Who do you believe?
According to the NSW Transport Minister, public transport users are increasingly happy with the quality of services.
But according to a large chunk of transport workers, things are getting worse.
"Customer satisfaction" indices established by Transport for NSW, based on surveys of more than 34,000 public transport users, show that train, bus, ferry and light rail users were all more satisfied in 2014 than they were in 2013.
A rival poll, however, released this week by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union suggests a grim mood among frontline staff.
According to the survey of 1040 bus and rail workers, 50 per cent say the quality of public transport in NSW has deteriorated in the past four years. A bit more than 20 per cent say it has improved, while almost 30 per cent of workers say it has stayed the same.
"She has put services back on, you can't argue that point," the NSW secretary at the RTBU, Alex Claassens said.
"But we believe that security in the network has gotten worse," Mr Claassens said. "And if you didn't have a Liberal government you would still have had ticket windows," he said, referring to the impending closure of dedicated rail ticket seller positions.
The survey results also suggest staff members weary of organisational change. Almost 60 per cent of staff said they had no confidence in management.
"They keep getting rid of people with experience and bringing in new people based on the idea they've got better customer service experience," Mr Claassens said. "But railway workers and bus drivers don't really accept that premise - when you've been working in the system for a long time you need to have management that actually understands running trains."
Minister Gladys Berejiklian has made a virtue of overhauling middle and senior management in transport organisations, often employing people without transport experience. According to the TNSW index, customer satisfaction on the rail network increased from 83 per cent to 88 per cent in 2014, while satisfaction on the bus network rose from 85 per cent to 87 per cent.
Despite their differences, transport unions and Ms Berejiklian's department struck a deal late last year that would for the first time allow rail workers to be made forcibly redundant.
The RTBU survey says about a third of transport workers think they could lose their jobs in the next two years.
Ms Berejiklian said in response to the RTBU survey: "We have delivered more than 12,300 extra weekly public transport services.
"We've opened the South West Rail Link and the Inner West Light Rail extension for customers and construction is powering ahead on the North West Rail Link.
"A recent independent survey of 34,000 customers showed they overwhelmingly believe services have improved under the Baird Government – I'll listen to what our customers have to say rather than a union survey released two days before an election."
