The Campaign

Historical Redfern Upgrade Studies – (documents made available via REDWatch website, please click on links below)

In October 2013 Transport for NSW released, following a GIPA request initiated by Lift Redfern, a number of studies undertaken between 2006 and 2010 on Redfern Station – over 800 pages in total. The Documents primarily relate to studies undertaken in preparation for a Gateway review to receive funding from Government. The documents released excluded financial information about the proposals considered. The most recent Gateway document released (Redfern Station Upgrade Gateway Review Planning Session 10 May 2010 – Document 28) shows a preferred design from three option. It also indicated that there was an expectation that construction could commence in July 2011. We have provided both some extracts to enable people to get a quick overview and also will add the Background studies to this section of the site as we are able.

Redfern Station Upgrade – Gateway Review Planning Session 10 May 2010  This document was the most recent of documents released in October 2013 by Transport NSW to a GIPA request initiated by Lift Redfern regarding planning for the Upgrade of Redfern Railway Station. This documents gives a quick overview of the issues needing to be adressed in upgrading Redfern Station and the key options considered. This document shows three options being put to Treasury for upgrading Redfern Station with work expected to start in July 2011. The detailed planning is contained in other released documents. REDWatch is one of the members of Lift Redfern. File is 3.2Mb PDF of a PowerPoint presentation.

Redfern Station Upgrade – 2007 Study of preferred options  In 2007 Jackson Teece produced a Concept Design Study for the Redfern Station Upgrade. Appendix 4 of that report reported and assessed a number of previous proposals to upgrade Redfern Station as well as some additional suggestions from Jackson Teece. Jacson Teece’s Option C emerged from this study as the preferred option. It was later refined in a subsequent study Redfern Station Revised Concept Design report by Cox and formed the basis for the preferred redevelopment option put forward in the Gateway funding proposal. Jackson Teece also developed a Base Case (Option D) and Base case Plus Option (Option E) elsewhere in their report which became the other options in the Gateway proposal – these two options are not covered in this attachment but many others are. This document is one of the documents released under a GIPA request initiated by Lift Redfern of which REDWatch is a member. File is 2.1Mb PDF.

Redfern Station Upgrade – 2007 Proposed OptionsJackson Teece   In 2007 Jackson Teece produced a Concept Design Study for the Redfern Station Upgrade in 2007. They recommended three Options for the redevelopment: a “Base Case” (Option D) that addressed easy access, fire and other compliance issues on basically the same footprint ($29.5m); a “Base Case Plus” (Option E) that included additional works with Lawson and Gibbon Sts and the ATP ($55.5m) and; a Full Station Redevelopment (Option C) from a centre loading concourse ($143.3m). Here for ease of providing an overview we have extracted a part of the Jackson Teece report which sets out these options and assesses them. These three options formed the basis for a subsequent Cox Arup Bovis Report that was used for the Gateway funding proposal. The document from which this was extracted was one of the documents released under a GIPA request initiated by Lift Redfern of which REDWatch is a member. File is 728 Kb PDF.

Redfern Station Upgrade – 2009 Cox Proposed Revised Concept Design Extract  In mid 2009 Cox Arup Bovis produced a Redfern Station Revised Concept Design Report. This is an extract from that report that shows the Cox revision of the Jackson Teece preferred Option C proposal for the redevelopment of Redfern Station. This Cox proposal was the C1 Option on the Gateway funding proposal. This is an extract of the much larger Revised Concept Design Report and has been provided to provide a quick overview of the key elements of the proposal. This document is extracted from one of the documents released under a GIPA request initiated by Lift Redfern of which REDWatch is a member. This file is 3.8 MB PDF.

GIPA Documents Released October 2013  Here you will find the documents released by Transport for NSW in October 2013 in a GIPA request initiated by Lift Redfern of which REDWatch is a member. The documents are available directly from Transport for NSW and are listed on their disclosure log. The documents set out Government planning for Redfern Station between 2006 and 2010 and some related matters. As time permits REDWatch will post all the documents here.

Lift Redfern Background: 

It is time to do something about Redfern Station. A 2003 community forum was told that unless the Government intervened, Redfern Station would not be upgraded until 2011. Both 2011 and Government interventions have come and gone, and the 20 year old promise that access would be addressed by a station upgrade could still be another 20 years away, when lifts are needed now. One of the problems seems to be that Redfern Station is not on the Easy Access Program list see Redfern Station Easy Access Estimates response – Nov 2011. Instead it is expected that Redfern Station access will be fixed as part of a full station upgrade, but this keeps being pushed back. In 2003 the community suggested that in the interim the installation of one lift would at least allow people to change at Central and to use one accessible platform at Redfern Station, but we have not seen that either.

