A community petition was launched today at Marrickville Station by Carmel Tebbutt, Member for Marrickville. The petition calls on the O'Farrell Government to upgrade the station to make it accessible for all.

"Everyone in the community should be able to make use of rail travel, regardless of mobility or physical circumstances," Ms Tebbutt said.

Disturbing new figures reported today reveal that trains on the Bankstown and Inner West Lines are overcrowded at 150% and 120% of capacity in the morning peak hour.

Member for Marrickville, Carmel Tebbutt, said this means morning train commuters in the Marrickville electorate – already stung by a 5.4 percent increase in fares this year – are less likely to get a seat, and more likely to experience delays.

"The latest figures from Railcorp demonstrate what commuters already know – the Bankstown and Inner West Lines are packed to capacity," Ms Tebbutt said today.

Member for Marrickville, Carmel Tebbutt today announced that $300,000 in funding would be shared by eighteen local community organisations.

Ms Tebbutt said the funding comes from the NSW Government's Community Building Partnership program, which provides community groups and local councils with funds to build community infrastructure.

"These funds will go towards organisations such as Pathways Early Childhood Intervention, which will receive $50,000 to expand the current infrastructure for children with disabilities with a new play and therapy room, and Rosemount Good Shepherd Youth and Family Services, which will receive $41,700 to build an extension to their existing facilities for youth and family services."

As we celebrate International Women's Day today, it is very sad to find that the O'Farrell Government has cancelled this year's Woman of the Year award for Marrickville and cut funding for local International Women's Day Celebrations.

"Since 2005, the NSW Government has named a woman in each state electorate as a local Woman of the Year, as part of International Women’s Day celebrations in March," Carmel Tebbutt said.

The O'Farrell Government has today refused to commit to a timetable for the construction of the Inner West Light Rail Extension, adding to their scrapping of the GreenWay project in a show of contempt to Inner West residents.

Member for Marrickville, Carmel Tebbutt, and Member for Canterbury, Linda Burney today spoke to Ms Tebbutt's motion in the NSW Parliament to support the completion of the light rail extension by the end of 2012 as planned. However, the Government immediately voted to remove any timeframe and inserted instead: "in a timely fashion".