Public transport routes simply don’t match the journeys that people need to make. Public transport works well when there is a large number of people travelling to a common destination.

Not surprisingly, over 70% of workers in Sydney’s CBD use public transport to get to work each day. Away from the CBD, however, most people are forced to use their cars.

Public transport services are either not available or they involve a mix of journeys that are difficult to coordinate and therefore take too long.

The problem for car users is that the under-servicing of many parts of Sydney by public transport will take decades to fix. So rising fuel prices mean finding the dough from somewhere else in the household budget, and staying in the car.

The neglect of public transport provision in Sydney by governments for at least the past three decades is shameful.

What makes people angry right now is the failure of public transport authorities to make the present system, for all its inadequacies, work efficiently and effectively.

The Tcard debacle is a good example of government and bureaucratic failure. The Tcard was a good idea. The Tcard was to be a simple card loaded up with pre-paid credit that would enable a traveller to pay any fare on the Sydney system electronically – so a traveller could move between buses and trains or cross between buses, ferries and trains without carrying a stash of tickets and cash, and without having to queue at ticket machines or counters. In addition, the Tcard would mean that buses would be spared the delays caused by drivers checking tickets and passengers fumbling for change.

The NSW Labor government tried for five years to get the Tcard system operating. The project fell over last January. Now the contractor, ERG, and the state government are locked in court over claim and counter claim, with a lengthy legal battle almost inevitable.

Meanwhile, commuters continue to suffer the delays of poor ticketing services, inconsistent ticketing practices between trains, buses and ferries, and an incomprehensible mix and variety of ticketing options.

Ticketing inconsistencies don’t need expensive capital works programs to fix. All they need is political will, and managerial competence.

Sadly, these seem all too rare in Sydney at this time.

*Phillip O'Neill is Professor and Director of the Urban

Research Centre for the University of Western Sydney. He regularly comments on matters affecting Sydney.