A campaign to get lifts installed at Redfern Station, under the banner “Lift Redfern”, is being supported by a wide range of organisations including business, the arts, the Aboriginal communities, community services, resident groups and local political party branches. The list keeps growing but you can see it at Who is behind Lift Redfern. A key part of the “Lift Redfern” campaign is to get the appalling lack of access at Redfern Station debated in the NSW Parliament and for the Legislative Assembly to call upon the “Minister of Transport to take immediate action to install lifts to Redfern Station platforms”. The Premier put in place a procedure where a 10,000 signature petition would generate a Parliamentary debate. The campaign does not aim to tell Government how to deliver access it simply says we want lift access and we want it now!

You can help our campaign; it is as simple as talking about some of the key points surrounding Redfern Station:

REDFERN STATION FACTS

• Redfern Station is a major key station on the rail network as all lines, bar the airport line, run through it.
• With 12 platforms, Redfern Station is second to Central Station for inter-change possibilities.
• Since 2006 entrances and exits at Redfern Station have increased from 31,000 to over 42,000 in 2011 – from tenth busiest station in the network to sixth. Growth is expected to increase.
• Redfern Station services major educational facilities including a leading global university, significant national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander institutions, and, with the creation of CarriageWorks, a major new cultural hub for the City and the Inner West.
• People with disabilities, older people, parents with young children, pregnant women, people with short term mobility issues through illness or injury, and people with luggage or shopping have great difficulty in accessing or cannot access the Station as there are no lifts to any platform.

REDFERN STATION ISSUES

• In April 2006, then Transport Minister John Watkins announced plans for a $2 million inquiry into concept designs for upgrading the station, including Easy Access facilities. Six years on, no work has commenced.
• Redfern/Waterloo is home to one of the highest populations of social housing communities many of whom are elderly and frail. These people rely on public transport to access city hospitals and other medical facilities. Redfern Station fails to address this need.
• Redfern/Waterloo being the gateway to the CBD is surround by main access roads which are plagued with grid lock on a daily bases.  Improving access to the station would encourage more people to access this station aiding in the reduction of car use.
• The rights of people with disabilities to access services are protected by laws inAustraliaand NSW. The law provides for the provision of reasonable adjustments or assistance to access mainstream services. The timeline for compliance with Federal laws regarding access to public transport is 55% accessible by the end of 2012 with 100% accessibility by 2022.
• Large investments are being poured in to make Redfern retail and entertainment facilities more attractive and viable, yet access to Redfern is restricted to many by the inequitable access at Redfern station.
• Redfern/Waterloo is home to a high level of social disadvantage people. Transport is an important enabler of strategies to fight poverty through enhancing access to education, employment, and social services.
• Whilst the offer of staff to aid people down the stairs is welcomed, it can often lead to people feeling inferior and insignificant, adding to their feeling of low self-esteem and discrimination. Those who need assistance often would rather avoid asking for help and suffer the consequence of the lack accessibility than to experience embarrassment.
• Rail travel is relative low cost in comparison to utilising say taxies, however, if you can’t access rail services, this increases the already high financial burdens that disabled people face daily.
• Parents with children struggling with prams and children find it difficult to control children whilst trying to identify staff to assist.
• Are all staff at station trained in disability awareness, sensitivity? Are they physically able to assist people with access to the platforms?
• Apart from the Airport Line it is the first station from the South and West were all major lines meet and should be number one for interchanges thus easing pressure onCentral Townhalland Wynyard.
•  “Congestion on platforms in the CBD is also increasing in peak periods. Physical constraints at key stations, particularly Town Hall and Wynyard, limit options for managing crowding in these locations. Many interchanges occur at these stations with flows of people joining or leaving the rail network as well as changing services or using station facilities as pedestrian links.” Rail Options for the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area Draft Options Paper, November 2011, page 9
• One of the promises with the creation of the Redfern Waterloo Authority was the fast-tracking of the Redfern Station upgrade by 2011. The Authority has gone, but we still don’t even have the plans for an upgrade.