reviews until the 2011 election.
RailCorp Campbelltown customer service manager Cory Roeton met with Council general manager Mike Hyde last week to discuss measures at the station to deter antisocial behaviour.
Mr Hyde said he was happy with the outcome of the meeting and promises made by RailCorp to step up security at the station.
“As a result of some nasty incidents coinciding with the Moss Vale Show earlier this year and some threatening behaviour in the months after, RailCorp moved very quickly to extend their normal security around the railway station,” he said.
“RailCorp has indicated it will continue to work closely with police and Council’s community safety committee to help create a secure environment at Moss Vale.”
More on the RailCorp review in next week’s News.